When Cruelty is the Point
Recording the resistance in Los Angeles
I need to make space for what’s happening right now in Los Angeles, a city I’ve called home for most of my adult life. There won’t be any jokes because I cannot laugh at the barbarity.
This isn’t law enforcement. It’s an invasion.
An administration has descended on this imperfect, inequitable, expensive, sprawling, diverse, vibrant, sun-soaked city not for safety, but for spectacle—to stage political theatre, to normalize the militarization of American streets, and to brutalize our communities with deliberate cruelty.
Because cruelty isn’t a byproduct, it’s the whole fucking point.
Donald Trump, J.D. Vance, Stephen Miller, Kristi Noem, Tom Homan, Todd Lyons, Madison Sheahan, John Deere, Michael Banks, Pete Hegseth—they don’t just order and enforce this. They feed upon it. They bathe in it. They get off on it.
If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever. -George Orwell, 1984
Los Angeles is not rioting.
There are protests, not riots, rising in response to the cruel and traumatizing abduction and deportation of law-abiding residents by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), without due process. Due process, written in both the Fifth Amendment and the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution that is guaranteed to all persons, not just citizens, but all persons. Our founders were intentional with the words they used and the Supreme Court has upheld this interpretation over and over and over again. Even the current court upheld the rights of non-citizens to due process in a 9-0 ruling on May 16, 2025.1
These are acts of protest against a system tearing apart families and businesses in California communities while the man behind it—a functionally illiterate, convicted felon, sexual predator, grifter, and wannabe dictator–who–happens–to–be–president—admits his own policies are hurting U.S. industries.2
The targets are undocumented people, visa-holders, asylum seekers—children, parents, neighbors, friends, human beings.
They are being kidnapped from schools, churches, restaurants, ERs, hotels, farms, factories, and job sites. They are being rounded up by armed agents, some without law enforcement identification, most without warrants, masked like mercenaries.
They are being terrorized—as are the rest of us—by a government weaponizing fear against the very people who cook our food, clean our homes, harvest our crops, and build our cities. Against the people who do the jobs most Americans won’t do.
Every American has benefited from their labor. The food we eat, the homes we live in, the services we rely on—all bear the imprint of immigrant and undocumented workers’ sweat equity.
Los Angeles is not burning to the ground.
That already happened earlier this year, in January 2025, when wildfires scorched 89 square miles, fueled by climate change, Southern California Edison’s negligence and greed3, and humanity’s hubris in building into fire zones.
The majority of Angelenos lives are not being disrupted by the protests and the curfew.
Because Los Angeles County is more than 4,700 square miles, or 3 million acres, in area. Almost 700 of those square miles are water. The City of Los Angeles is roughly 500 square miles or 319,000 acres, in area.
Hundreds of protesters in one square mile versus 4 million Angelenos in 500 square miles or 10 million L.A. County residents in 4,700 square miles.
All of this space means it’s easy for most residents to live in their own personal bubble. I certainly do. I can turn off all media devices and not know anything is happening.
What I do know is that after 30 years of living in Southern California, there is no hostile invasion of non-citizens coming from outside the country. But there is an invasion of lies. And it’s coming from inside the house. The White House.
What’s happening now is very different. It’s an escalation.
The ICE protests in downtown Los Angeles have mostly been confined to one square mile. That’s the area under curfew, where hundreds of mostly peaceful protesters have gathered and are being arrested for “failure to disperse.”4
Are there some bad actors, vandalizing and looting, purposefully antagonizing law enforcement? Yes, there are, but that’s often the case with protests in every city. Remember January 6, 2021 in our nation’s capitol was an entire mob of Trump-supporting bad actors/insurrectionists who beat up law enforcement mercilessly. They all got pardons of course.
The bad and/or illegal behavior is not widespread. The majority of people are simply exercising their right to assemble and peacefully protest the Putin-esque masked agents.
Arrests are being made by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), not the National Guard or Marines, both of which were not requested by Mayor Karen Bass or Governor Gavin Newsom or LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell.5 Still, LAPD officers appear all too eager to use force, including against journalists.6 7 8
Sadly, that’s nothing new for one of the most militarized, aggressive police departments in the country. But that’s a separate issue.
Senator Alex Padilla did not rush Border Barbie Kristi Noem, nor did he fail to identify himself.
Senator Padilla, a sitting U.S. Senator from California and chair of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, and Border Safety, was shoved, forcibly removed, thrown to the ground, and handcuffed by federal police and Secret Service at a Trump-backed press conference led by Department of Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem.
This happened inside a secure federal building, where all entrants are screened, and where Padilla had been invited and escorted in because he was doing his job.9
DHS Secretary Noem described Los Angeles as a “city of criminals” that needed the federal government to send in thousands of National Guard members and Marines “to allow people to live in a safe community again.” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth argued during a Senate defense appropriations subcommittee hearing that the troops were there to stop the “rioters, looters and thugs” who were overwhelming local law enforcement.10
Dough-boy Tom Homan, the White House Executive Associate Director of Enforcement and Removal Operations, a dumbass title for a dumbass good-ole-boys entitlement hire, told the LA Times that “This operation is not going to end.” And “I’m not happy with the numbers. We need to find these people.”
