City of Industry, CA – On Saturday, December 13, the family of Joseph Perez, Centro CSO, and other allies rallied outside the Industry Sheriff’s Station to demand justice for Perez, who narrowly survived a beating by at least five sheriff’s deputies on July 27, 2020. Perez required 17 staples and 19 sutures to close cuts across his face and scalp, served two years in prison for resisting arrest, and is still recovering from the trauma.
Vanessa Perez, mother of Joseph Perez, opened her speech by highlighting how sheriffs, through their “union” ALADS, have obstructed transparency, oversight and accountability. Perez said, “I am urging the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department alongside the Board of Supervisors to take proactive steps. AB 847 must be implemented without delay. Our community has waited long enough for meaningful change.” AB 847 allows oversight commissions and inspector general offices access to misconduct files.
Perez also connected her son’s beating to a 2023 Montclair bowling incident, in which members of the Industry Indians, a confirmed deputy gang, picked a fight with teenagers. While four officers were fired for the incident, Perez pointed out that her son’s trauma as well as this brawl would have been prevented if LASD allowed transparency and oversight.
Gabriel Quiroz Jr, a co-chair of CSO’s Police Accountability Committee and the rally’s emcee, brought to the crowd’s attention that this protest was likely the first ever at the Industry Sheriff’s station. He led the crowd with chants of “Justice for Joseph!” “Ban Deputy Gangs” and “La policía, la migra, la misma porquería!”
In his speech, Quiroz Jr. said, “I want to uplift the demand of community control of police to be able to once and for give power to the people when it comes to who polices their neighborhoods. We’re here to demand justice for Joseph Perez, a young Chicano who was brutally beaten by City of Industry Sheriffs; some of those same pigs even self-admitted to being tattooed deputy gang members. They should be the only ones facing ‘gang enhancement charges’ and be prosecuted and put in jail!”
Helen Jones, mother of John Horton (killed by LASD at Men’s Central Jail in 2009); Stephanie Vargas, aunt of Anthony Daniel Vargas (killed by ELASD in 2018); Minerva Garcia, friend of Vanessa Marquez (killed by South Pasadena PD in 2018); family of Elisa Serna (who died in police custody in San Diego in 2019, and Sergio Flores, brother of Jeremy Flores (killed by LAPD in 2025) also spoke out against deputy gangs and in solidarity with the family of Joseph Perez.
Carlos Montes, a leader within Centro CSO and Freedom Road Socialist Organization as well as a founder of the Brown Berets, said, “We believe that it is a systemic problem, the police killings of Black and Chicano young men. It’s not a question of bad police or just deputy gangs. For Chicanos after the Mexican-American War, we continued to have mass murders and lynchings at the Placita Olvera. This is a systemic problem that will not go away until we have a new government in the United States.” Montes attended the first protest at the East LA Sheriff’s Station in the late 1960s.
Protesters marched from the sheriff’s station to Hacienda Boulevard where they rallied once again. Many community members honked in solidarity. Motor police who had stopped to engage with protesters left after being drowned out by chants.
At the corner rally, protesters heard from Gilbert Bao, a formerly incarcerated Brown Beret whose brother was murdered by sheriffs. He spoke about how the state uses gang enhancements to lock up African American and Chicano youth while deputy gangs are the true threat.
Verita Topete, speaking on behalf of Centro CSO’s Immigration Committee, tied Perez’s beating to the recent ICE raids that are terrorizing Chicano neighborhoods, stating, “The struggle for legalization for all is inseparable from the struggle for community control of the police. These are not two fights, they are one.”
Centro CSO’s plans to continue fighting for Joseph Perez and other victims of police crimes in Los Angeles. If you would like to become involved with Centro CSO’s Police Accountability Committee (PAC), you can send a message on their social media platforms @CentroCSO or email them at CentroCSO@gmail.com
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