Speak Your Piece: The LA Lunacy, Part II
By now we know what’s causing all that chaos in California: the President of the United States and the National Guard!
The mob violence and utter chaos in the streets of Los Angeles escalated Friday after the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers moved into LA to arrest illegal immigrant criminals, reportedly a drug raid in the city. Those arrested were brought to a federal building that a large group of protesters soon surrounded.
But as discussed on Speak Your Piece yesterday, it developed into a weekend of rioting, car fires, rock throwing, and lawlessness. President Donald Trump called in the National Guard without asking Governor Gavin Newsom to act. Notably, no one complained — about Trump, not the rioters — more than Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass.
Indeed, all hell broke out in the City of Angels, ramped up by professional organizers, politicos, and illegal immigrant supporters. What went on in the streets was reminiscent of the 2020 riots, the worst in our nation’s history.
As the sun rose higher in the sky Friday, LAPD was faced with a large and more raucous crowd and the chief would later say, “We were overwhelmed.”
Saturday and Sunday saw thousands in the street, ultimately blocking the freeway. It’s tough to imagine more nights of destruction. Hopefully, there’s a law-enforcement plan and perhaps the Democrats in high places will stop engaging in partisan bickering and blaming and help quell the fire.
And an example of more crazy behavior was the actions of Democratic Congresswoman Maxine Waters who was recorded taunting a small group of National Guardsmen near the entrance of the federal building, which was under attack earlier. The veteran congresswoman said — I paraphrase — if you’re planning to shoot, then you better shoot straight. That was an off-the-wall comment by an off-the-wall California member of Congress.
This is the same Maxine Waters who, in Trump’s first term, told Democrats to confront Republicans and Trump allies in shops or restaurants and “get up in their face” and tell them to get out! This is the kind of lunatic politics that encourages protests and demonstrations and hate. When it comes from the top down, it’s shameful.
I often think about how we’re viewed overseas. The British Broadcasting Corporation had a crew in Los Angeles covering the rioting. Their story was not quite “fake news,” but still slanted. Too much was omitted.
For example, BBC did not mention that the National Guard was protecting a federal building and federal agents, instead saying the Guard was “working” with ICE. The news organization reported that ICE was rounding up migrants — not illegal immigrant criminals — but just migrants. Also reported erroneously was ICE’s supposed targeting of a large population in Paramount that was 82 percent Hispanic; other Hispanic migrants were being taken into custody, the BBC journalist wrote.
That reporting mirrored what was being said on the street. BBC apparently heard it, quoted it, and spread it across the sea. Once again, ICE has a clear mission and that is to round up, arrest, and deport illegal immigrants who not only broke the law to get here but committed other crimes. This has been repeated a million times by the federal Department of Homeland Security.
Clearly, we have enemies without and within doing many things to disrupt our culture and way of life, which reminds me that a riot is not always merely a riot: It could be a plan.
Pat Wandling hosts Speak Your Piece, from which this commentary is adapted, weekdays at noon on WBCB 1490.
