To hear our national leaders say it, Los Angeles is in chaos and our governor and mayor are there for lunch with the police, ignoring reality while the city burns.
“These radical left protests, by instigators and often troublemakers, Not to be tolerated“Wrote President Trump on social networks, shortly after commanding the National Guard in our streets.
“Insofar as protests or acts of violence directly inhibit the execution of laws, they constitute a form of rebellion against the authority of the government of the United States,” he wrote in a memo on Saturday, authorizing 2,000 troops of the National Guard to deploy in Los Angeles for at least 60 days.
Put your matcha slats and exchange your birkenstocks for boots, people. We are the apparently revolution, so dangerous, only an experienced soldier can stop us. The only problem, of course, is that Los Angeles is not in chaos this sunny Sunday in particular and that the vast majority of Angelenos are just trying to enjoy the weekend without becoming a federal prisoner.
Trump's memo goes to history books as a time when the presidential power has spread to put under its control a military force intended for American civilians. Although it is not unprecedented, the dean of the law faculty of the UC Berkeley, Erwin Chemerinsky, said that it was “magnificent”.
Especially since the deployment is based on a lie. Yes, there have been violence in recent days when the federal immigration authorities brought together criminals and regular people in deportation scales. If you keep the angle of the camera tight on these demonstrations, as many media have done, it looks terrible.
Rocks are launched, even Molotov cocktails. Masked demonstrators hammered on concrete pillars outside a federal city center building. Fire cars.
All this is terrible and the officials should be arrested – by our local police and our sheriffs, who are more than at the height of a few hundred demonstrators.
But 99% of this city is business as usual, with brunches and walks on the beach and church and yoga lessons. And even in these few pockets where demonstrations occur, like a Sunday in downtown walking, it's Los Angeles – I saw more chaos after a Lakers match.
Jessica Levinson, professor of law at Loyola Law School, told my colleague Seema Mehta that he is extremely unusual for a president to take federal troop control, it is not unprecedented and perhaps not illegal. This occurred in 1992 during the Los Angeles riots after Rodney King's verdict.
“One of the exceptions is when there is violence and the inability of the federal government to enforce federal laws,” said Levinson. “And that's exactly what the president happens.”
My intrepid colleagues in this document have been on the ground since the start of the first demonstrations and, as their report shows, the majority of what is happening is peaceful and isolated.
Even the cops agree. And seriously, when the cops agree, there is no riot – there is no riot.
“The demonstrations across the city of Los Angeles have remained peaceful and we congratulate all those who have exercised their first amendment rights in a responsible manner,” the Los Angeles police department wrote in a statement on Saturday evening.
However, Sunday morning, these troops, in full military equipment with rifles in hand (probably with less deadly ammunition, I hope), had started to arrive. The North American command tweeted that the 79th infantry brigade combat team has members in the field In Los Angeles, with more to come.
“These operations are essential to interrupt and reverse the invasion of illegal criminals in the United States. As a result of this violence, California's without fictitious Democrats have completely abdicated their responsibility to protect their citizens,” said Karoline Leavitt, press secretary of the White House, before their arrival.
In addition, when you plan your week, there is now a dress code – at least for civilians, not the authorities determined to hide their identity.
“(F) Rom Now, the masks will not be allowed to be worn during the demonstrations. What must these people hide, and why ???” Trump wrote.
All this, said Governor Gavin Newsom, is “not to respond to an unmet need, but to make a crisis”.
He is right – Los Angeles won a main role in the Trump war against the Brown. It makes sense. We are a city of immigrants, of all colors, and a democratic – and democratic – to that. What will not hate?
Mayor Karen Bass told my colleague Rachel Uranga that her office had tried to speak to the White House to tell them “there was absolutely no need to have troops on the ground”, but there is nowhere.
“It's the posture,” said Bass.
“They want violence,” added Newsom in a Sunday email. “Don't give them the show they want.”
I am not sure that it is possible. There will always be the bad actors, the violent, to any manifestation. And again – they should be arrested.
But Trump goes to the laser-focus on these few to make an example of this city and increase his own power.
Because although this “insurrection” is a fantasy, his dream of more power seems too real.
