Cudahy Vice Mayor apologizes for viral TikTok seemingly asking gangs to fight ICE

Cudahy Vice Mayor apologizes for viral video

Cudahy Vice Mayor Cynthia Gonzalez apologized for her now-viral video, in which she seemed to call for local gang leaders to defend cities against ICE. She called the video "satirical."

CUDAHY, Calif. - Cudahy Vice Mayor Cynthia Gonzalez has apologized after she recently went viral for a TikTok video where she seemed to call on local street gangs to defend the community against immigration agents. 

Gonzalez issued an apology during the Cudahy City Council meeting on July 15, after several comments from the public, asking the Council to either censure or remove her. 

The backstory:

Back in June, Gonzalez posted, then deleted, a TikTok, talking about recent ICE raids in the city, asking local gangs to "show up right now, trying to help out and organize" the community against the raids. In the video, Gonzalez mentioned the 18th Street and Florencia 13 gangs by name.

Many on social media took her comments as a call for gangs to violently oppose ICE. 

What they're saying:

In her apology, Gonzalez called her video "satirical," and said she was not advocating for violence.

"The message was not about violence," Gonzalez said. "It was about regular people, us, claiming ownership of our streets in a time of great distress and asking others who I mentioned in my video, in organizing and protesting against the harm and violence being inflicted on our community."

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She went on to claim that the message she tried to send with the video was "taken and propagandized," but added that she is "committed to using my voice in a more responsible and still powerful manner moving forward."

Several other councilmembers voiced their support for Gonzalez during Tuesday night's meeting, including Martin Fuentes and Amanda Gomez. Mayor Elizabeth Alcantar said media coverage of the now-viral media was misconstrued, saying that "the word ‘violence’ was never there."

Cudahy Vice-Mayor pushes back after gang callout

Cudahy Vice-Mayor Cynthia Gonzalez is pushing back after she went viral for a video where she he appeared to call on local gang members to stand up to ICE agents. Her lawyers say the video was her practicing her free speech.

The other side:

Despite that, multiple people at Tuesday's meeting called for the City Council to take some sort of action against Gonzalez. While one person called for the Council to censure Gonzalez, another demanded the Council remove her from office.

"It is completely irresponsible to make that kind of comment," said one community member. "It's ratcheting up the anger and fear in the community."

"When an elected official stands in front of the camera and invokes the [names] of violent gangs, encouraging them to protect our turf from law enforcement, it's not just reckless, it's dangerous, it's harmful and it's fundamentally at odds with the values we claim to hold as public servants and as people of the community," said another.

Gonzalez has also faced calls to resign from local law enforcement.

What's next:

Sources told Fox News that the FBI is still investigating Gonzalez over her comments.