Wearing a black tank top and black shorts that stretched to his calves, Orlando Fuentes stood in front of a riding T-shirt shop in Anaheim Towne Center on Monday night. About 30 other people and a pit bull named Daisy joined him.

Everyone looks ready to throw.

Earlier that day, more than 1,000 people march peacefully passing downtown shopping centers to condemn police brutality. Now, it’s past curfew past two.

Nearby, the Orange County Sheriff’s SWAT Department armored vehicle filled with deputies warned anyone within earshot to leave. Illegal fireworks crackling in the distance. The police raced around the city to chase the outcasts; deputies look after other businesses.

But Fuentes and his friends did not go anywhere.

“I have been coming to this shop since I was a child,” explained the 30-year-old man. “And there’s no way we can let outsiders mess it up. We will stay here all night if necessary. “

He and his friends had blocked the entrance near the shop with a well-maintained sports car and truck with a poster board that said “Keep moving” and “Not here.” “Bow Down” from Westside Connection crunches out of Lexus. The vehicle tried to stay in, only to be told politely but firmly to turn around.

Moved by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, his neck was pinned under the knee of a police officer, most peaceful protesters have gathered in US cities day after day. But after they woke up, the looters had damaged property and looted shops.

For those standing outside the T-shirt shop, it doesn’t matter whether they come from far or just around the corner.

“I am bored with our own people who damage our own kind,” said 25-year-old Jesus Gallo. He recently moved to Garden Grove from Minneapolis, where family members are now losing their jobs after riots shut down their businesses. “This is what I’m here for. We have to protect the hood.”

“Look at the large crowd here against a group of instigators,” said Cecilia Araceli Vasquez, 25. “We all wear at least something from the shop. We don’t want this place to catch fire. “

T-shirt owner Christine Sim and her daughter, Michelle, looked with appreciation. In 2012, their store was damaged thousands of dollars after protests in front of the Anaheim City Hall against the shooting that killed two Latinos by the Anaheim police turned into riots.

“We lost sleep because of what might happen tonight,” said 29-year-old Michelle. “But our customers helped us get to the store. And now they are here. Seeing everyone appear so touching. “

It was a scene that was repeated at Barrios in Southern California watching an anti-police-brutal protest pass in their working-class neighborhood. Residents stand outside their homes and shops to support the message but also to offer one of their own: Don’t mess with us.

In Santa Ana, where more than 2,000 people rallied on Sunday, fat-stained car mechanics in work uniforms kept spanners on their sides when they saw them. During a rally in Anaheim, a muscular man, shirtless with a tattoo on his chest and stomach, ran out of a house to face a car driver who kept peeling off his tires. “Stop it!” he shouted, “All this smoke does nothing!”

On Whittier Boulevard on East L. on Tuesday, a video captured members of the Klique Car Club outside a Nike store waving signs reading “Not on Blvd” and “Don’t Steal or Ignore” the historic street.

“This is what we all struggle for here,” Stephan Ruelas said, as he stood near the lowrider of the vintage Chevrolet Fleetline and pointed to the iconic sign of Whittier Boulevard. “We will not let anyone come and destroy it.”

Ulisses Sanchez, who recorded the recording, said that he and other residents were proud of people like Ruelas. “We know this is important for all of us,” said small business owner and native Boyle Heights, “to take ownership of our role as stewards of people who are part of our community.”

Something similar happened in the suburbs, from Huntington Beach and Newport Beach to Yucaipa – Although often with different time periods. There, residents have met Black Lives Matter activists with US flags and ridicule and racial nicknames. On Upland, the police arrested a man to threaten protesters with AR-15 assault rifles.

But what happened at Barrios was different, said Cal Poly Pomona Alvaro Huerta, city planning professor. There, complaints against police brutality returned decades. But the old don’t want outsiders to agitate on their behalf.

“When it’s suburban or right-wing people, it’s more of an exclusive act of trying to look after ‘the others’,” said Huerta, who grew up in the Ramona Park housing project in Eastside L. Australia. “For us, this is like:‘ This is all we have, but we are proud of it. Don’t mess with that. “

He said the deep-rooted connections came from the rural heritage of the barrio population.

“We are always identified by place. Not only Zacatecas; that’s Jerez, Zacatecas. Not just Michcoacan; that is Morelia. You see the same thing in Appalachia, “Huerta said. “Middle class people can move, so there is no affiliation with that place.”

Stories of protecting barrio are told around a Mexican-American environment like war stories. On Sanchez’s Facebook page, some people remember how members of the Los Angeles MEChA Cal State student group stood guard on Whittier Boulevard during the L. 1992 riots. Many Eastsiders still proudly tell how their neighborhood arrested Richard Ramirez, “Night Stalker,” which famous when law enforcement can’t.

Anaheim residents stand outside a shop on Monday after demonstrations against police brutality.

(Gustavo Arellano / Los Angeles Times)

That espirit de corps was proven in Downtown Anaheim on Monday.

Almost everyone has the same story: Born and raised in the city. Like their parents. Attended Anaheim High. Mexican Americans.

“We are proud of what is here, and we must look after it,” said JR Leal, 26. He and the others had just chased after two men who tried to enter the T-Mobile shop, and also took out a small fire brush arranged by a man white bandana dress. Suddenly, a teenager tries to graffiti Citibank branch.

Leal and the others quickly surrounded the young Latino.

Anna Chavez, 19, was wearing a red Converse high-top, shorts and a T-shirt that said “Anaheim,” just coming from the march. He takes off his black mask but maintains social distance before dismantling the wannabe tagger.

“This is … our city!” he is screaming.

“We were born and raised here – come on, now!” added Jesse Martinez, 30.

“Don’t come here to mark all these walls, homie,” someone else said, before releasing a pile of explosives.

The teenager flipped the can and sulked.

“Outsiders don’t care what happens here,” Chavez said. “The tagger? He’s not even from here. He’s from Santa Ana. “

“This is very inspiring today,” said Edgar Alvarez, 30, as he ran east. Rumor has it that anarchists are a few blocks away. “People call us criminals. But today, we see thugs protecting the city.”