July 3, 2014

A California mayor who inspired residents to protest and turn away busses full of immigrant women and children said on Thursday that he was worried that coverage of the angry demonstrations were stereotyping his town.

After Murrieta Mayor Alan Long posted a message on Facebook about his opposition to undocumented immigrants being transferred from Texas, flag-toting protesters showed up to block the busses, and eventually forced them to turn around.

Fox News seemed to celebrate the protests in several "Defending the Homeland" segments on Wednesday, including a graphic that appeared to have been borrowed from Bioshock -- a video game about "racist assholes," according to the AV Club.

And in one case, an anti-immigration demonstrator was caught on video spitting in the face of Hispanic singer Lupillo Rivera.

On Thursday, Long told Fox News video the protests that he had inspired did not show the true "compassion" of his town.

"I took the opportunity last night to remind everyone that, you know, showing clips of angry people really isn't a true reflection of Murrieta," he insisted. "There is another opposing side to this that is just as angry, and I think if you talk to them, they would agree that they want an efficient process."

“We’ve heard some of those passionate people seeing the clips on the news and coming to a conclusion that Murrieta’s not compassionate,” Long added. “It’s a shame that two minutes of video time on the news channel really stereotypes our city.”

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