So many U.S. citizens have come together in an act of protection and community in light of ICE’s presence. We’ve seen men and women protect citizens from ICE officials and possible deportation, as well as entire businesses. In a recent TikTok, a California man was enjoying his day and supporting a street vendor when he noticed ICE agents in a vehicle. The gloves were suddenly off, and he decided to speak up.
Arturo (@officialarturo) shared a TikTok video of how quickly a person will throw down when it comes to ICE. In the video, Arturo happily walks around with beautiful bouquets of flowers while people are waiting in traffic. He says he was “in the middle of buying out a flower vendor” on the side of the road. He happily hands bouquets to people in their vehicles and says, “here you go” as they thank him profusely.
What appears as a normal, gorgeous California day quickly turns sour as Arturo’s happiness flees in a light second. He notices something different about one of the vehicles and the people inside it, and it’s like a light is flicked off. As he’s waving around a bouquet of flowers, he steps in front of a vehicle and angrily says, “ICE is right here.” He walks up to their car and demands, “Stay out of our neighborhood! Do you understand?” while throwing expletives right up in their face and into their window.
The agents, who appear masked and refuse to show their faces, blow their horns at Arturo so that he’ll move. They start recording him and, when he moves out of the way, they quickly drive off. Arturo returns to the flower vendor, who tells him that his total is $680 in Spanish. Arturo did an amazing thing and showed a deserving man so much grace. If he wouldn’t have been there to offer protection, who knows if the ICE agents in that vehicle would have tried to harass the flower vendor? It’s disgusting that people have to deal with this on a daily basis.
One commenter reacted, “What a beautiful act of community. The flower thing is nice, too.” Arturo showed in just a few seconds what it means to stand up for your fellow people. Another commenter quipped, “Missed opportunity because I would’ve pretended to give them flowers, have their window down and sock them real quick.” I’m sure Arturo probably wanted to, but he handled this in the most graceful way possible. He’s a real one for that.
