After days of rioting and violent upheaval in Los Angeles -- which invited a legitimate federal response to safeguard federal assets and personnel carrying out legitimate and lawful duties -- the city's mayor weighed in on her solution to the crisis she'd utterly failed to properly manage: Give in to the lawless mob's demands. Over the span of 24 short seconds, she demonstrated everything wrong with her so-called leadership, which is rooted in her hardcore left-wing ideology. Rather than standing up to the rioters and warning them of severe consequences for their destructive, criminal behavior, she mimicked the pitiful approach of Gov. Gavin Newsom and national Democrats, who collectively decided the appropriate response is to blame Donald Trump in every single public utterance about the left-wing violence besieging a left-wing city in a left-wing state. Worse, she told the mob that she wanted to give in to the ostensible goal of their agitations:
MAYOR KAREN BASS: "We need to stop the raids."
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) June 10, 2025
"This was chaos that was started by Washington, D.C." pic.twitter.com/OQS11FqZ5z
"We need to stop the raids. This should not be happening in our city. It is not warranted, and the only thing it does is contribute to chaos. This was chaos that was started in Washington, DC. On Thursday, the city was peaceful. On Friday, it was not because of the intervention of the federal government."
All of this is wrong, and terribly irresponsible:
(1) We do not need to stop the raids. Those raids, targeting criminals and other illegal immigrants with final deportation orders lodged against them, should and must continue. Even if one is uncomfortable with the raids, shutting them down would be a direct reward for the throngs of violent rioters who've spent days attacking law enforcement officers, shutting down highways, committing arson, and looting businesses. This is precisely the opposite of the message that must be delivered. If you incentivize lawlessness by rewarding it, you will get more of it. One policy change that actually could help matters, and that would disincentive criminal mayhem, would be ending or suspending "sanctuary" policies. If local and state officials cooperated with the feds, the latter group could be much more efficient in their enforcement actions, which could mitigate the need for broader, higher-risk public raids. Bass refuses to do so, of course, and instead tells the mob that she's with them. Disgraceful.
(2) The raids should be happening in her city. They should be happening in every city where illegal immigrants are convicted of crimes and face standing deportation orders. Illegal immigrants do not have a right to be in the Untied States. Illegal immigrants who commit additional crimes, and who've exhausted their due process, must be actively thrown out of the United States. Failure to do so would render our laws, and due process, meaningless and impotent. That is unacceptable.
(3) The raids are warranted. Among the criminal aliens targeted in the actions that ended up being marred by vigilante left-wing violence against law enforcement were convicted of crimes including sex offenses and murder. Enforcing federal immigration law against such people is more than warranted. It's an indispensable duty.
(4) Enforcement actions do not "only" contribute to chaos. Interference with said legitimate, lawful, vital actions is what causes the chaos. What enforcement does is rid communities of dangerous people with no legal right to be living in them. It also demonstrates that the rule of law matters and is taken seriously by the United States government, even if the governments of Los Angeles and California choose lawlessness.
(5) I'm not sure LA was peaceful last Thursday. But the disruption of relative peace on Friday was entirely the fault of criminal activity and mob violence by people breaking the law in order to impede and prevent the enforcement of law. This cannot stand. To blame the enforcers of law for the violent, criminal attacks of rioters against them is appalling. Yet it's entirely on brand for Karen Bass, the 'leadership' of California, and the national Democratic Party, which insists upon fortifying its reputation as a pro-illegal immigration, anti-law enforcement party. The gaslighting is endless:
This is a tell. If they were actually comfortable with what's happening they wouldn't have to pretend it's something else entirely. https://t.co/1lkd7TOxqf
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) June 10, 2025
Split screen:
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) June 10, 2025
1) Dems and media chanting ‘largely peaceful, mostly peaceful, overwhelmingly peaceful, peaceful, peaceful, peaceful.’
2) Live pictures of violence and mayhem for days on end, with the LAPD chief declaring his force “overwhelmed” by “out of control” mobs. https://t.co/3ISlX0sUYp
Remember, lawlessness hurts everyone except the criminals, very much including people like this:
The rioters, cop attackers, and looters are the villains. Not the federal officers arresting criminal illegal immigrants for deportation. And not the people protecting those officers from violent mobs. https://t.co/7aPPuG7lgS
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) June 10, 2025
Los Angeles business owner on looters:
— Conservative War Machine (@WarMachineRR) June 10, 2025
"This is so ridiculous. This doesn't look like they're protesting for ICE or anything... Just for looting the stores." pic.twitter.com/M9PfLKH9z4
Byron York is correct in this succinct analysis about California Democrats' legally untenable posture:
At the bottom of the riots in California is that city and state officials there want to have their own immigration law. And they can't have their own immigration law. Wasn't that settled by the Arizona case in the Obama years? Arizona said to Obama: You're not enforcing immigration law, so we will. And Obama said: No, you won't. The federal government has the sole power to enforce immigration law, including the power *not* to enforce immigration law. It's not your decision. Case went to Supreme Court. Obama won. So today, the message is, California, you can't have your own immigration law. The sooner city and state officials accept that, the better the situation will be.
I'll leave you with longtime federal prosectuor Andy McCarthy, who has irked Trump fans with many of his legal analyses in recent months, arguing that Trump was well within his legal rights to deploy the national guard in Los Angeles, over the politically-motivated objections of a flailing, incompetent, partisan governor.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member