Los Angeles has been overrun with lawless madness, and that’s just elected officials.
Mayor Karen Bass has spent a week blaming President Trump for disrupting her city, insisting “everything was fine” until the federal government decided to enforce the law.
That’s consistent with how The Golden State’s public officials have dealt with crime in general.
In November, state voters were so fed up that they passed a better initiative, Proposition 36, by a margin of 68% to 32% despite furious opposition from Governor Gavin Newsom.
His own plan for dealing with crime is to close state prisons to save money.
Now, Newsom is suing the Trump administration over the deployment of National Guard troops to protect federal law enforcement officers and federal buildings threatened by violent protests.
Newsom said the president’s actions were unnecessary and illegal. He asked a federal court in San Francisco to issue an emergency temporary restraining order.
The court denied his request and gave the president’s lawyers a chance to respond.
Their 32-page filing begins by calling Newsom’s lawsuit a “crude political stunt.”
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It documents that protesters threw rocks, bottles, chunks of concrete, and exploding mortar-style fireworks at law enforcement officers, as well as setting cars on fire, throwing Molotov cocktails, blocking the 101 freeway, and ramming a garbage disposal into a building wall.
Most members of the Los Angeles City Council issued a joint statement. “We condemn this in no uncertain terms,” they wrote.
But they were referring to government law enforcement operations, not riots. “To every immigrant living in our city: we see you, we stand with you, and we will fight for you,” they added.
Some city council members went further. Eunisses Hernandez told the crowd at a rally, “Community Defense is working” against law enforcement. “If they escalate their tactics, so will we,” she warned. Hugo Soto-Martinez chided Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell for providing “a safe passage for ice.” Imelda Padilla asked McDonnell if the LAPD would “warn us so we can warn our people” when government agents were approaching.
“You’re asking me to warn you about enforcement actions taken by other agencies before they happen?” the police chief asked.
“Yes,” Padilla replied.
“Yeah, we can’t do that,” McDonnell said.
Mayor Bass has focused her efforts on repeating “Stop the Raids” at every public appearance, making the argument that enforcing the law in Los Angeles is what leads to violence, vandalism and looting.
Why are Democratic elected officials in California twisting themselves into crackers to defy federal law enforcement?
In November’s election, President Trump made significant gains with Latino voters, especially younger men. According to NBC News Departure Polls, Trump won 45% of Hispanics, a 13-point increase from 2020 and a new record for a Republican presidential candidate. “This looks and sounds like a realignment,” wrote analysts at Equis, a research and polling firm focused on Latino voters.
Democrats across the state have been repeating the anti-Trump message relentlessly, from slamming the president for deploying the National Guard to accusing him of sending ice to kidnap innocent people. Newsom gave a live address Tuesday night that he called “democracy at a crossroads.” He accused the president of “indiscriminately targeting hardworking immigrant families, regardless of their roots or risk.” Adding additional drama, Newsom intoned, “Families separated. Friends gone.”
Law enforcement actions are not arbitrary, but there seems to be no time for fact-checking when democracy is at a crossroads. The 2026 midterm elections are coming up fast. In 2024, there were nine congressional seats in California that were won with less than 54% of the vote, and six of them were won with less than 52%.
How important is the Latino vote in California to Democrats’ hopes of winning back the majority in the House of Representatives? Democrats are pandering and fear-mongering as if it matters, even in races that aren’t expected to be close.
For example, last Sunday, Rep. Maxine Seas was in downtown LA in front of a government building and said of the national guard troops protecting her, “They were in our city with guns, and I believe they had orders to shoot to kill.”
He said Trump would go after “people who work every day, people who pay taxes, who raise their families, who support education.”
Education funding is based on attendance. How would immigration enforcement be affected? In one study cited in an analysis for this year’s legislature, the Migration Policy Institute estimated that about 15 percent of the 5.8 million students enrolled in K-12 public schools are undocumented or have at least one undocumented parent. Would there be fewer jobs for members of the Golden State’s powerful Teachers Association?
Will immigration enforcement also mean fewer unionized health care jobs?
California has expanded full-scope medi-cal (Medicaid) insurance to all low-income immigrant adults. More than 1.4 million have signed up.
It costs taxpayers more than $9 billion a year, roughly the same amount as the state’s budget deficit. Some Democrats want to raise taxes rather than cut the benefit.
Riots, lawlessness, higher taxes. Sounds like a mad scientist’s formula for electing a Republican governor.
