By Ricardo Lezama 
This is a snippet of an interview with Attorney Nicholas Rosenberg, the criminal defense lawyer of Edin Alex Enamorado. In this clip, Rosenberg describes what many on social media have presumed about the Victorville incident: the alleged victim was actually aggressive and assaulted the protesters during a September 24, 2023 protest in defense of harassed street vendors. The justice 8 case, and particularly, Edin Alex Enamorado’s case has raised alarm bells for civil rights and free speech activists in Southern California as many believe the motivations behind the charges are political. The video shows the alleged victim neither being detained or moved without his free will but certainly being reproached by a crowd for his outrageous behavior during the protest. According to the judge, John Doe 3’s wife is driving the car that can be seen aggressively posturing against the activists.
Justice 8
As many of you know, the street vendor movement in Southern California attempts to affirm the general public’s right to feed themselves and engage in a dignified livelihood without fear from either discriminating antagonists or intrusive local authorities hoping to prop up preferred businesses with diminished competition. Unfortunately, people like Edin Alex Enamorado have had to deal with inflated charges in the hope that their movement will die down.
Last week, we talked to @attorneyrosenberg, one of the Justice 8’s lawyers, namely @edinalexenamorado_ , on some of the details from the preliminary hearing around the criminal charges placed against Alex. We will be releasing snippets of these videos going into detail about some of the legal questions surrounding Alex’s current situation. #justice8
In this video, we discuss how questionable the San Bernardino County Sheriffs officers testimony is regarding the confrontation at a pro street vendors rally held in Victorville, California last September. At this demonstration, an alleged victim can be seen actually instigating some of the more unsavory confrontations. Many aspects of this incident were filmed, and these snippets illustrate how – not just on this occasion – activists from the Justice 8 are often simply defending themselves from random antagonistic people. In the video, John Doe 3 can be seen groping Wendy Luhan, which understandably provoked a reaction that led to her (instead of the groper) being arrested.
What Did the Justice 8 Do?
According to Los Angeles based scholar, Pakal Huatey, the Justice 8 accomplished many things for the community in Southern California: “They engaged in multi-tiered efforts. First, they physically defended street vendors and practiced restorative justice, as seen when a young black man apologized for harassing a street vendor. Second, they educated both street vendors and the community through social media about their rights to sell and provided translations of city ordinances into Spanish for Spanish-speaking vendors. Third, they exposed the racist attitudes and behaviors of individuals at all levels of society towards migrant workers of Indigenous ancestry. They carried out these actions as a community service to their people.”