Warehouse worker protest in Mira Loma leads to arrests

MIRA LOMA - What began as a nonviolent protest by hundreds of warehouse workers led to a bloody confrontation, several arrests and snarled traffic in all directions.

About 200 members of Warehouse Workers United - a workers' rights organization that's also seeking unionization - gathered at about 3 p.m. at the intersection of Van Buren and Etiwanda avenues in Mira Loma after caravaning from Fontana.
Once there, forklift driver Marq Stonestreet, 24, of Rialto drove a forklift into the intersection and stopped, to the cheers of his fellow protesters.

A group of warehouse workers linked themselves with handcuffs and duct tape to form a human wall around the forklift.

"It's time for someone to stand up for the workers in the Inland Empire," said Stonestreet, an unemployed warehouse worker who said such work doesn't provide benefits or job security.

Most of the other protesters blocked the intersection in each direction, preventing angry drivers from continuing their commute.

One man who was stuck in traffic for more than 15 minutes attempted to roll through the intersection with his Ford F-150 pickup.

A small crowd tried to stop the driver.

Two warehouse workers hung from the bed of the truck and rode it for several hundred feet until the driver stopped and got out.

One of the protesters, who was carrying a drum and sticks, began hitting the driver.

The three of them fought until a Riverside County sheriff's deputy broke it up with pepper spray and detained the driver and the man who hit him with the sticks.

The protest attracted the attention of about three dozen law enforcement officers from various agencies.

Mike Heffner of Riverside was one of those blocked in traffic as protesters chanted, clapped, played music and sang.

He was late for work at a nearby K-Mart.

"If I don't get to work on time, I'm going to lose my job," he said. Heffner, who said he's in a union, said he tried to explain his situation to the warehouse workers, who refused to let him through.

"If he is a union brother, we are certainly sorry for his inconvenience," said Daniel Medress, spokesman for Warehouse Workers United.

Heffner, with his lunch cooler on his passenger seat, called into work to tell them why he was late. He then ran toward the fight when it occurred.

As he looked at the bloodied driver sitting handcuffed next to one of the handcuffed protesters, he asked, "Was this what they wanted?"

Medress, who, in a news release prior to the event said arrests were likely, said during the protest that it was meant to be peaceful.

"In no way do we condone violence. This is a nonviolent protest," he said. "(The driver) tried to run over nonviolent protesters. It should also be noted that we're talking about two people out of 200."

One of the 200 was Fernando Santillana, a Norwalk pastor who was face-to-hood with the pickup when it attempted to roll through the crowd.

"I didn't say anything to (the driver). There was a young lady in front, so I walked in front and (put my hands on the hood)," he said. "He looked at me. I backed up and then I turned to the side."

The woman whom Santillana said he was trying to shield was 23-year-old Isabel Rojas of Upland, who said the driver was screaming at the protesters.

"He let his anger get the best of him," she said. "He could have gotten somebody killed."

Law enforcement cleared the protest at around 4 p.m.

Stonestreet said that he was nervous before everything started but thought that the protest went "really well."

He watched from a corner of the intersection as the protesters around the forklift were detained by law enforcement.

Ten protesters were arrested and later released, sheriff's deputy Herlinda Valenzuela said.

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