Police started the violence in Los Angeles

Another battle in the wars against ourselves. "We're the hottest country in the world right now."

Just after local police decided to clear protesters from the street in front of the federal building. - Justin Glawe/American Doom.

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Now, onto the news…

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It was probably inevitable, but when it comes to the first shot that was fired in what became the Battle of LA yesterday, it was the cops who did the shooting.

The LAPD and others are making some noise about protesters launching rocks and other projectiles, but from my (admittedly limited vantage point), I didn’t see that. I also did not hear police give orders to disperse or declare the gathering unlawful. It’s possible that the permit for yesterday’s No Kings march — which local press had billed as taking place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. — was up at the 2 p.m. mark, but again, there were no clear commands for the thousands of people to leave.

Things were peaceful but tense as protesters marched on City Hall and the federal building, and the first few hours of the planned protest came and went. At the federal building, protesters confronted Marines, members of the California National Guard, and officers with various DHS sub-agencies into the early afternoon. Things were most certainly tense, but both sides kept their cool. (Side note: why are the Marines still here? If it’s illegal for Trump to federalize the National Guard, what is the legal rationale for having the Marines here? Someone should sue if they already aren’t.)

In front of the federal building yesterday. - Justin Glawe/American Doom.

After a few hours in front of the federal building, I walked toward the 101. That’s when things got hairy. There, around 4 p.m., the LAPD, the LA County Sheriff’s Office and the California Highway Patrol began marching on protesters, pushing them south on Los Angeles Street.

First, they did so with horses. Then, with tear gas, foam projectiles and stun grenades. These efforts spread the crowds in myriad directions, prompting the clashes to go on for hours across downtown. Here’s a video I put together of clips from my phone. This is unedited other than my work combining them into one movie. You be the judge about what you’re seeing.

You can see protesters nose-to-nose with the military at the beginning of this clip. Then the cops on horseback. After that, it was block-by-block, and the skirmishes went on into the evening.

On the way here I had the thought that Gov. Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass could really put it to Trump by telling their cops to back off — daring Trump and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to do something that would most certainly be an illegal use of military personnel on American citizens. Maybe Newsom and/or Bass didn’t actually tell Los Angeles police to clear the crowds and that was up to law enforcement themselves — I don’t know. It doesn’t really matter; the result is the same: Trump and the American right get to continue their narrative of “violent left-wing protests,” even if it was actually the police who were the aggressors in this battle. When I got back to my hotel last night, Fox News anchors were discussing the apparent violence of protesters in LA with a correspondent on the ground who was behind police lines and who I had not seen until she and her security team rolled up after 6 p.m.

I don’t have the energy to look up the right-wing coverage of yesterday’s battle but can pretty easily imagine what it looks like. Whether you believe yesterday was the fault of the police or, alternatively, the fault of violent protesters, I can’t help but be disheartened by the fact that all this turmoil and division is mostly because of the selfishness, ignorance and hate of a single man.

The president declared America “the hottest country in the world right now,” as if we’re a Hollywood starlet just breaking through in her career. Things are most certainly hot. Now, summer is here.

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