Andy Kim Says He Was Deescalating a Situation Between ICE and Protesters: They Can’t Just ‘Plow’ a Vehicle into a Crowd

EXCERPT:

KIM: "I came out of the detention center and immediately saw that there was a very precarious and tense standoff where you had a line of armed ICE, official ICE agents and an armored vehicle. You had a line of protesters there, and I was trying to do my best to deescalate this. I put myself between the ICE agents and the protesters. At some point, ICE officials said they’re just going to push this convoy of vehicles through the crowd. And I told them, 'You cannot just plow your way through a crowd of civilians.' I tried to stop it, tried to find an arrangement, but they continued on. So I put myself again between the agents and the crowd, and that’s when they started shooting pepper balls at our feet, as well, as, you know, right past me seeing the pepper spray. I did my best to try to keep people safe, to try to deescalate and keep the crowd and the agents separate, but, you know, myself and a number of others certainly got, you know, irritation in our eyes, my throat was burning. It was something that was really painful to watch. I mean, Chris, I’ll tell you, like, I have to say, the ease with which it seems like violence is emerging in our streets in America, we cannot normalize this.”