What Was Los Angeles Supposed To Do?

'Follow the law,' says the law-breakers.

As you’ve likely heard, ICE conducted sweeping raids across Los Angeles over the weekend, drawing crowds of protestors into the streets.¹ In a predictable escalation, the cops (either ICE or LAPD, it’s still unclear) threw stun grenades and tear gas into the crowds. Clashes ensued. Burning cop cars and Mexican flags have led the news cycle over the past few days. Inevitably, a chorus of political pundits has condemned the Angelenos for ‘rioting,’ imploring them to resolve their political grievances ‘the right way’ — participate in elections, petition local, state, and federal governments, and hire a lawyer to prepare for their day in court.

While many of these critics are bad-faith actors who like deportations and enjoy chastising minority communities, this sentiment is not limited to the right. Many people who detest Trump and despise ICE have also encouraged Angelenos to stop protesting, end the property damage, and pursue more acceptable forms of anti-ICE action. Below is one such voice. Derek Guy, a men’s wear pundit turned political commentator, sympathizes with the plight of Latino communities but encourages their responses to remain ‘peaceful.’ He suggests that those frustrated with the government’s fascism fight it through volunteering, donating, and pursuing a career in immigration law.

I don’t doubt Derek wants what’s best for immigrants. In another post, he shared that he immigrated illegally from Canada, which drew the attention of Vice President Vance.² However, what Derek and the others denouncing the protests misunderstand is that the legal channels they want Angelenos to use no longer exist.

In a perfect world, I would agree with Derek. If there are agreed-upon ways to solve a social question, they should be used. In a free and equal society, elections, petitions, lawsuits, and other procedural acts are appropriate to resolve differences and preserve tranquility. However, the United States is not a democratic country. To the contrary, it is undemocratic in both structure and practice. The Constitution was written to empower the land-holding aristocracy over the peasantry. It was so authoritarian that we still haven’t shed its repressive structure almost two-and-a-half centuries later. While social struggle improved America’s systems and procedures by expanding civil liberties to women, minorities, and other marginalized groups, no honest actor can look at the United States in 2025 and claim it is governed by equal treatment and the rule of law.

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I’m not encouraging throwing bricks through windows or any other destructive activity. What I’m saying is that those condemning the protests are misplaced. Not that you should, but if you take every claim the police make about looting, lawlessness, property damage, and brawling at face value, then the anti-ICE protestors have not come close to the level of law-breaking committed by the American government. For nearly six months, the Trump Administration has shredded every civil liberty we can think of. Masked government agents snatch community members off the streets and disappear them into the penal system without due process. If they’re lucky, they end up in Louisiana before a Trump-worshipping judge. If they’re unlucky, they’re renditioned to El Salvador. International imprisonment, which was one of the Founders’ grievances against King George in the Declaration of Independence,³ strips people of their rights by removing them from the country, where they can neither access their constitutional protections nor adequate legal representation. The current administration has made it explicitly clear that due process isn’t guaranteed, and not just for undocumented immigrants. ICE has captured, detained, and tortured green card holders, legal residents, visa holders, and even American citizens.⁴ One traveller was detained for two months without cause, subjected to ice baths, isolation, and other criminal treatment.⁵ In Oklahoma, ICE agents stole laptops, phones, and cash from a citizen family, then forced the underage daughters to change in front of them.⁶ Perhaps more troubling, ICE has begun trapping suspects by detaining their kids, lying to school administrators, and waiting outside immigration courts.⁷

Those resisting ICE oppression aren’t the ones who broke the social contract. The American government did so by eliminating the avenues for peaceful resolution. As they have done throughout human history, when the people are given no means to assuage their concerns, they rise up.

Masked ICE agents outside an immigration courtroom.

To make things worse, it’s not like there’s a strong oppositional party coming to save Angelenos or any other persecuted group. Back in March, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said it would be a red line ‘if Trump defied the Supreme Court.’ Less than a month later, Trump ignored the court order to facilitate Kilmar Abreggo Garcia’s release from the Salvadorian CECOT prison. Schumer shrugged and went on a book tour.⁸ Some Democratic politicians responded courageously, going to El Salvador and campaigning for their constituents’ release. But they were quickly chastised by the dominant centrist bloc of the Democratic Party, telling them to forget about the ‘distractions.’

Democratic consultant and pundit Matt Yglesias criticized Democrats for going to El Salvador during his WelcomeFest presentation.

Communities like the ones currently protesting in Los Angeles have been put in an impossible situation. They’re being terrorized daily, and the typical recourse — hearings, due process, trial by a jury of their peers, etc. — have been deliberately closed off by a fascist government. How can we tell them to get off the streets and study immigration law when the government is actively disregarding the law? What good is a law degree against a masked government thug who doesn’t consider you a human, never mind a lawyer? The legal recourse that Derek Guy and others insist Angelenos pursue is no longer available. And to be clear, I don’t fault them for encouraging these outlets. I dream of a day when no human needs to employ force to have their concerns addressed. But today is not that day, and we must recognize that reality, no matter how painful it may be.

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As Martin Luther King Jr. said, riots are the voice of the unheard. That’s what we’re witnessing in Southern California. Dehumanized, over-policed, and pushed to the brink, some Angelenos fostered unrest. A small minority destroyed property, but it’s nothing compared to the cataclysmic violence imposed on them by armed state agents. It’s easy to dehumanize these actors as short-sighted and violent, but what did we expect Los Angeles to do? Let the government thugs run amok, stealing their sons and fathers? Sending them to a foreign country without a trial, never to be seen again? The detainments are unlawful, and the imprisonments are a violation of every civil liberty Americans are told they have. As there is no productive channel for the masses to address their ruler, some people did what humans have been doing for centuries: they fought back. It is regrettable that some destroyed property. I, like most other people, seek peace. But peace is not the absence of violence. It is the presence of justice. There was no justice in Los Angeles before the protests, so there was no peace. And there is no peace in any city, town, or community in which the government can kidnap you on a whim, strip you of your rights, and bury you in a cold, dark cell.

If we want to prevent situations like the one we’re witnessing in L.A., then we must stand with the afflicted and organize to solve their concerns, not chastise them for not being forced into an unbearable situation.

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In Solidarity — Joe

1. https://www.npr.org/2025/06/09/nx-s1-5427215/what-to-know-los-angeles-protests-ice-trump

2. https://www.axios.com/2025/06/09/vance-post-suggests-deporting-the-menswear-guy

3. https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript

4. https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/i-cant-fight-back-im-pregnant-us-citizen-detained-by-ice-in-hawthorne/3719581/

5. https://www.wgbh.org/news/local/2025-05-09/ice-releases-fabian-schmidt-n-h-green-card-holder-in-detention-for-2-months

6. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/us-citizen-family-traumatized-ice-raid-rcna203700

7. https://abcnews.go.com/US/new-tactic-ice-arresting-migrants-immigration-courts-attorneys/story?id=122513021

8. https://newrepublic.com/article/194017/chuck-schumer-trump-defied-supreme-court-red-line