Boyle Heights residents woke up Tuesday to news that their representative Councilmember, José Huízar, was arrested and removed from office after months of FBI investigation into corruption at City Hall.
Reactions from residents of Boyle Heights and other neighborhoods in Council District 14 showed up on social media shortly after the news broke, around 8:30 a.m.
One of the first Tweets came from Boyle Heights activist and writer Erick Huerta, who posted a short thread about how the community has felt about its representative on the City Council for some years now:
Longtime Boyle Heights activist Carlos Montes reacted quickly –and briefly– to our breaking news alert:
Boyle Heights resident Alessandro Negrete even Tweeted the hashtag #SleazyHuizy:
The organization Defend Boyle Heights organized a “Farewell Eviction” event Tuesday night, to call the Councilmember out for being “responsible for selling out the community, evictions, briefs, more police presence” and “the reason many of us struggle to be living here,” according to a flyer created for the event.
Many others took to social media to share their thoughts on the arrest and removal of the District 14 Councilmember. Below are some of those reactions.
There was also reaction, mostly negative, to Huízar’s own last social media post before his arrest. Late on Monday night, perhaps aware of what was to come, Huízar uploaded a picture of the Santo Niño de Atocha to his Instagram:
The Baby Jesus figure is beloved to residents of Huízar’s hometown of Fresnillo, Zacatecas, where a sanctuary dedicated to the Atocha figure is visited yearly by thousands of pilgrims requesting favors.
“Ni el santo niño te va ayudar from corruption,” read one of the dozens of comments on the post.
