To the editor: President Trump’s govt order sending the Nationwide Guard and the Marines into L.A. amounted to a not-so-subtle provocation of the state of affairs, and presumably an unconstitutional one as properly (“Downtown L.A. hit by widespread vandalism, harm as metropolis struggles to calm unrest,” June 9). In case you watched nearly any supply of visible information media protection of the protests in opposition to Immigration and Customs Enforcement occurring in Los Angeles, you may need been satisfied that the town was in violent turmoil. It was not. What viewers noticed had been solely essentially the most dramatic examples of occasions that transpired over the previous few days, endlessly repeated photos of a handful of the identical burning automobiles, flash-bang explosions and different such photos chosen, I’m positive, purely for his or her visible impact.
To place this in perspective, L.A. County’s inhabitants has greater than 9 million residents. That’s higher than that of 40 particular person U.S. states and contains 88 included cities and lots of unincorporated areas inside a complete space of 4,084 sq. miles. By that measure, what transpired was small, concentrated primarily inside a number of blocks surrounding the town of Los Angeles’ civic middle and a principally peaceable mass gathering by protesters, a lot of whom had been admittedly very indignant on the deliberately provocative ways of the often-masked and brutal ICE operatives. Ultimately, it was all competently dealt with by the Los Angeles Police Division and sheriff’s deputies.
John Trask, Thousand Oaks
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To the editor: It’s clearly not attainable for these of us dwelling midway throughout the nation to totally perceive what folks in Los Angeles are experiencing. However relaxation assured, we share your fears due to what all of this implies for our nation. Donald Trump gained the 2024 well-liked vote by the slimmest of margins, but claimed a mandate from the American folks. And he has used that mandate assertion to make our nation, and the entire world, a extra harmful place. His slim election victory didn’t, in actual fact, entitle him to terrorize and deport (with out due course of) individuals who have a proper to be right here, to interrupt all latest precedent by deploying the Nationwide Guard with out the consent of the governor or, most frighteningly, to truly ship the U.S. Marines to quell a civil disturbance he has brought on and possibly hoped for. Like with so a lot of his actions, Trump is making an attempt to fireplace up his base whereas dividing our nation. California has develop into his scapegoat for all issues MAGA.
Trump’s imaginative and prescient of America runs opposite to every thing our nation stands for. Until we do one thing, like Los Angeles’ peaceable protesting, his imaginative and prescient is what our nation will develop into. Please know, L.A., we stand with you.
Stephen F. Gladstone, Cleveland
