10 Aug 7th- Aug 13th, 2025 phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES | NEWS | FEATURE | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & CULTURE | MUSIC | CONCERTS | CANNABIS | no evidence of any lawbreaking. Police arrived to speak with Peak and police drone was also mobilized to oversee the small gathering, but nothing violent was reported. Stringer declined to comment when reached by Phoenix New Times. There were no calls to police the next two times protesters demonstrated. After that, though, police were called like clock- work. Exactly who called is not clear; names were redacted from police records about subsequent protests that were released to New Times. On March 24, two calls were made to Surprise police by someone reporting that “their view was blocked by signs being held in the area.” Six officers responded to the crowd of approximately 70 people, but “nothing criminal was observed,” according to the police report. The next week, police received a call that signs were “blocking the view of a vehicle.” This time, a dozen police offi- cers responded to the crowd of approxi- mately 100 people. Again, “nothing criminal was observed or reported,” per a police report. On April 14, pro-Hamadeh protesters began to counterprotest at Hamadeh’s office. Lisa Everett, the chair of the Legislative District 29 Republicans, told New Times that she “heard about the protest, and I was just like, ‘No, we can’t let that stand.’” Police also responded to that protest and two subsequent demon- strations between pro- and anti-Hamadeh protesters, but served more as crowd control. Police reports again state that “nothing criminal was observed or reported.” Thin Skin Someone kept calling the cops on protesters at Abe Hamdeh’s office. BY MORGAN FISCHER R oughly once a week for two months earlier this year, a sizeable group of protesters demonstrated outside the Surprise office of Republican Rep. Abe Hamadeh, the MAGA devotee and election denier who won his first term in office last November. They were careful to stay on public sidewalks and not impede traffic or access to the office as they expressed their displeasure with Hamadeh’s support for President Donald Trump. Despite that, records show, the police were called on protesters at least seven times during that span. Surprise police, which sometimes responded with multiple vehicles and officers, never found any evidence of wrongdoing. In one instance, a protester’s car was towed — at the behest of a member of Hamadeh’s staff. At the same time, pro-Hamadeh demonstrators were given preferential access and were never treated as a threat to public safety. Speaking to those supporters, Hamadeh painted the mostly senior citizen-led group of anti-Trump protesters — with whom he refused to meet — as “brainwashed” and falsely claimed they were professional agitators paid by liberal billionaire George Soros. The anti-Trump protests were orga- nized by Northwest Valley Indivisible, a local chapter of the larger anti-Trump grassroots Indivisible movement. For about two months starting in mid- February, they demonstrated outside Hamadeh’s office to demand that he hold a public town hall. The protests attracted between 30 and 100 people — mostly elderly, with 52-year-old organizer Brent Peak one of the youngest participants — and would last roughly an hour. But as soon as their protests began, so did regular calls to Surprise police about them. Hamadeh’s office, which is located at 12515 W. Bell Road in Surprise, shares a building with the home care services company Total Care Connections. Total Care’s founder, Daniel Stringer, rents the space — which, at least earlier this year, still bore the name of former Rep. Debbie Lesko above the entrance — to Hamadeh’s office. According to police records, Stringer called police about the protesters of Feb. 19, despite there being A series of protests outside the Surprise office of Rep. Abe Hamadeh regularly resulted in police being called, although authorities never encountered anything criminal happening. (TJ L’Heureux) >> p 12 | NEWS |
