Galaxy fans protest teams silence in response to

Gloria Jiménez and Bruce Martin, leaders of a Galaxy supporter group known as the Angel City Brigade, are sure this is no time to be quiet.

Since its founding in 2007, the Angel City Brigade, one of the Galaxy’s largest fan teams, has made its voice heard in sections 121 and 122 of Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson.

On Friday, during the usually festive Fourth of July fireworks sport, Galaxy supporter teams expressed their frustration and anger over seeing Southern California’s Latino neighborhood focused by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in latest weeks.

The fans say they’re upset by the Galaxy management’s silence amid ICE’s presence in the Latino neighborhood. The majority of Galaxy fans are Latino, but the workforce has not issued any statements in assist of fans, remaining as quiet as the Dodgers until the MLB workforce felt stress and made a $1-million donation to benefit households impacted by the raids.

The Galaxy and representatives of the teams’ supporter teams have held closed-door talks, but it didn’t lead to a public statements by the membership. Before the match against the Whitecaps on Thursday exterior the stadium, Angel City Brigade displayed indicators that learn “Stop the Raids,” “Free Soil” and “No One is unlawful.”

At the tip of the national anthem, “Victoria Block,” the part where most of the Galaxy’s fan teams stand, unfurled a tifo with three pictures: a farm employee; Roy Benavidez, a U.S. Army Medal of Honor recipient; and Elena Rios, president of the National Hispanic Health Foundation. At the underside, the banner learn: “Fight Ignorance, Not Immigrants.”

During the twelfth minute of the match, the Angel City Brigade left the stands in protest. Supporter teams the Galaxians and Galaxy Outlawz protested silently, carrying no drums or trumpets. They also didn’t sing or chant during the sport.

“What’s going on in Los Angeles has nothing to do with the players. They know that. What’s going on in Los Angeles we don’t like,” Manuel Martínez, chief of the Galaxy Outlawz, stated before the match. “I belong to a family of immigrants who became citizens. So we know the struggle that people go through. We know that there are hard-working, innocent workers out there.”

The Riot Squad, on the opposite aspect of the stadium, also remained silent and displayed a message that learn: “We like our Whiskey Neat, and our Land and People Free.”

Members of the Angel City Brigade maintain up a signal that reads “Smash Ice” during the Galaxy’s match against Vancouver on Friday at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson.

(Jill Connelly/Especial para LA Times en Español)

This is just not the first time Galaxy fan teams have taken motion when they had been sad with workforce management.

Angel City Brigade, along with different teams such as LA Riot Squad, Galaxy Outlawz and the Galaxians, led boycotts while demanding the removing of then-team president Chris Klein following mismanagement and selections they felt didn’t make the workforce aggressive enough to win. Their effort paid off: Klein stepped down and new management ultimately led the membership to its sixth MLS championship secured at the tip of final season.

On Friday, in addition to issuing a assertion reaffirming their “non-discriminatory principles, which oppose exclusion and prejudice based on race, origin, gender identity, inappropriateity or gender expression,” the fans determined to manage a fundraiser to assist pro-immigrant organizations affected by the Trump administration’s price range cuts: Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), Border Kindness and Immigrant Defenders Law Center.

To raise funds, they offered T-shirts with an image of a protester in Chinatown confronting an ICE agent.

“This is our way of showing that we want to help, and to fight what’s going on,” stated Martin, a Los Angeles native.

The T-shirt gross sales raised $4,000 for the three organizations.

Previously, Angel City Brigade, like different Galaxy supporter teams, determined not to journey to the June 28 street match against the Earthquakes in San José as a precaution against the raids. About 600 Galaxy fans usually attend the street match.

“We have members who have not been able to work. We have members who have not been able to go out to games or attend events. San José would have been one of them,” Jiménez stated. “We decided that as a group, we couldn’t travel without leaving our brothers and sisters here. So in solidarity with the people who can’t attend because of fear of what’s going on, we decided to cancel the event.”

While the opposite two skilled soccer teams in Los Angeles — LAFC and Angel City FC — have issued public statements in assist of the Latino immigrant neighborhood, the Galaxy’s possession has not addressed the difficulty. Angel City took its assist additional, carrying “Immigrant City Football Club” warm-up shirts, giving some shirts away to fans and promoting more on its web site as a fundraiser to assist an group that gives legal assist for immigrants.

So far, the only member of the Galaxy who has addressed the difficulty publicly is head coach Greg Vanney.

“I think we all know someone who is probably affected by what’s going on, so it’s hard from a human standpoint not to have compassion for the families and those who are affected by what’s going on,” Vanney stated before a sport against St. Louis City SC in June.

“We have to really help each other, versus expecting others to do it,” Jiménez stated. “That the support didn’t come from our team, as we expected, broke our hearts into a thousand pieces.”

In the previous, the Galaxy and supporter teams have collaborated while celebrating varied Latin American nations, incorporating their cultural symbols into workforce merchandise. But amid the Galaxy’s silence, fans are beginning to doubt the sincerity of the cultural celebrations.

“It’s sad and disappointing to me. This team that has been in Los Angeles since the mid-1990s, and they’ve leveraged the culture for publicity. When they signed [Mexican soccer star] Chicharito for example, they were strong on Mexican culture and things like that. So when this all started, you would think that they would be for their culture, that they would be there for the fans,” Jiménez stated. “And by not saying anything, it doesn’t say that they really care about it. Families are being torn apart and they just stay silent.”

Jiménez stated there isn’t a day that goes by that she doesn’t cry or really feel anger about the ICE raids.

“We already know what we are to them, we are not friends or family,” she stated of the Galaxy. “We are fans and franchise.”

Martin stated he has acquired messages on social media, including from Galaxy fans and supporters of different teams, criticizing his stance. However, Angel City Brigade stated its members made a unanimous choice to protest.

“We have always had moments where we have a very clear vision about how we feel,” Jiménez stated. “And I think this is one of the times when everyone has made the same decision.”

Galaxy fans plan to stage more protests during the workforce’s next home match.

This article first appeared in Spanish via L.A. Times en Español.