To the editor: President Trump’s government order sending the Nationwide Guard and the Marines into L.A. amounted to a not-so-subtle provocation of the scenario, and possibly an unconstitutional one as nicely (“Downtown L.A. hit by widespread vandalism, damage as city struggles to calm unrest,” June 9). In the event you watched virtually any supply of visible information media protection of the protests in opposition to Immigration and Customs Enforcement occurring in Los Angeles, you might need been satisfied that town was in violent turmoil. It was not. What viewers noticed have been solely essentially the most dramatic examples of occasions that transpired over the previous few days, endlessly repeated photographs of a handful of the identical burning automobiles, flash-bang explosions and different such photographs chosen, I’m certain, 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 individual U.S. states and includes 88 incorporated cities and lots of unincorporated areas inside a complete space of 4,084 square miles. By that measure, what transpired was small, concentrated primarily inside a couple of blocks surrounding town of Los Angeles’ civic middle and a largely peaceable mass gathering by protesters, a lot of whom have been admittedly very offended on the deliberately provocative ways of the often-masked and brutal ICE operatives. In the long run, 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 doable for these of us residing midway throughout the nation to completely 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 received the 2024 fashionable 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 slender election victory didn’t, in truth, 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 prompted and doubtless hoped for. Like with so a lot of his actions, Trump is trying to fireside up his base whereas dividing our nation. California has change into his scapegoat for all issues MAGA.
Trump’s imaginative and prescient of America runs opposite to all the pieces our nation stands for. Until we do one thing, like Los Angeles’ peaceable protesting, his imaginative and prescient is what our nation will change into. Please know, L.A., we stand with you.
Stephen F. Gladstone, Cleveland
