Has Trump overblown the threat of protests? Residents, local officials say yes.

USA Today

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Has Trump overblown the threat of protests? Residents, local officials say yes. President Trump has deployed thousands of troops to the nation's second-largest city. Are they really necessary?
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Los Angeles residents take pride in their city amid ICE protests
USA TODAY spoke with Los Angeles residents about recent ICE raids and protests.
LOS ANGELES ‒ President Donald Trump's deployment of thousands of troops to the nation's second-largest city has unleashed indignation and anger among residents and local officials who say the threat of immigration protests has been dramatically overblown by the White House.
"The implication is that Donald Trump is waging a war on us personally," said protester Charlie Knowlton, 30.
Immigration agents carrying out Trump's goal of deporting 1 million undocumented immigrants annually sparked a series of sometimes-violent protests in the greater Los Angeles area. A small mob set multiple vehicles and a palm tree on fire, threw rocks and fireworks at police in downtown Los Angeles on June 7 and June 8 as thousands of non-violent protesters watched and occasionally cheered.
Trump has dispatched 4,000 members of the National Guard and 700 Marines to Los Angeles, arguing that local law enforcement is overwhelmed. Few of those troops are actually on the streets, however.
"If I didn't 'send in the troops' to Los Angeles the last three nights, that once beautiful and great city would be burning to the ground right now …" Trump said in a June 10 post on his social media site Truth Social.
The Los Angeles Police Department alone has about 9,000 officers to serve the city of nearly 4 million people sprawling across a land area that's one-third the size of Rhode Island. The larger Los Angeles metro area has more than 18 million residents and covers an area nearly the size of Maine.
Local authorities say they have detained about 150 people in connection to the unrest that left small areas of the 5.8-square mile downtown marred with pervasive graffiti and a few broken windows. No serious injuries have been reported.
The nightly protests are still being handled primarily by the Los Angeles Police Department and other local law enforcement officers.
The graffiti criticizes Trump and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, and more broadly raises concerns that the country is careening toward a fascist state.
Some of California's leaders have accused Trump of using the protests as a pretext to strengthen federal control, especially in a state whose leadership he has long battled.
Invoking the memory of Jan. 6
On June 10, Knowlton joined thousands of protesters as they marched around downtown, chanting slogans and criticizing Trump and his immigration-enforcement plans.
Some waved the national flags of Mexico or El Salvador, while others carried upside-down American flags, a traditional distress symbol previously used by right-wing groups during the Biden administration.
"We all know this is a power grab," Knowlton said before taking a selfie in front of a line of LAPD officers in riot gear. "What I want right now is for the city police to grow a spine and stand up to the feds."
Knowlton, a professional musician wearing a sarape adorned with an eagle, carried a sign aimed squarely at Trump: "Marines!! Where were U Jan 6?"
Like many protesters, Knowlton said he found it infuriating that Trump refused to call out the National Guard during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol, and then pardoned the people who violently breached the building and attacked Capitol police officers.
"It's funny that you can send the Marines in for some fireworks but you can kill a police officer in D.C. and get a pardon," Knowlton said.
An 'experiment' to displace local control?
While some people set off large fireworks that echoed around buildings and a few threw water bottles, most of the protesters remained peaceful, although they were occasionally redirected by local police with pepper-ball guns when they got too close to protected buildings like the police headquarters.
Many federal buildings in the area, including courthouses and office buildings, were unprotected and targeted with graffiti.
On June 11, Mayor Karen Bass said she believes her city is "an experiment" for White House officials in learning how to displace local control.
Trump called up the National Guard over the objections of Gov. Gavin Newsom, who promptly sued to stop him, calling it "an unmistakable step toward authoritarianism." In turn, Trump suggested that Newsom could be arrested.
"I feel like we've all been in Los Angles a part of a grand experiment to see what happens when the federal government decides they want to roll up on a state or roll up on a city and take over," Bass said. "It's a sense of intimidation and fear that is just so unnecessary and so corrosive to our city."
A city of immigrants
Across the city, community members worry that the Marines and National Guard will dangerously escalate any violence that does occur. Trump has promised that anyone who assaults a federal officer or member of the military will face swift punishment.
One-third of Los Angeles County residents were born in another country and nearly one in 10 lack documentation to remain legally. But many of those undocumented parents have children who were born American citizens, making Trump's aggressive immigration enforcement unwelcome in this city of immigrants.
Retired teacher Jose "Bear" Gallegos, 61, who attended protests in the city of Paramount on June 7, said he was angry that California National Guard troops had been called up by Trump over Newsom's objections.
Carrying rifles, the guard members spent Monday and Tuesday controlling access to the Paramount Business Center, which Gallegos said is home to a small federal detention site.Gallegos said he was among the protesters hit with pepper-ball rounds, and drew a contrast between the armed troops and unarmed protesters worried about family and community members."We don't have guns. All we have is prayers and feathers," he said.
Former Los Angeles deputy district attorney Alfonso Estrada said introducing more federal troops to what is effectively a law-enforcement situation may further exacerbate tensions with protesters, but also with local police who didn't ask for that help.'It also creates an awkward jurisdictional issue for local law enforcement agencies and their members who now have the national guard and U.S. Marine Corps operating in their jurisdiction,' said Estrada, now in private practice as a partner at the California-based law firm Hanson Bridgett LLP.
Estrada added: 'The unnecessary and provocative acts of the executive branch endanger both the general public and local law enforcement officers who will bear the brunt of the political backlash and anger that Los Angelenos are feeling for the executive branch targeting its immigrant community and population without due process."