To the editor: I’ve lived in Los Angeles lengthy sufficient to know that this metropolis weathers hearth, quake and fury and nonetheless manages to bloom. We develop meals in our backyards, paint our ache on partitions and discover magnificence within the battle. However proper now, there’s a strain within the air thicker than smog, a nationwide worry winding via our streets, and its identify is Donald Trump (“National Guard arrives in Los Angeles as fallout from immigration raids continues,” June 8).
The helicopters overhead aren’t simply information choppers anymore. They’re echoes of one thing historical and harmful: Fascism rising on American soil. I by no means thought I’d say this in my lifetime, however we’re watching a person attempt to deliver down a republic with the smug grin of a recreation present host who already is aware of the ultimate reply.
President Trump, you’ll be able to cease now. Flip in your TV. Watch what you’ve performed. You’ll not be remembered as a patriot. You’ll not be remembered as a liberator. You may be remembered because the worst chief this nation has ever produced. A divider. A destroyer.
We write, we paint, we protest and we plant seeds of hope in cracked concrete. However we’re exhausted. We want ethical management, not messianic delusion. What will we inform our kids when their leaders reward dictators, vilify the press and mock the weak? That chaos is energy? That empathy is weak spot?
Mr. Trump: Historical past shouldn’t be in your aspect and neither is Los Angeles.
Patsy Pitts, South Los Angeles
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To the editor: You will need to keep in mind that the president who despatched the Nationwide Guard to Los Angeles as a result of the administration “has a zero tolerance coverage for legal conduct and violence” is identical president who incited the rebel on Jan. 6, 2021, declined to take steps to cease the assault on our Capitol or shield members of Congress and, as quickly as he took workplace in 2025, granted sweeping pardons or commutations to everybody (greater than 1,500 folks) indicted or sentenced for the assault. Roughly 140 regulation enforcement officers had been injured with greater than $2.7 million in injury to the Capitol.
He’s sending a message.
Marcia Scully, Whittier
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To the editor: Gov. Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass haven’t instructed the L.A. disruptors to go dwelling as a result of these politicians worry alienating an essential voting bloc.
If Trump does nothing, there would be the creation of no-go zones all through our nation, wherein native teams deliver elements of main cities to a halt as a way to impose an unlawful immigration political agenda.
If Trump makes an attempt to revive order, rioters — like these on faculty campuses — will improve their strain to display who has energy on this nation. It actually is important to ship within the troops. In any other case, we’re headed towards a variant of mob rule.
Julia Lutch, Davis, Calif.
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To the editor: The final time a president known as within the Nationwide Guard with out a request from a governor was in 1965 in Selma, Ala., to guard civil rights demonstrators. This present motion by the president is to not shield civil rights and even authorized rights.
The troops’ sporting of masks signifies a whole lack of coaching and accountability. In different phrases, unrestrained gangs with the backing of POTUS.
Joanne Weckbacher, Burbank
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To the editor: Protests by the undocumented and their supporters with out permits are futile and silly. The ensuing arrests and detentions are inevitable. Regulation enforcement officers are solely doing their job and the protesters are breaking the regulation in making an attempt to cease them.
If the undocumented and their supporters need to make an announcement, boycott their workplaces in agriculture, building, the garment business or housekeeping in motels, nationwide. These industries are totally conscious simply how dependent they’re on those that toil to maintain the income rolling in.
Elliott H. Boone, Lengthy Seaside
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To the editor: Now that the Trump administration has launched open warfare towards the values of Californians, the simplest response could be resistance that’s large and, above all, passive. When hundreds of individuals within the streets lie down and play lifeless in a blocking motion towards no matter motion navy forces try, these forces don’t have any good choices to defeat the folks. Roughing protesters up will solely recruit extra to the trigger.
It will take self-discipline on the a part of the resistance, however the conscience of the typical American will recoil on the sight of peaceable protesters being subjected to violence. Mahatma Gandhi prevailed towards the British and received a subcontinent with out firing a shot. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. helped defeat white supremacy utilizing nonviolence. This can be a pivotal second in historical past that will probably be squandered if the resistance resorts to violence. The place the trigger is righteous, good bother calls for large peaceable protest to win.
Alan B. Posner, Santa Barbara
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To the editor: I stand with these of town who’re protesting towards Trump’s intervention into California’s autonomy. I’m pleased with you and your efforts.
To those that dedicated acts of vandalism together with burning automobiles, deep disgrace upon you. To those that remained peaceable, report those that dedicated crime. It deeply hurts your trigger when the weak-brained commit stupidity.
Mat Lakota, Oroville, Calif.
