EXCLUSIVE Inside the secret LAPD club of Gavin Newsom's nightmares... and their evidence a riot crisis was waiting to happen

Daily Mail​

a day ago

Los Angeles cops have a private chatroom — and California 's Democratic leaders won't like what they're saying.
The Instagram group 'Defend the LAPD' allows officers and commanders to talk freely about what's really going on in the streets of America's second-biggest city, where cops clash daily with anti-government rioters.
The Daily Mail gained exclusive access to the 8,500-member club and spoke to its organizers — and the views they presented were a stark rebuke to Gov Gavin Newsom and other leaders of the Democrat-run state.
Despite what their bosses say, LAPD officers broadly support the Trump administration's deployment of the National Guard to protect federal buildings amid a wave of sometimes violent protests against immigration raids, says the group.
Members also expressed alarm at LA Mayor Karen Bass, a Democrat, for allegedly taking command of their control room, delaying the deployment of officers, and putting federal agents and the public in danger.
They also accused media outlets of one-sided coverage of the protests, by focussing on heavy-handed policing while overlooking the threat that some violent activists posed to cops and the public.
More broadly, they say the city has 'quietly defunded' the LAPD since the George Floyd protests of 2020, and that today's force is understaffed, underresourced, and cannot handle the crisis exploding on the streets.
The revelations come as US Marines head to Los Angeles, as part of a federal strategy to quell the protests against immigration raids, which are a signature effort of President Donald Trump's second term.
Clashes across LA have further polarized America's two main political parties, with Trump threatening to arrest Newsom, who slams the deployment of guardsmen as an abuse of power and an unnecessary provocation.
The LAPD, the official police union, and Mayor Bass's office did not immediately respond to our requests for comment.
A spokesperson for Defend the LAPD, which presents itself as a grassroots club for thousands of LA cops and their supporters, told the Daily Mail that officers of all ranks appreciate the backup of Trump's National Guard deployment.
'Everyone supports all the help they can get,' said the spokesperson.
'We need the help from other agencies, because we can't handle it. Our asses are being handed to us on a platter.'
While Gov Newsom says the National Guard are not needed and part of Trump's 'manufactured' crisis, the spokesperson said this was 'not true,' and that extra boots helped keep the streets safe.
'They're here because we don't have enough personnel, after all the back door defunding they have done for years,' said the spokesperson.
In the channel, officers, commanders and other members are able to post their concerns about events in a city of nearly 4 million people that's become the epicenter of Trump's controversial immigration crackdown.
In the posts, which we could not independently verify, members slammed Mayor Bass for 'unprecedented political interference' this week by assuming direct control of LAPD forces and preventing cops from bailing out federal immigration agents.
A group member accused LA City Council member Ysabel Jurado of using incendiary language against law enforcement
'This breach of the chain of command prevented the Incident Commander from making crucial operations decisions, put Department of Homeland Security officers, FBI agents, and community members at risk, and delayed immediate LAPD support,' says the post.
Another post takes aim at Ysabel Jurado, the LA City Council member at the center of a firestorm after one of her aide's was arrested on suspicion of assaulting a cop with a deadly weapon at an anti-ICE protest.
According to the post, Jurado, a progressive tenant's rights lawyer, said 'F**k the police' when she was campaigning. We could not verify the claim, and Jurado did not immediately answer our request for comment.
In another post, a group member takes aim at how the riots are presented by local media — showcasing the police as heavy-handed while downplaying the threats they face from violent leftist agitators.
The post focuses on KTLA's coverage of a police horse 'trampling a rioter' in a clip that omitted the 'footage right before that with the rioter throwing a Molotov cocktail at horses!'
'The media is not reporting honestly,' adds the post.
The chaos on LA's streets erupted just days after Defend the LAPD released a report about underfunding and 'dysfunction' in the city's police force, which it says is short by thousands of officers at any one time.
The 38-pager, which was produced with the input of more than 300 officers, says cops have had their hands tied and left unable to tackle crime by progressive politicians and the 'activist groups' they bow to.
'The Department was not prepared for large-scale unrest,' said the spokesman.
The spokesperson attributed this to 'poor planning, inexperience at the top, and inefficient deployment of sworn resources.'
In another post, a group member slams the editing in a TV news report for unfairly portraying cops as heavy handed
'That dysfunction is no longer theoretical. It's playing out live on our streets,' said the spokesperson.
'To make matters worse, officers are being told to stand down even as they're being assaulted with glass bottles, concrete, fireworks, and other dangerous projectiles. It's clear the current leadership is prioritizing optics over officer safety, and that is unacceptable.'
Street demonstrations in Southern California have been underway since Friday, when activists clashed with sheriff's deputies during federal anti-immigration raids in areas with big foreign-born and Latino populations.
Demonstrators in Los Angeles have assembled, among other places, at a government immigration lockup.
President Trump has ordered active-duty US Marines and 4,000 National Guard troops into LA, vowing that those protesting immigration enforcement raids would be 'hit harder' than ever.
Newsom slammed the move, posting on X that US Marines 'shouldn't be deployed on American soil facing their own countrymen to fulfill the deranged fantasy of a dictatorial President. This is un-American.'
Trump has pledged to deport record numbers of people who are in the country illegally and to lock down the US-Mexico border, setting the ICE border enforcement agency a daily goal of arresting at least 3,000 migrants.