Former city commissioner confronts FHP troopers arresting Lake Worth Beach landscaper

Cara Jennings videotaped the encounter, accusing troopers of 'racially profiling' in latest LWB immigration sweep

(Screengrab from Cara Jennings video)

Former Lake Worth Beach City Commissioner Cara Jennings said she was going for a walk just after 9 a.m. today when she noticed Florida Highway Patrol cruisers parked at D Street and Seventh Avenue North.

When she got closer, she saw a young Latino man in handcuffs.

Jennings started recording video on her phone and questioned law-enforcement officers about why they were detaining the man. She got the handcuffed man to tell her his name and phone number, promising to let his family know that he was being detained.

As she approached the officers, she said she couldn’t recall ever seeing FHP cars in neighborhood streets. She proceeded to ask questions of the officers, who offered some responses before ordering her to remain 25 feet away.

She asked if the man was pulled over because he was driving a vehicle pulling a landscaping trailer. She later learned that the man’s father also had been arrested and was sitting inside a patrol car when she confronted the trooper.

“Those guys live on my block,’’ she said in an interview this afternoon, referring to the father and son.

“The (Florida) Highway Patrol and the governor are taking our neighbors. I love Lake Worth Beach and I love my neighborhood and it is our responsibility to document what's happening to try to intercede and stop people from being abducted and put into deportation,’’ she said.

It was not the first arrest that day of a Latino man in what appeared to be the latest federal immigration sweep across Lake Worth Beach and other neighboring communities.

Just after 7 a.m., the Guatemalan Maya Center received a call about a father who was stopped and detained by agencies assisting the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as he was driving his 15-year-old daughter to school, said Mariana Blanco, the center’s director of operations.

Blanco said she was told the father had been “roughed up” and the daughter was treated at a hospital after being hit with pepper spray. “It was brutal,’’ she said.

In all, at least three people were arrested today in Lake Worth Beach by FHP and ICE, Blanco said.

“It’s not an isolated incident,’’ she said. “Clearly it’s racial profiling. It’s the pattern we see over and over again.’’

Commissioner Christopher McVoy showed up at the scene of the first arrest a few minutes after Jennings arrived.

When he asked officers why the two men were arrested, they “initially didn't want to say anything,’’ McVoy said. “When I told them I was commissioner, they were a little bit more cooperative but not very.’’

McVoy, who also expressed surprise at seeing FHP cars on neighborhood streets, said the officers told him they diver was pulled over because the truck’s trailer “was not properly secured.’’

He added, “I think the charge of racial profiling is not out of line.’’

Jennings said she spoke to a Highland Elementary School teacher who told her “a quarter of their students did not show up” in the first three days of the first week of school.

“It’s very serious what’s happening. It’s a human rights issue,’’ she said.

Jennings is not shy about confronting authorities. In 2016, she confronted Gov. Rick Scott at a Gainesville Starbucks for signing a law to defund Planned Parenthood.