After drawing national scrutiny from a social media video in which she questioned the silence of L.A. gangs during federal immigration raids, Cudahy Vice Mayor Cynthia Gonzalez finally addressed the controversy head-on.At a city council meeting on Tuesday night, Gonzalez issued a cautious apology, calling the now-deleted TikTok “a short satirical video” created on her personal time. Not a call for violence, she says, but a plea for community defense.”The message was not about violence; It was about regular people…claiming ownership of our streets in a time of great distress and asking others…in organizing and protesting against the harm and violence being inflicted on our community,” Gonzalez said.
She also apologized for the “unnecessary attention” the video brought to Cudahy, a small city in southeast Los Angeles County, where fears of deportation are prevalent.The apology comes nearly a month after Gonzalez posted the video in response to the wave of federal raids in immigrant-heavy neighborhoods. In the clip, she asks: “Where are all the cholos at in Los Angeles?””You guys are always tagging everything up, claiming hood, and now that your hood’s being invaded by the biggest gang there is, there ain’t a peep out of you,” Gonzalez said in the video…