{"id":175704,"date":"2026-02-12T23:43:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T23:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/175704\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T23:43:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T23:43:10","slug":"in-latest-response-to-ice-raids-long-beach-lawmaker-seeks-to-limit-use-of-flashbangs-explosives-long-beach-post-news-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/175704\/","title":{"rendered":"In latest response to ICE raids, Long Beach lawmaker seeks to limit use of flashbangs, explosives \u2022 Long Beach Post News"},"content":{"rendered":"

After high-profile incidents of immigration agents blasting their way into people\u2019s homes, Long Beach\u2019s state senator has proposed a law<\/a> limiting when federal agents and other police can use devices like flashbang grenades, door-breaching explosives and chemical irritants such as tear gas.<\/p>\n

If passed, state Sen. Lena Gonzalez\u2019s bill would ban their use near schools, parks and areas where children might be present. They would only be allowed after de-escalation tactics failed and if an announcement were made in advance, giving bystanders time to leave the scene.<\/p>\n

They would also be banned from use in immigration enforcement or on people solely for violating a curfew or verbally threatening officers. Afterward, authorities would be mandated to provide medical assistance.<\/p>\n

It would also require the creation of a public reporting system where agencies that use the device must state their reasoning and justification within 60 days.<\/p>\n

Gonzalez, who represents Long Beach and Southeast L.A., said lawmakers have been inundated by calls, emails and texts from constituents demanding they bring actionable changes to rein in the behavior of federal immigration agents in California.<\/p>\n

Clamor has especially been concentrated in the state Legislature\u2019s 38-member Latino caucus, she said, which has heard from countless residents about flashbangs, chemical agents and other explosives being used by agents in a gratuitous manner.<\/p>\n

Gonzalez cited two instances she said were particularly egregious, one where agents blasted through the door of a Huntington Park home<\/a> and later when a flashbang was used on demonstrators at a playground in Maywood<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Her bill, S.B. 937, expands on existing laws<\/a>. spurred by the George Floyd protests of 2020, limiting how law enforcement can use force. It joins a groundswell of state legislation and lawsuits acting as the legal counterpunch to the Trump administration\u2019s ongoing federal immigration raids in the state.<\/p>\n

This legislative session is \u201clike no other session that I\u2019ve ever dealt with in the almost seven years that I\u2019ve been here,\u201d Gonzalez said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>State Senator Lena Gonzalez, along with Jeffrey Epstein survivor Annie Farmer, left, and Long Beach Councilmember Joni Ricks-Oddie at a press event demanding the release of more Epstein files in Long Beach on Monday, Sept. 29, 2025. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/p>\n

Other bills, many of which were signed into law last fall, have mandated judicial warrants before agents enter places like schools, hospitals and non-federal government buildings.<\/p>\n

New ideas are more specific: Proposals to tax for-profit detention companies<\/a>, prohibit local police from moonlighting as federal agents \u2014 or federal agents from taking jobs as teachers \u2014 and halt courthouse arrests<\/a>, among other examples, are moving through the state legislative floor.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year was a reaction to a lot of what happened,\u201d Gonzalez said, referring to the blitz of immigration enforcement that began in the Los Angeles region in June. \u201cNow we feel like we\u2019re not in reaction mode anymore. We are on offense, and we\u2019re going to continue on offense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Will it work?<\/p>\n

Whether any of these laws can change the reality on the ground remains to be seen. Nowhere is this more apparent than in county and state lawmakers attempting to ban immigration agents from wearing masks.<\/p>\n

Both the LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell and L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna have already said they would not instruct their officers to enforce such a ban, citing the risk of armed conflict between law agencies.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf local cops tried to force that on them, then you\u2019re going to end up having a struggle that will probably turn into a fight, and it\u2019s a fight of very strong-willed people that are armed,\u201d said Jim Bueermann, a retired police chief now with the Future Policing Institute think tank. \u201cThat is a recipe for tragedy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Long Beach Police Department has told its officers it can\u2019t enforce the ban while it works its way through the court system. Most recently, a federal judge temporarily blocked all agencies from enforcing it<\/a>, saying it discriminates against federal officers<\/a> because it doesn\u2019t apply equally to all police in the state.<\/p>\n

The judge, Christina Snyder, added in a footnote that the law would pass constitutional muster if it were amended to apply the same rules to federal, state and local police. (Snyder did uphold a similar law<\/a> that requires agents to display identification.)<\/p>\n

Even if the law is updated, Bueermann is skeptical.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re not going to see Long Beach cops \u2026 tell ICE agents, \u2018Hey, you guys, got to take off the mask.\u2019 They\u2019ll just laugh at them, you know, or they\u2019ll ignore them,\u201d Bueermann said. \u201cAnd if the Long Beach cops try to do something about that, there\u2019s going to be a fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response to such opposition, legislators are now looking for ways to systemize their collection of evidence, to bank instances of wrongdoing and abuse that can be referred to in court proceedings, congressional hearings and future legislation.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important, Gonzalez said, to establish a public record, even if rules cannot be immediately enforced.<\/p>\n

Just because it can\u2019t be enforced now doesn\u2019t mean that we shouldn\u2019t do this type of work,\u201d Gonzalez said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt some point there (are) going to be repercussions,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After high-profile incidents of immigration agents blasting their way into people\u2019s homes, Long Beach\u2019s state senator has proposed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":175660,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-175704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}