LA ignores calls for peaceful protests, helps bump up Trump's approval ratings on immigration

Yahoo

a day ago

Violent protests in Los Angeles over the weekend continued overnight Monday into Tuesday, including instances of looting and vandalism despite calls from high-level California officials to refrain from violence and follow the path of civil disobedience.
More than 100 people were arrested Monday night, according to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. That's up from 50 arrests over the weekend. Bass blamed 'fringe groups' for the violence.
'What we're seeing downtown is just horrible, but you know that the majority of people that attended the protest this afternoon were peaceful,' Bass told KABC-TV.
Trump deployed 2,000 National Guardsmen on Friday night despite warnings from California officials that protests could become more volatile with military presence. These troops were expected to help protect U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agents as they carried out their duties, and to protect federal buildings.
Trump also called up 700 Marines, as well as an additional 2,000 National Guardsmen in the following days, making 4,000 National Guard troops in total.
Sen. Mike Lee in a post on X Monday morning said, 'Governor Newsom and Mayor Bass helped create this problem, President Trump is fixing it.'
On Tuesday, California asked a federal judge for an emergency order to block the Trump White House from using the National Guard in California.
The day prior, California Gov. Gavin Newsom sued the Trump administration for sending troops to L.A. without asking the governor and accused the president of purposefully sowing division and chaos.
The lawsuit described the unrest as 'primarily peaceful protests with some acts of violence' that 'do not rise to the level of a rebellion. '
On Sunday, protesters burned several self-driving taxi Waymo vehicles while waving Mexican flags. They also blocked roads and freeways and started several confrontational run-ins with the Los Angeles Police Department.
Still, Newsom and other state and federal officials called for protesters to remain peaceful.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., chimed in through a post on X Monday, saying, 'Dr. King defeated racist government officials & ended segregation through disciplined non-violent resistance.'
'Violent protests are counterproductive and play right into Trump's playbook,' Sanders added.
Thomas Chatterton Williams from The Atlantic called scenes unfolding in Southern California over the weekend 'catastrophic messaging.'
'In what world (not this one) can a protest movement whose symbols are torching Waymo taxis and waving *foreign* flags appeal to most Americans?'
Williams, in another post, said, 'The civil rights movement literally laid out the blueprint and no one can manage to follow it.'
Rep. Nanette Díaz Barragán, D-Calif., encouraged peaceful protests in an interview with PBS News. She also blamed the violence on a few bad actors.
'We do not believe that people should be throwing items at law enforcement,' Barragán said.
'I will also say, I think that last night we saw people who were taking advantage of the situation, who I don't think were there really to protest the immigration conduct and activity. They were destroying property, they were looting.'
She added those individuals are going against the cause and should be arrested.
Trump's approval ratings on immigration shot up ahead of the weekend. Roughly 54% of voters approved of the Trump administration's deportation policy.
In comparison, 46% disapprove, according to a CBS News poll on Trump's immigration policy, conducted from June 4-6, before the National Guard's deployment to California.
The poll also found 53% of voters said they believed the Trump administration was deporting dangerous criminals first and 47% said they didn't believe that was the case.
Real Clear Politics' polling average shows 'Trump holds a net -2.1 approval rating overall, but a +4.5 approval rating on immigration.'
Trump's approval rating on immigration experienced a positive shift compared to his first term in office, moving from -21% in 2017 to +1 as of this week, CNN's data analyst Harry Enten noted.
'There is no issue on which Trump is doing so much better than he was in his first term more than the issue of immigration,' he said. 'Trump is begging for a fight on this. He knows what he's doing so far is working with the American electorate.'
Bass said she thinks Trump is using L.A. as its test subject.
'I think we're an experiment because if you can do this to the nation's second largest city, maybe the administration is hoping that this will be a signal to everybody everywhere to fear them,' the L.A. mayor said. 'That your federal government that historically has protected you can come in and take over.'