SB Media Alum Ignites Online Furor with Shock Video of Feds Beating Immigrant Dad of Three U.S. Marines

Here's the story behind the story of 48-year old gardener set upon and beaten by masked men while cutting the lawn at an Orange County IHOP

Lily Dallow, ace digital storyteller and Santa Barbara journalism alum, stands at the center of a national news and social media firestorm — sparked by a shocking video of masked immigration agents beating an Orange County gardener, the father of three U.S. Marines, as he cut the grass at a Santa Ana IHOP.

The former digital news director of KEYT and erstwhile Newsmakers TV panelist, Dallow went to the majors last summer, when she was hired as a digital content producer for KTLA 5 in Los Angeles. On Sunday, as she worked her beat by scouring social media, she scoped an appalling video that was first posted on Instagram by an account called SantaAnaProblems.

The video shows a team of burly men in tactical gear, their faces completely hidden by masks, sunglasses and hats, pinning 48-year old Narciso Barranco to the ground, while one of them beats him, on and about the head, with a metal baton. Then several agents yank him, head bleeding, to his feet and slam him into an unmarked silver van.

The assailants wore street clothes, not uniforms, and displayed no badges, but sported tactical armor vests with “Police/U.S. Border Patrol” written in yellow on the back.

Lily swiftly posted a bylined story about the incident, including a link to the Instagram video, melding a description of the event with background, context and quotes gathered by a reporter the station dispatched to interview Barranco’s family, plus comment from local law enforcement, who had not been informed by federal authorities of their presence in the area, and a response from the local congressman.

It included quotes from a KTLA interview with Barranco’s oldest son, Alejandro:

“I think part of it is racial profiling,” Alejandro told KTLA’s Sara Welch. “They probably assumed because he was working the landscaping he had no documentation.”

Her post quickly captured tens of thousands of views.

Also the attention of the Trump Administration.

The aftermath. When she got to work on Monday, she found that she’d been attacked by “Rapid Response 47,” a campaign propaganda arm of the White House, which tagged her personal account and called her story “A Total Fake News hit job.” The White House press office repeatedly emailed her to complain, and Homeland Security claimed her story was “a completely slanted portrayal of what happened.”

“He ASSAULTED federal law enforcement with a WEED WHACKER,” the official government account claimed, posting a seven-second snippet of a second video that shows Barranco fleeing a masked man, who pepper sprays him as he tries to run away while holding a tool of his trade in the air.

For Dallow, a barrage of social media attacks and threats followed.

“Deport her,” one genius tweeted at her. “Arrest her,” wrote a second “Lily Dallow is rooting for the criminals,” said another, above another retweet calling her a “goofy ass activist journalist.” There was less polite stuff, too.

“I did nothing wrong journalistically,” an unbowed Lily told us when we connected with her yesterday, noting that the station posted the video snatch of the alleged weed whacker attack (uh, no) as soon as DHS put it out, and also incorporated their comments, issued nearly 24 hours after her first story posted.

National reaction. By then, national news organizations were all over the horrifying video - and examining what it says about the police state tactics of federal immigration authorities.

The L.A. Times also interviewed Alejandro Barranco, a Marine Corps veteran who served in Afghanistan and has two younger brothers who are active duty Marines.

“I don’t think it was just, I don’t think it was fair,” Barranco said of the use of force against his father. “I don’t think they need four 200 [pounds]-plus guys to hold down a 5-6 or 5-7, 150-pound guy.”

The elder Barranco came to the U.S. from Mexico in the 1990s, without documents. He entered the country illegally, but is far from the stereotypical “criminal” Trump promised to focus on and deport; to the contrary, Barranco has lived in Southern California quietly for 30 years, working hard, raising his family and paying taxes.

In fact, Alejandro Barranca told the newspaper, when he reached his father on the phone from where he is being held at a federal detention center, he brushed off his son’s concern about the injuries he sustained in the beating.

The 48-year-old is a hardworking landscaper and a kind person, his son said. “If anyone ever needed any help, he was always there,” he said. “He’s very well known in our community.”

On his first call to his son after the detainment, Barranco was less concerned with his injuries and more concerned with his job. He told him where his truck and equipment were and asked him to speak with his client and finish the job, the younger Barranco said.

Bottom line. During his eight years in office, President Obama became known to critics in his own party as the “deporter-in-chief,” as his Administration removed more than three million people from the U.S. who were here illegally.

He managed to do it without violating the rule of law, habeas corpus or other basic Constitutional rights historically guaranteed to citizens and non-citizens alike.

But in Trump’s America, roving gangs of masked, armed, unidentified men roam the streets in unmarked vehicles, cosplaying secret police as they leap out without warning to chase, terrify and beat random people on the street who look like they might not have the proper documents to be here.

And working journalists who dare to report on what is happening right before our eyes are attacked, smeared and intimidated by the MAGA propaganda machine.

For shame.

P.S. Lily Dallow is scheduled to return to Newsmakers TV this week with the full story behind the story of Narciso Barranco video.

Further viewing.

• In 2023, Lily Dallow joined Newsmakers’ “The Future of Local News” panel, presented with our special 15th anniversary showing of “Citizen McCaw” at the Luke.

• And last year, she discussed multi-platform storytelling, digital journalism and social media with Josh Molina’s journalism class at City College.

MSNBC’s Ari Melber reported on the video and its implications:

Images: Frame grabs of Narciso Barranco attack video; Narciso is second from right in photo with his three sons (1News).