The article discusses the violent riots in Los Angeles ignited by federal immigration raids, with Democratic leaders condemning the raids but remaining largely silent on the ensuing chaos. The piece critiques the left’s response, suggesting their focus on the raids rather than the riots indicates a failure to address disorder.
The article highlights the criticism from Democratic leaders, including Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and California Governor Gavin Newsom, who denounced the raids but remained silent on the subsequent violence. Progressives also condemned the raids, with the ACLU calling the enforcement plan an ‘oppressive and vile paramilitary operation,’ while the National Day Laborer Organizing Network referred to the arrests as kidnappings.
The protests quickly devolved into riots, with scenes reminiscent of the violent unrest of summer 2020. Social media feeds were filled with images of looting, crowds surrounding burning vehicles, rocks thrown at law-enforcement cars, American flags set ablaze, and the 101 freeway shut down. The violence should have drawn swift and widespread condemnation from both left and right.
Despite this, prominent Democrats have largely remained silent on the mayhem, reserving their outrage for President Donald Trump’s decision to deploy the National Guard to restore order. This move sparked another round of denunciations, suggesting that some critics are more concerned with political implications than the actual violence.
Even some of the president’s critics who have called for an end to the violence seem motivated by concerns that such unrest could bolster support for immigration enforcement or damage Democrats politically. The article suggests that the Left’s response to the riots reinforces a connection many Americans have already made between progressive causes and the violence too often carried out in their name.
The article notes that the chaos in L.A. follows the deadly and destructive riots that swept cities across the nation in 2020, as well as the more recent demonstrations sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel. Since that date, pro-Palestinian activists have harassed Jewish students on college and university campuses; shut down streets and transit hubs; set the Jewish governor of Pennsylvania’s house on fire; shot and killed two Israeli embassy employees outside the Jewish Museum in D.C.; and hit elderly Jews peacefully marching in support of Israel with Molotov cocktails in Colorado.
Democrats face a real political problem. It’s not hard to see how this most recent episode of ‘fiery, but mostly peaceful’ protests could boost support for the president’s immigration enforcement campaign— especially given that many of those wreaking havoc in L.A. are waving the Mexican flag or burning the flag of the country in which they demand illegal immigrants be allowed to stay.
Consider the contrast: on one side, an administration following through on the president’s promise to strengthen immigration enforcement, in part to make cities safer; on the other, rioters waving foreign flags and setting streets ablaze. It’s hard to imagine a more unsympathetic image for the president’s critics.
If the Left wants to shed its reputation for siding with arsonists who block city streets, seize campus quads, and attack police, its leaders could start by condemning the lawlessness in Los Angeles and pledging to work with the president to restore order. Their refusal to do so lies at the heart of Donald Trump’s political strength—and remains a vivid sign of a lesson still unlearned.