This post contains excerpts of an article originally published by Truthout.
Masked federal agents with military gear have been firing flash-bang grenades, teargas and rubber bullets at civilians in the streets of Los Angeles for the last three days. On Saturday, President Trump federalized the National Guard to help crush protests — not just there but potentially anywhere in the U.S. where people demonstrate against federal law enforcement. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has threatened to send in the Marines.
They have come for immigrants, as they always said they would. Tackling day laborers at Home Depot, but also seizing whoever, wherever. Workers, students, shoppers, tourists, parents, and little children have been abducted from schools, homes, restaurants, construction sites, and courthouses.
We’ve all seen something, so now let’s say something and — more important— do something. Do like the Californians, who are flooding the streets to tell the Trump administration and ICE: Hell no. Get out.
The late Mike Davis, the historian, activist, and keeper of all truths about L.A., was still writing and giving interviews as he was dying. It was during the worst of the pandemic. He worried that fascism was setting in because people on the left had sheltered in place, done what they were told, retreated into Zoom and abandoned the public square.
“It’s one of the Ten Commandments of the left,” he told The Dig podcast in 2020. “Maybe it’s the First Commandment. You never relinquish the streets.”
He was right: Nonviolent public protests are our sword and shield. We need to use them. Davis, who wrote about L.A.’s history from the bottom up, saw its future as well as anyone. The cover of his 1990 book, City of Quartz, shows the Metropolitan Detention Center, ground zero for today’s protests.
Our friends, neighbors, and coworkers are being targeted. Our communities and our country are under siege. It’s time for us to defend them.
If you’re still looking for a sign, here’s another one: June 15 is the 10th anniversary of when the fascist descent began. We’ve been living with the MAGA nightmare for exactly a decade.
On that day in 2015, Trump rode down his golden escalator to announce his bid for President. We all know what he said about crime, drugs, and “rapists” from Mexico. But he prefaced his dehumanizing language more broadly: “The U.S.,” he said, “has become a dumping ground for everybody else’s problems.”
He was being perfectly clear, but many didn’t take it seriously. Soon after in The New York Times, Ross Douthat wrote, “There’s something that’s joyfully ridiculous about his candidacy.” In August, Maureen Dowd welcomed Trump into the race: “Sometimes you need a showman in the show.”
Another Times writer, though, came to a different conclusion after Trump repeated his “dumping ground” line at a rally that month in Dallas:
The problem with this particular clown is that his words are not clownish. The language he uses about immigrants is dehumanizing and vile. The audiences that adore him are animated not just by infatuation, but by the age-old catalysts of fear, resentment and hate. This is what moves the Trump effect into the realm of the frightening, rather than amusing or fascinating.
That was years before “shithole countries.” Before the mass kidnapping of migrant children and the massacre of Latinos at Walmart in El Paso. Before the lies about immigrants eating cats and dogs, the killing of Temporary Protected Status, the massive use of feds and cops in renewed workplace raids. Before the regime started sending busloads and planeloads of migrants into gulags foreign and domestic, and the Supreme Court gave its blessing to wild abuses of power.
Before Justice Sonia Sotomayor had to write, in dissent: “History is no stranger to such lawless regimes, but this Nation’s system of laws is designed to prevent, not enable, their rise.”
The scapegoating of immigrants has always been the pretext and mechanism for authoritarianism. It’s a straight line from criminalizing undocumented people to sending Kilmar Abrego Garcia and hundreds of others to a dungeon in El Salvador.
So now it’s on us, the people.
Mike Davis had it right, as usual: “There’s every reason to stand up for our politics in public space in a prudent way.” He was talking about pandemic masking and social distancing, but his caution also applies to other timeless rules about dissent: Protect yourselves and others. Don’t put vulnerable people in harm’s way. If your immigration status puts you at high risk of deportation, consider staying home with your kids.
Don’t escalate confrontation. Never provoke or give in to violence. Sideline those who get too giddy and aggressive when exercising their speech rights. Do no harm.
If you have a position of security and privilege, then use it. My city, L.A., reeks with privilege. Hollywood and the music business have powerful platforms. They need to step up. If you have time to read an op-ed, then you have time to go to Home Depot.
As Mike Davis said: “I intend to make a placard — and I, by the way, am in the absolute highest risk group. I have a suppressed immune system, cancer, respiratory problems, etc., etc. But I see no personal risk whatsoever in standing on a street corner with a sign that demands paid sick leave or just says, solidarity with the nurses’ union, whatever.”
“I’m opposing house arrest,” Davis added. “I’m opposing the fear that leads people to just want to sit this out and watch HBO or something.”
Mike Davis is gone. But you and I aren’t. All of us are lucky to still be alive in these times. We’ve been given the opportunity to live out our ideals, to fight for our values, to be the community and the people we always said we were.
There are Home Depots all over the country. There are many other appropriate places to protest. Army tanks will soon be parading in the Capital. Go there if you can, and say no. Our friends, neighbors, and coworkers are being targeted. Our communities and our country are under siege. It’s time for us to defend them.
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