Our Nation Faces a Grim Reckoning

Jun 11, 2025

Reports from Los Angeles grew more dispiriting by the hour throughout the weekend and into Monday, so I begin by noting that many protesters are peaceful. Protests are confined to a few blocks in downtown LA. In the rest of the city people go about their lives as normal (Nawaz, Biggs, Troops deployed).

The protests were marred by blockheads who threw bricks and stones at ICE agents and police officers, insulted them with harsh language that offended tender sensibilities, and set cars on fire. None of this should be denied or downplayed. Nor should the whirlpool of hyperbole, misinformation, and lies spewed by Trump and regime mouthpieces. Protesters are not bad people, animals, and paid insurrectionists. The city is not on fire.

Violence directed at people and things is wrong, stupid, and precisely what the made-for-TV show of force by ICE was intended to provoke. Trump was standing by ready to use it as a pretext to federalize the National Guard and send in four thousand troops over the objection of the state’s governor. He then upped the ante with mobilization of more than seven hundred Marines trained for lethality. The projected price tag for the troop deployment is $134 million.

James McPherson, who served as the Navy’s top lawyer in uniform during a twenty-five year career and was undersecretary of the Army during the first Trump administration, thinks calling out the National Guard was an unnecessary initial escalation and fears it is a prelude to invocation of the Insurrection Act (Bennett, Retired military leaders). David Frum at The Atlantic and others see rehearsal for elections next year and in 2028 (For Trump).

Multiple videos show ICE agents outfitted for trouble and eager for confrontation initiating contact with protesters. Flash bang grenades, pepper spray, and tear gas were fired into the crowds by masked federal operatives and LAPD officers in riot gear. Video published by AP and BBC News shows a “law enforcement” officer taking deliberate aim to fire a “nonlethal” round that hit Australian journalist Lauren Tomasi in the leg as she reported that police officers on horseback were firing rubber bullets at protesters and “moving them on through the heart of LA.” Tomasi was in the street some distance from any crowd which the officer could have found threatening (Smith, Australian reporter hit). Other reporters were also struck by nonlethal rounds. Some were detained, escorted from the area, and threatened with arrest should they return (Betts, ‘Unacceptable’).

ICE was not in Los Angeles to go after violent criminals, gangs, or drug cartels. Raids carried out in heavily Latino sections of the city targeted a Home Depot, centers where day laborers gather for work, and a clothing store in the fashion district. “ICE told CBS that 44 unauthorized immigrants were arrested in a single operation at a job site on Friday, with another 77 taken in in the greater Los Angeles area” (McGarvey, et al., LA’s chaotic weekend). They are being held incommunicado without access to families or legal representation. Compassion, decency, and a sense of shared humanity we like to think represent the best of our country are collateral damage in the whipped-up hysteria over a spurious immigrant invasion.

It would be nice to see analysis of the cost of the detention/deportation approach compared to one providing a path to legal status for people without papers who are law-abiding members of their communities working to support their families and for young people brought here as children by undocumented parents. A path to legal status might be more than just the right thing to do.

Peaceful, nonviolent protest is a vital element of resistance against the lawless regime. Trump wins and our constitutional republic loses if we allow his shows of force to intimidate and silence us, just as he wins and our country loses when major law firms and news organizations capitulate to his demands. Those of us committed to nonviolent resistance need to find ways to reckon with the few blockheads it takes to discredit an otherwise peaceful demonstration. Images of violent clashes, no matter who provokes them, fires, and idiots posing atop burned-out cars lead some people to give Trump benefit of the doubt he does not deserve when in the name of law and order he calls on troops and masked federal agents to break heads or shoot demonstrators in the legs (a notion posed during his first term shot down, so to speak, by cooler heads he made sure will not be in the room this time around).

Protests do not have to fall into violence and conflict. That is more apt to occur at protests that arise spontaneously in response to an event such as the murder of George Floyd or the ICE raids in LA than at those organized by groups committed to nonviolence such as 50501 and Indivisible. The 50501 website’s home page states that it is a peaceful movement and “Violence of any kind will not be tolerated.” Indivisible Oregon advises participants to always vet a rally carefully before attending and follow safe and nonviolent practices. The group is upfront with the message that it expects “all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.” I note here that I have taken part in a number of peaceful protests and marches during the Trump era, including some at an ICE facility on Portland’s South Waterfront organized by Indivisible Oregon, with which I am loosely affiliated.

The MAGA Republican charge that Democrats support violence is demonstrably false. Democratic leaders have not always denounced protester violence as forcefully as I believe they should, but that is a far cry from advocating violence. Gavin Newsom and Karen Bass issued a public call for protesters to speak out peacefully and stated unequivocally that criminal behavior will not be tolerated. Their words were backed up last night when LA police arrested people who violated the downtown curfew announced by Bass.

Protests to counter Trump’s $45 million military parade on June 14 are on tap across the nation (Rubin, What to know). Trump has “vowed that protests responding to his multimillion dollar military parade in D.C. will be met with ‘very big force’” (Lotz, Trump pledges). In fact, no demonstration is planned for Washington. Indivisible co-director Leigh Greenberg explained,

We want to create contrast, not conflict. The choice to hold No Kings events in every city but D.C. is a deliberate choice to keep the focus on contrast, and not give the Trump administration an opportunity to stoke and then put the focus on conflict. (Rubin)

The No Kings Mass Protest in Portland will take place at Salmon Street Springs on the Waterfront Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. I intend to show up with my camera, wary and watchful, to be sure, but resolute. If you feel comfortable participating in a protest and are able to do so, please do. If you are fearful, and there is reason to be fearful, remember there are other ways to show up. We can speak out about what is being done to our country in whatever ways are open to us. We can share our concerns with our elected representatives and support those who stand with us. Our nation faces a grim reckoning. We must be in this for the long haul.

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Keep the faith.
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