Although the world has moved on to more exiting news, the reality is that the Trump regime is still occupying the city of Los Angeles, and while the soldiers the regime sent to do so are not involved in widespread civil rights abuses right now, they are acting to effectively intimidate opposition to both federal Gestapo forces and local police departments who most certainly *are* engaging in widespread civil rights abuses. If you have read anything I've written about the fascist Invasion of LA, you know that I believe the architect of this entire shitshow is Trump's unofficial nazi viceroy, Stephen Miller, and as such the vast majority of the blame for this terrible situation resides with him and the larger Trumpenreich. The "vast majority" however, is not "all of the blame" and as I've written many times, in many contexts, one of the major reasons the Swine Emperor's plot to transform America into an outright fascist dictatorship has been so successful to this point, is that as president he inherited a pre-existing American police state already molded by authoritarianism, US white supremacy, and the embrace of fascist ideology.

It may not be popular to point out now, but the reality is Trump's deployment of a combined military and militarized law enforcement brute squad to crush protests is not a novel invention, even in a modern, deeply "blue" California. As the author of this piece notes from personal experience, a mere five years ago Gavin Newsom himself send 8,000 National Guardsmen into California communities, primarily in and around Los Angeles, to horrifically suppress the 2020 protests against racialized police violence in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. Furthermore, the pro-murderpig, pro-government media coverage of the protests in LA Trump claims are his casus belle for invading an American city, also mirrors the coverage of those 2020 protests nationwide, not just in Los Angeles.

https://truthout.org/articles/years-of-lapd-impunity-paved-way-for-trumps-repression-of-protests-today/

Years of LAPD Impunity Paved Way for Trump’s Repression of Protests Today

"In the years since, the city has paid out nearly $12 million in legal settlements and jury awards stemming from well-documented LAPD abuses at that summer’s protests. An independent report commissioned by the Los Angeles City Council, released in 2021, found that the LAPD had acted chaotically and belligerently — illegally detaining protesters, deploying force on innocent people, and escalating confrontations with nonviolent protesters.

Five years later, the LAPD’s multibillion-dollar budget has only grown, even as the department overspends on police liability payouts. This context is crucial for understanding the events that erupted in Los Angeles last week amid a wave of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids. In response to the Trump administration’s violent deportation regime, a coalition of community members, of all ages and backgrounds, have gathered in solidarity with their undocumented neighbors. Most of the demonstrations have been concentrated in just a few blocks downtown, a tiny portion of the sprawling city. “Moms, kids, families, it was truly beautiful to see,” said one friend who attended a protest on June 8. “Even when it got violent from the cops — I got hit with a flashbang that cut my arm — there were volunteer field medics and teens handing out water bottles.”

This reality on the ground is a far cry from the picture painted by President Donald Trump and mainstream media, who have attempted to equate scattered scenes of property destruction with widespread, state-inflicted violence against human beings. I remember this same gulf during the 2020 protests, between lived experience and media spectacle. And time and time again, what a large body of research has shown is that the presence of militarized police and the National Guard at protests is often the real instigator of violence, not its pacifier."

Look, I'm not psychic and I can't speak to the author's intentions with this piece; liberals are probably going to see this as a gotcha targeting Gavin Newsom, remember how much I hate Newsom personally, and assume the worst. The reality however is that this problem is a lot bigger than Gavin Newsom, Los Angeles, or my disdain for the neoliberal, cop-humper wing of the Democratic Party. We are effectively in the early stages of a very kinetic version of the American culture war, and you don't win wars without understanding the nature of the conflict. Folks who are actively opposing the fascist regime have to understand that when we take to the streets, it's not going to be "red versus blue" at a law enforcement level and we cannot rely on support from opposition political leaders who built and immunized the police state for precisely the same purpose Trump is using it for now; crushing opposition and suppressing constitutionally-protected protest against the machine.

#Fascism #Trump #InvasionOfLA #StephenMiller #GavinNewsom #PoliceState #2020Protests #Gestapo #CivilRigths #USPol