The Liberation of Los Angeles
By now you have undoubtedly seen what’s been happening in response to ICE protests in Los Angeles.
Police and federal law enforcement there have done what they do best - violence.
Reporters there have been attacked and harassed by police. A CNN crew was escorted out of an area and two cameramen were arrested. An Australian reporter was hit with her back turned by a non-lethal round. It is clear from the video that the police officer was aiming for her and her cameraman. (There are now multiple Australian reporters who have been hit by police while covering the protests.) A British reporter had to have a rubber bullet surgically removed from his leg.
California law has a great deal of protections for reporters covering protests. Explicitly they are allowed to remain in areas closed by police during protests. The legislators who wrote that law are pointing out the police are flagrantly violating it.
The treatment of the general public is even worse.
A woman was trying to walk back to her apartment when a large group of policemen began yelling at her to leave. She stopped and tried to explain she lived there and they were blocking the entrance to her apartment. She was not armed. She was not threatening anyone. They shot her in the stomach with a rubber bullet.
Another woman was knocked to the ground and trampled by mounted police. When she stood up, they began to hit her with batons, she was shot in the head at short range with a non-lethal round, and she was then trampled again when she fell to the ground. She did not threaten anyone. She was unarmed. She was merely standing there. She was hospitalized, has staples in her head, and a potential brain injury.
This is the normal state of how police deal with protesters regardless of who is in charge.
Enter Donald Trump.
After January 6th, a conservative friend said there was no way to see the attack coming. I had receipts - a post I’d made before the 2017 inauguration cataloging all the times he openly called for violence against those who dared criticize him. He has long advocated for police to be more physically violent when arresting people. (Presumably that does not cover himself as he has been arrested multiple times and now is a convicted felon.)
Trump and Stephen Miller have been salivating over the idea of using the military against protesters. During the George Floyd protests, he wanted the protestors shot by the military. The acting Secretary of Defense, Mark Esper, stopped him. He did have protestors at Lafayette Square attacked by police (including another Australian reporter who was attacked) so that he could walk across the street to take a picture of himself holding a Bible in front of St. John’s Church.
In response to the ICE protests in Los Angeles, Trump has attempted to take over the California National Guard and sent in Marines. Outside of some scattered vandalism efforts, the protests have been completely peaceful - at least on behalf of the protesters. Law enforcement has been quite violent.
His usurpation of the Guard from Governor Gavin Newsom’s control has been declared unconstitutional by a judge. The 9th circuit has temporarily stayed that order until Tuesday. Laughably, the government argued that the requirement of the law they’re invoking that says orders must go through the governor may be satisfied merely by TELLING the governor what orders they’ve issued. More laughably, they weren’t actually telling him. They were writing “through: the governor of California” but not actually sending those documents to anyone.
Kristi Noem was giving a press conference yesterday. California’s Senator, escorted by the FBI, entered the room to ask her about everything that has been happening. DHS and FBI agents swarmed him, pushed him into the hall, made him get on his hands and knees, and handcuffed him. You need to watch the video. DHS said he didn’t identify himself. This is a lie. They said he lunged at Noem. That’s another lie.
They are arresting mayors who oppose them. They are arresting members of the House of Representatives who oppose them. Senator Padilla was not arrested, but this action was obviously because he opposes what’s happening.
All the benchmarks of a totalitarian state are already here.
But it gets worse.
Shortly before Padilla’s detention, Kristi Noem said this:
We are staying here to liberate this city from the socialist and burdensome leadership that this governor and this mayor have placed into this city
The head of the Department of Homeland Security is openly saying federal troops are there to “liberate” Los Angeles from the leadership elected by the people there. Why? Because they aren’t sufficiently racist.
I will not sugarcoat this - we are at a point we have not been in since the Civil War.
But we are not giving in. We are not giving up.
Start calling your Representative and Senators. If they’re die hard Trump supporters, call them anyways. Express your dismay at what ICE is doing and that the DHS Secretary is saying the federal government is in one of the largest cities in the country to “liberate” it from local control. Resistbot on Facebook can assist you in finding their contact information. You can also use the 5 Calls app on your phone. Just call and express your views on these matters.
Tomorrow there will be protests across the nation (even the world). These were already expected to be large, but given what’s happening right now in Los Angeles and other large cities, I expect massive turnout. You may look up protests near you here.
While the violence we have seen directed against protesters this past week is abhorrent, I expect tomorrow to be largely peaceful, ESPECIALLY during the official timeframe for these events, which will be over in the afternoon. That is not to say we won’t see police unnecessarily attacking anyone. But I think that will be rare.
The goal tomorrow is simple - getting as many people as possible to show up. In addition to the calls to your Congressmen, this is a way of visually showing them, the rest of the country, and the world, that this is not who we aspire to be and that we do not accept him.
No Kings.
(Thank you for your patience. I caught Covid in the middle of a move, but I’m getting set up in the new home and mostly recovered now. Be safe and be loud tomorrow.)
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