ICE Marched Through LA’s MacArthur Park to Shamelessly Show off Its Power

(Obvious Musical Accompaniment to This Post)

Karen Bass, the mayor of Occupied Los Angeles, showed how it is done on Monday. The ICE goons showed up in full battle-rattle with mechanized war machines, some of them even on horseback, seeking to sweep through MacArthur Park. They were met by local activists who, armed only with bullhorns, had cleared the park in advance of the ICE-capades and who then turned their attention to the folks in the battle-rattle. Soon, Mayor Bass showed up and confronted the power that has been unleashed in her city. From CBS News:

At around 11:05 a.m., Mayor Karen Bass exited a vehicle and approached CBP officers in an unannounced visit. At one point, a CBP officer handed Bass a cell phone. “Frankly, it is outrageous and un-American that we have federal armed vehicles in our parks when nothing is going on in the parks,” she said. Bass said that when federal agents arrived, a children’s summer camp was taking place at the park. “I went and I spoke to an eight-year-old [who told] me that he was afraid of ICE taking his parents, and he didn’t think it was good to take people away,” Bass said, while slamming the podium with her fist. The Department of Homeland Security declined to comment on the operation. Authorities did not report any arrests.

The goon squads beat an embarrassing retreat during which they were treated with chants of “Get the fck out!” and the occasional fruit salad projectile. Fox News pronounced itself appalled, as did Tom Homan, the head goon who is going to be the first defendant to appear before the eventual Truth and Reconciliation Commission, an idea which I hope someone considers this time around. We need one more than ever.

The whole goddamn thing was a public performance piece, complete with a Fox News “embed,” that was stymied by people who were better at street action than they were, and by a mayor who backed those people up. Which is the only way any of this turns around.