The LA Riots Are Counterproductive
Violence and vandalism will only hurt the cause
On June 6, according to the ACLU, “federal agents raided multiple L.A. workplaces in the Fashion District, a Westlake Home Depot, and other locales. This comes a day after federal agents detained hundreds of people—including children—in the basement of the Edward Roybal Federal Building in downtown L.A., some overnight without access to food, water, attorneys, or their loved ones.”
In immigrant heavy Los Angeles, this was met with some anger and outrage. The latter part of the ACLU’s statement on detaining people in a basement without access to food or water is inexcusable. The ICE raids against undocumented migrants being illegally employed (at probably sub-minimum wages) I find less problematic but understand many peoples’ revulsion.
The response I find less understandable. What I am assuming began as peaceful protests descended into vandalism, violence and chaos. Protesters gathered around federal buildings, with some engaging in property destruction and graffiti that taxpayers will have to pay to clean up. Also, some appeared to have not-so-nice interactions with cops, which turned into scenes of people setting fire to police vehicles as well as Waymo robot-taxi cars (which I didn’t realize was a thing) resulting in toxic fumes being released into the air. At night, protesters looted Adidas and Apple stores in downtown Los Angeles, making off with iphones and sneakers while leaving behind a great deal of smashed glass on the sidewalks.
Trump’s response, well known by now, was to theatrically call in the National Guard to, well, guard federal buildings. This not only further outraged protesters but caused hysteria among some Democratic politicians, such as California Governor Gavin Newsom who declared in a statewide address that “democracy is under assault.”
Politically speaking, I think this is a bad stand for Democrats to take. But first a words on the protests/riots.
I have participated in many protests on issues such as the war in Iraq, Wall Street greed, various Trump-related things, Black Lives Matter, climate change, Gaza and even pro-immigrant protests. I fully understand that there are always going to be some bad apples among the protest - people in masks who go a bit further than everyone else and try to cause a ruckus. I understand interacting with heavy-handed cops at protests, cops who aren’t afraid to push and shove and make arbitrary arrests for people who weren’t doing anything wrong. I also understand the media and oppositional forces like to focus their attention on those people and make it look like they are representative of the whole movement.
But I also always understood one of the main reasons of a protest is to call attention to a particular issue with the hope of gaining public support. That is why for most of the ones I have been to, it was commonly understood that the bad apples should be shunned or disassociated with the recognition that they could taint the whole movement. And if things did start to go bad, as they sometimes do, thats really when you pull back and make clear that is not what the movement represents.
That does not appear to be happening here. What was an understandable grievance has been wholly tainted by the violence and destruction on the streets of Los Angeles. There is no justification for burning vehicles in these protests, there is no justification for destroying property, smashing windows and robbing stores. That is no longer a protest, its a riot - and that is when anyone who cares about the cause should go home or reconvene somewhere else.
And the violence is not inevitable. I was part of Occupy Boston (an offshoot of Occupy Wall Street) for months, there was no violence there. There were no stores being robbed or police vehicles burning. Nor did we have that at anti-war protests I was at or climate change protests I have been to. It is not a matter of course that marching on the streets must always lead to complete chaos.
Perhaps the most important point for those who care - is that it is extremely counterproductive. In the summer of 2020, the initial racial justice protests were widely popular. Then they descended into rioting and violence, burning and looting. The general public turned from solidarity to disgust. What had been a good cause was lost and arguably did lasting damage to not only the movement as a whole but the position of black Americans.
Unfortunately, people don’t want to hear it. As the Black Lives Matters protests descended into violence in 2020, political data guru David Shor tweeted “Post-MLK-assasination [sic] race riots reduced Democratic vote share in surrounding counties by 2%, which was enough to tip the 1968 election to Nixon. Non-violent protests *increase* Dem vote, mainly by encouraging warm elite discourse and media coverage.”
The upshot here is clear. Violent protests were bad for Democrats - generally seen as the party associated with the cause (the Republicans positioned themselves as the law in order party), non-violent protests helped. After tweeting this, Shor was vilified online, denounced as a racist and fired from his job. The riots continued. While Biden won the 2020 presidential election (at a much smaller margin than he had been polling), Democrats in the House lost 13 seats - a rare if unprecedented occurrence.
Here we are five years later and the cycle repeats. With scenes of burning vehicles and smashed stores airing on television, many Democrats have dug in - tepidly calling for peace while showing their strongest anger for Donald Trump.
One can certainly argue that sending in the National Guard is heavy handed - although I don’t necessarily agree that having them protect federal property is an egregious assault on civil liberties. But the juxtaposition the average American is seeing is the Democrats defending chaos and Trump defending order. They are also seeing affinity protests breaking out in Democratic cities where protesters are blocking traffic - a growing tactic whose logic completely confounds me.
None of this will help immigrants. This will only help solidify support for Donal Trump, enabling him to carry forward on ICE raids with a stronger hand. Democrats who associate themselves with what is happening in LA and declare the real problem is Trump - and that he stoked the violence - are playing a losing hand. It is another bad look for liberal run cities already grappling with astronomical housing causes and a homelessness crisis. Is this the advertisement for Democratic governance? Is this how MAGA is defeated?
My advice for anyone in LA who cares about immigrants - go home for now. Denounce the violence and don’t fight the cops. If you care about the cause you have to do the hard work, building a movement and building public support. That perhaps entails taking a page from the most one of the most successful protest movements in history, the Martin Luther King led civil rights movement. King knew optics were important, that is why he insisted protesters wear their Sunday best when they showed up (you’ll notice the men are usually in suits.) He embraced non-violence because he knew the cameras were always on and video was being beamed all over the country. He also did the hard work, talking with politicians, building ties with like-minded groups, disassociating from fringe elements.
The impact was meaningful and lasting. It is hard to imagine that will be the same for what is happening in LA.