Orange Councilman Jon Dumitru Misses Fire Hoses at Protests!

Who is this fool, Jon Dumitru, on the Orange City Council, this fool who remembers the use of FIRE HOSES on protesters in the 1960’s as a good thing? And how is he still on Council in 2025? We shall endeavor to address these questions today.

We residents of Anaheim and Santa Ana may get frustrated with our somewhat corrupt and complacent councils, but at least they’re both doing SOME THINGS, to help protect their immigrant communities from the ravages of Trump’s ICE raids and put up a bit of a fight. (They could be doing more of course.) But, going by a recent Voice story, only 2 out of 7 members of Orange’s Council even think there’s a problem (the two, no doubt coincidentally, who happen to be Latinas.) And this in a town that’s 40% Latino and has seen its share of abusive ICE raids, as told by our two Latinas.

Mayor Dan Slater (left) re-assured everybody (wrongly) that anyone “with documents or in the process of getting documented” has nothing to worry about, displaying blissful ignorance of the realities we’ve all seen these past months, of masked agents just grabbing random brown people off the streets, and then SOMETIMES letting them go after days or weeks of inhumane and secretive confinement.

“We don’t have any control over what the feds are doing in our city,” continued the comfortable Mayor. ”Personally, I think that we should probably stay out of it and let law enforcement do their job.” And so, Mayor Slater came down AGAINST EVEN “listing resources on the city website for impacted immigrant families” – That would be going WAY TOO FAR!

After all, as the cautious Mayor sadly pointed out to his two Latina colleagues, “I am not seeing support for your suggestions. I’m sorry.” And sure enough, the three councilmembers not mentioned in this story sat silently on their hands (all oddly enough the children or grandchildren of immigrants) and could not be stirred to address the issue one way or the other. But NONE were as hostile as District 2 Councilman Jon Dumitru.

What do we know about this nativist throwback, this Dumitru?

I remember Jon from 2010, the last (pre-Trump) high-water mark of Republicans hating on immigrants – the time when the national GOP loved Arizona for their “papers-please” SB 1070, and strived to emulate it however they could – Dumitru by declaring Orange a “RULE-OF-LAW CITY,” basically the opposite of a sanctuary city, where local law enforcement would ASSIST federal immigration enforcement in rooting out excess brown people.

And the Orange City Council passed Dumitru’s resolution, making themselves a Rule-By-Law City, and feeling mighty white about it. Next meeting, me and Duane Roberts showed up, claiming to be from the “Benevolent Association of Clown Municipalities,” and officially declared Orange a RULED-BY-CLOWNS CITY – during our speeches some audience members quickly donned clown attire and danced through the aisles while I played “Enter the Gladiators” on a melodica. The council seemed… perplexed. Perhaps even nonplussed.

So I wasn’t too surprised to learn last week that Dumitru not only had no problem with Trump’s ICE raids, but thinks they are a good thing. Still, he didn’t have to justify them with absurd and fanciful lies, SUCH AS his lies about Narciso Barranco.

Narciso – I bet you know this – is the 54-year-old Santa Ana landscaper whose brutal chase and arrest by masked agents became a viral video. Yes, he was tear-gassed, chased with guns while holding his weed-whacker, beaten repeatedly in the head while on the ground, and his shoulder dislocated. Father of three Marines, you remember him. Still in custody.

This became such a notorious incident that Homeland Security had to put out their own bullshit version – they put out another video claiming it shows that Narciso had ATTACKED these 6-7 armed ICE agents with his weed-whacker – he was an “anti-ICE terrorist,” they cried. “Would you rather our agents GOT MOWED DOWN?” they asked in mock outrage. Except even THEIR video shows no such thing, as the Register pointed out.

Laughable bullshit, as laughable as anything the comes out of Trump world, but laughable bullshit that Jon Dumitru swallowed and regurgitated whole, on the Orange Council dais. Yet that was not enough – Jon had to add this original gem: “…if you see the whole video, he tries to attempt a carjacking during that process…” Well, that’s a new one on us!

Actually – and I haven’t seen this mentioned – IT WAS ONE OF THE AGENTS CHASING HIM who held out a gun – held it tilted sideways like in an EXCITING GANGSTER MOVIE – and briefly pointed it at a car, probably trying to get them to stop, but looking a little like a carjacking. And dangerous as hell. Untrained motherfuckers.

Where have you gone, Bull Connor?

Yet Dumitru was to outdo himself, in an awkward effort to present as a balanced supporter of the Constitution:

“That’s fine. Protest. You do it peacefully, because the second you break the law – you want to be in 1960s, we’ll return to 1960s,” Dumitru said. “There should be fire hoses, I have no problem with that because if you break the law, you’re breaking the law.”

It’s unclear what Dumitru considers “breaking the law” in a protest, but it’s disturbing that his mind goes to FIRE HOSES of all things, as an appropriate way to respond to an unruly protest. Just in case they’ve stopped teaching American history in today’s schools, fire hoses are most famously what were used, brutally, against Civil Rights protesters in the South. Yes, in the 1960’s. Why would Dumitru jones for the days of Sheriff Bull Connor?

[I was just told that Jon apologized for this comment, “on Facebook,” after getting a few criticisms… but I can’t find that apology anywhere, not on his page, not on the Council page.***]

It’s worth remembering that Jon was a fireman FIRE DISPATCHER (see comments below) for 30 years, during which time there have been plenty of protests in Orange, especially at the Traffic Circle – lately there are weekly protests there, over the ICE invasions. How often has Jon thought about using fire hoses on THESE civil rights protesters?

Orange has districts (which Council fought against hard) – Jon represents District 2. “District 2 must be some rich rock-ribbed conservative place,” you say, pero no. It’s the westernmost part, surrounded by Garden Grove and Santa Ana, lower income, a Latino majority, more Democrats than Republicans.

Well, how did Jon get elected here, and when is he up again? He won in 2020 because he had THREE OPPONENTS and everyone knew his name; whereas LAST YEAR EVERY INCUMBENT (scandalously) RAN UNOPPOSED. Maybe Orange has a big apathy problem. Maybe they are happy with councilmen like Dumitru – even the district 2 Latinos (?)

In any case they’re stuck with him till 2028. Maybe he could learn a little something in that time, a little history and a little decency, if that’s not too tall of an order. Vern out.

***AH! Turns out Jon’s apology was on a Facebook “story” – a thing that is transitory and vanishes with the morning dew.