LOS ANGELES ON FIRE

Los Angeles was on fire!  Not the wildfire devastation of early 2025 wherein properties in Altadena and Pacific Palisades were incinerated.  No, this was a smoldering fire which finally found the tinder it lacked to explode into violence and mayhem.  We could all see it coming.

Donald Trump had run for president on the promise of not only ferreting out 12 to 20 million migrants who had entered the country illegaly during the Biden Administration but deporting the ‘worst of the worst’—illegal migrants with criminal records.  He would turn to Tom Homan, an experienced and tough, no-nonsense Border Czar and ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) to get the job done.

A DIFFICULT NUT TO CRACK

But LA would prove a difficult nut to crack. Supported by other federal law enforcement agencies, ICE had had major successes in other parts of the country, arresting significant numbers of illegal migrants with criminal records. But as the operations intensified and were captured every night in the media, “the Feds” found themselves being portrayed in a negative light. 

ICE raids were now seen by the opposition party as “tearing families apart.” ICE detractors would have you believe Innocent migrants were being “seized at churches and schools never to be seen again.”   ICE was taking a beating in the propaganda wars.

SPOILING FOR A FIGHT

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and California Governor Gavin Newsom, together with an underground network of activist NGOs, were spoiling for a fight. Bass and Newsom were the same political protagonists in the recent Los Angeles conflagrations which killed thirty Angelenos and destroyed more than 18,000 homes. Bass, a far left Democrat, quickly turned the showdown into one pitting Trump’s feared ‘Nazi storm troopers’ against poor immigrants who were quaking in the shadows.  There would be no middle ground, no discourse between the factions as the city of Los Angeles braced itself against the federal government. 

BLACK HAWK DOWN

On the morning of June 6, 2025, an immigration raid in the Fashion District of Los Angeles triggered protests in several parts of the city which were soon hijacked by violent activists torching police cars, lighting fires and hurling chunks of broken concrete at officers and their vehicles. In a scene reminiscent of the movie “Black Hawk Down,” rioters raced after law enforcement vehicles hurling rocks and other potentially deadly objects at the besieged convoy.  The overwhelmed Los Angeles Police Department bore the brunt of the violence until they were relieved by National Guard troops and US Marines.  Mayor Bass and Governor Newsom railed bitterly against ICE and President Trump calling the raids ‘provocative.’  Yet for three days, Bass and Newsom were unable to control the “rapidly escalating disorder” in their own city.

GLASS HOUSE FARMS

Yet the saga was far from over. Having received credible child labor violations, ICE raided a sprawling marijuana farm complex called Glass House Farms in nearby Ventura County.  

I spoke to a protestor who claimed she was on scene for three days.  Holding a Mexican flag in one hand and an American flag in the other, she claimed to have been pepper sprayed during the raid. 

“ICE was very rough…the National Guard less so, but yes there were people throwing rocks at the agents, at the government vehicles.  Even worse, a man showed up on the first day and fired off some shots at ICE agents and fled.  Nobody knows who this person is or where he came from.”

THE BEST AND WORST OF MANKIND

She sighed, “In 72 hours I witnessed the best and the worst of mankind.” 

According to the woman, an employee of the farm had fallen to his death during the commotion and a number of juvenile migrant workers (minors) had been rescued by government agents.  There were also many ^[1]arrests.  She called the response from the ‘rich’ owners of the farm “disappointing”—they had only issued a short statement saying they were cooperating with ICE.

“To be honest with you,” she continued, “I support our military, I support law enforcement…but this was completely crazy. I’m really confused.”

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^[1] 361 people were arrested; 11 juvenile migrants were discovered and transported to an ICE facility