The peckerhead, white supremacist, Trump Adviser Stephen Miller tweeted, “The political leaders of California and Los Angeles are siding with the insurrectionist mobs fighting to dissolve America over the heroes of ICE fighting to save America.”
It’s a provocation. The only bad actors are the Trump appointees and officials.
The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command. -Orwell, 1984
California is being made an example of, but the entire country is under attack.
While Governor Newsom and the Trump administration battle in court over control of the National Guard and state sovereignty that is enshrined in the Tenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, the ICE raids continue, and protests are spreading across the U.S.
Because this ugly, violent shit is coming to your city. Your neighborhood. Your schools.
On Saturday, June 14, while Trump watches his 45-million-dollar, authoritarian military parade scheduled to mark the 250th anniversary of the US Army and his 79-year-old bone spurs, there will be anti-Trump “NO KINGS” rallies being held in hundreds of cities.
And there are other ways to protest the unconstitutional activities:
Write and call your elected representatives every day/week/month.
California has two senators, Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla, that are pushing back against the inhumanity and lawlessness, but my U.S. Representative is a republican named Ken Calvert. He’s re-won his seat in the last two election cycles by only 11,100 votes and 11,987 votes, respectively. He’s rich, he puts party over his constituency, and he never holds town halls. Never ever. But I write to him every week, respectfully, and I implore him to protect our most vulnerable residents and citizens, to uphold female body autonomy, to safeguard Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid, to support Ukraine, to push back against the autocratic actions and bad policies, like tariffs, of Project 2025. It falls on deaf ears, I’m sure, but I keep trying. I keep pleading for Congressman Calvert to want to leave a legacy worth remembering.
Donate to legal defense funds. Donations to these organizations listed below go directly toward legal representation, bond support, and systems-level advocacy.
RAICES (Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services)
https://www.raicestexas.org
AILA (American Immigration Lawyers Association) — Pro Bono Project
https://www.aila.org
Immigrant Defenders Law Center (ImmDef)
https://www.immdef.org
The Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project
https://www.firrp.org
National Immigration Law Center (NILC)
https://www.nilc.org
Kids in Need of Defense (KIND)
https://supportkind.org
Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project (ASAP)
https://www.asylumadvocacy.org
CHIRLA (Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights) – Los Angeles
https://www.chirla.org
CAIR Coalition (Capital Area Immigrants' Rights Coalition) – Though D.C.-based, often referenced in West Coast organizing
https://www.caircoalition.org
Pangea Legal Services – San Francisco
https://www.pangealegal.org
Don’t accept the lies they tell. Don’t allow the misinformation to twist the truth. Don’t believe their narrative.
We cannot bend the knee to the Man Who Would Be King.
The people behind this cruelty want us to feel isolated, exhausted, and numb. They want us to feel helpless and hopeless. They want us to remain silent.
They want a world in which, War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.11
But we know what’s lawful. We know what’s human.
And we can keep showing up. For each other. For the truth. For the future.
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/24a1007_g2bh.pdf
"Trump promises immigration order soon on farm, leisure workers," Reuters, June 12, 2025. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-promises-immigration-order-soon-farm-leisure-workers-2025-06-12/
“LA County sues SoCal Edison for Eaton Fire damages,” Utility Dive, June 11, 2025. https://www.utilitydive.com/news/la-county-sues-southern-california-edison-for-eaton-fire-damages/741719/
“Curfew issued in downtown LA area following anti-ICE protests,” KCRA, June 10, 2025. https://www.kcra.com/article/downtown-la-curfew-area-anti-ice-protests/65034095
“LAPD chief says Trump pressured officials to deploy National Guard during LA protests,” The Hill, June 10, 2025. https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/5346247-lapd-chief-donald-trump-national-guard-la-protests/
“LAPD Ab*sing Horses & Trampling Protestors In State Sanctioned Violence,” Shelby Dennis, YouTube, June 9, 2025.
“Officers on horseback in Los Angeles charge toward protesters,” Associated Press, YouTube, June 11, 2025.
“With reporters shot and roughed up, advocates question whether those covering protests are targets.” AP News, 12 June 2025. https://apnews.com/article/immigration-protests-los-angeles-media-4b9b062785bde9428a3155812fd092de
“‘I was forced to the ground and handcuffed’: Sen. Padilla speaks out,” MSNBC, YouTube, June 12, 2025.
“Hegseth defends use of troops to protect immigration raids in Los Angeles.” AP News, 11 June 2025. https://apnews.com/article/hegseth-pentagon-spending-ukraine-7a5c39c4d6ceaddc33b80af24e3797a7
George Orwell, 1984.