June 09, 2025 02:52 PM UTC

Republicans Breathlessly Hype LA Riots, Hope For Same In Denver

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• by: Colorado Pols

As KTLA TV-5 in Los Angeles reports, protests over raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents targeting undocumented immigrants in that city have raged since last Friday, resulting in several dozen arrests and a few minor injuries to responding police officers:

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Los Angeles Police Department and California Highway Patrol collectively arrested 42 people, an LASD spokesperson said.

LAPD Officer Madison confirmed that number and said charges include failure to disperse, assault with a deadly weapon on a peace officer, looting and arson…

Despite the weekend-long coverage with aerial shots of milling crowds blocking Los Angeles freeways and several Waymo driverless taxis that were hailed to the scene for the apparently purpose of setting on fire, actual damage and most importantly injuries to police officers so far appear to be minimal:

Madison added that five LAPD officers were hurt in the chaos. Three of them were treated at the scene and two others sustained minor injuries.

Keene said six CHP officers were also hurt, though they were minor injuries.

Although the ICE protests in Los Angeles did not, at least initially, live up to the billing on conservative media of an “insurrection,” the Trump administration responded in a dramatic escalation–with a swiftness that suggested it was always the plan. California National Guard troops were federalized over the objection of Gov. Gavin Newsom to provocatively and needlessly deploy into downtown Los Angeles. NBC News:

California Democrats pushed back after President Donald Trump deployed the National Guard to respond to anti-immigration raid protests in the Los Angeles area, with Gov. Gavin Newsom arguing that Trump is trying to “manufacture a crisis.”

“Trump is sending 2,000 National Guard troops into LA County — not to meet an unmet need, but to manufacture a crisis. He’s hoping for chaos so he can justify more crackdowns, more fear, more control,” Newsom said Sunday on X, where he also urged people to “stay peaceful.” [Pols emphasis]

The Los Angeles Times is reporting today that, without an extant justification for mobilizing National Guard troops, the Trump administration now claims they were sent in as a “deterrent” and not in response to any immediate need:

President Trump’s tense, late-night phone call with Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday night came with a warning: “Get the police in gear.” The president was being shown evidence by his staff of theft at a 7-Eleven and of federal law enforcement with lacerations.

His patience would last less than 24 hours before federalizing the National Guard in a historic action…

The president did so, [White House press secretary Karoline] Leavitt said, “with the expectation that the deployment of the National Guard would hopefully prevent and deter some of this violence.”

Just one problem with that theory:

The opposite occurred. [Pols emphasis] The worst violence yet took place on Sunday, with some rioters torching and hurling concrete at police cars, hours after National Guard troops had arrived in Los Angeles County.

Yes, it is quite possible that sending in inappropriate amounts of force to respond to civil unrest can make said unrest worse. And that appears to have happened. What’s more, that appears to have been the objective, having deployed these forces in advance of their justifiable need. And having escalated the unrest by deploying military forces over the objections of the governor, what’s the next logical step, you ask? Back to KTLA:

Speaking to reporters at the White House Monday, the president responded to a question from Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy regarding the ongoing back-and-forth between California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan.

“Gavin Newsom is daring Tom Homan to come and arrest him,” Doocy asked Trump in the video captured by CNN cameras. “Should he do it?”

Trump endorsed the idea, responding, “I would do it if I were Tom.”

While we wait to see whether Gov. Newsom is in fact arrested by federal authorities, a step toward authoritarianism that would supersede all previous discussions, here in Denver there are protests set for today in Aurora near the ICE immigrant detention center and tomorrow at the state capitol–both unrelated to a much larger national protest event coming up this weekend for Trump’s birthday called No Kings Day. Local Republicans are licking their chops at the prospect of catching local liberals misbehaving during any of these upcoming events, especially those in office or otherwise politically valuable targets:

For those who haven’t had the pleasure, that’s Andy George, a longtime Republican operative and co-founder of the GOP campaign consultant group Clear Creek Strategies. Among other career lowlights, Andy George was the political “mastermind” behind the failed and highly controversial “China Girl” campaign against Democratic Sen. Rachel Zenzinger back in 2016. George’s wife Rachel was one of the prime movers of the effort to get Kanye West on the state’s 2020 presidential ballot.

The moral of the story? If you’re out peacefully exercising your constitutional rights over the next week, either at one of these immigration-related protests or the much larger “No Kings” demonstrations planned for this weekend, there will be people in the crowd looking to take photos of anything that could be used even deceitfully to discredit or distract from the event’s message. They will then convey those photos directly to Republicans for cash, who will use them against you and everything that motivated you to turn out.

The best way to help at this moment is to not give such people anything they can use. Effective protest never plays into your opponent’s hands.