Jan. 13, 2026 5 AM PT
To the editor: By contributing author Josh Hammer’s logic, Individuals taking to the streets to protest injustice, a proper sanctified by the first Modification, is an instance of “mob rule” (“Don’t let the mobs rule,” Jan. 9). He would, apparently, have residents stand by silently accepting as lawful each motion of our state and its brokers, irrespective of how transparently unlawful.
He takes offense on the Democratic Social gathering’s fully factual social media submit: “ICE shot and killed a lady on digicam.” That is actually what occurred. Hammer calls this barebones assertion of truth “irresponsible fear-mongering.” Now stating information is “irresponsible”? I shudder to conceive of the form of world through which Hammer would have Individuals reside.
George Dutton, Los Angeles
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To the editor: A girl is killed in her automotive after dropping off her youngster in school and Hammer’s greatest concern is the ensuing protests.
Hammer blames Renee Nicole Good’s demise by the hands of an ICE agent on the Biden administration’s immigration coverage. The concept the killing of an American is a traditional value to pay for a earlier administration’s choices is at finest irrational and, at worst, monstrous.
Protest is just not “mob rule.” It’s what this nation was based on and for many people proper now, the one recourse we’ve got left.
Ray Lancon, San Marino
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To the editor: I fastidiously learn Hammer’s op-ed, which cites Abraham Lincoln’s apt phrases: “There isn’t any grievance that may be a match object of redress by mob legislation.” I nodded in approval at Hammer’s sage observations that “rule of legislation can’t be held hostage to the histrionic mood tantrums of a radical ideological flank” and that when some take issues into their very own arms, it results in “private and nationwide ruination.”
Then I fastidiously learn it once more. Hammer castigates a number of Democratic leaders for his or her rhetoric in opposition to Good’s killing. However there wasn’t one point out of Jan. 6, 2021, when the president of america urged his followers to march on the Capitol to protest the 2020 election outcomes. These followers then violently attacked officers of the legislation and ransacked the Capitol constructing. According to prosecutors, some even aimed to kill sitting authorities officers. All of this to problem an election that President Trump misplaced.
Hammer doesn’t point out that that very same president pardoned each single one of many individuals who have been convicted for these violent, mob-driven crimes the second he obtained again in energy. You’ll excuse me for not contemplating Hammer’s opinions tethered to any sense of fact and equity.
Jane Diamond, Sherman Oaks
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To the editor: Hammer factors to the Biden-Harris administration permitting “unvetted immigrants to stay within the nation with out authorized standing” as the issue. It’s very easy to counter that argument.
If Trump hadn’t helped kill the bipartisan immigration bill in an obvious try and strengthen his personal marketing campaign’s arguments, we’d have had a smart resolution to the immigration downside. It was final considerably addressed by President Reagan. That was many years in the past.
Robert Bachmann, Los Angeles
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To the editor: Generally I learn Hammer for comedic aid. Sadly, this time, a lady is useless and his reasoning risible.
“I’m not mad at you,” Good said to an ICE officer earlier than being shot within the head as she was turning to drive away.
The one cause this mom of three died is Trump’s pointless deployment of two,000 masked and armed immigration brokers to Minneapolis. They’re the mob and Individuals rightfully protest their presence.
Renee Nicole Good could be alive immediately if not for Trump’s out-of-control immigration coverage and its enforcers.
D.H. Sloan, Los Angeles
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To the editor: Hammer writes about “mobocratic spirit” or “mob legislation” as being a horrible factor. If reminiscence serves me proper, about 250 years in the past, this idea allowed the colonists to face as much as King George III and allowed for the creation of america of America.
As soon as once more, we the individuals are standing up in opposition to one other autocratic chief, Donald J. Trump. This isn’t a nasty factor.
Stephen Mirkin, North Hollywood
