These are criminals in LA, not protesters

 This weekend, what began as a protest in Los Angeles turned into violence.

Not debate. Not a peaceful assembly. Violence.

As you watch the scenes unfold on television, it feels like something that should be
happening in Iran or Afghanistan — not in Los Angeles.

Downtown mobs clashed with federal officers outside the Metropolitan Detention
Center.

Protesters were seen throwing water bottles, bottles, rocks, debris and other objects at federal and assisting law enforcement officers.

This weekend, what began as a protest in Los Angeles turned into violence.AFP via Getty Images

A dumpster was moved into the street and set on fire outside the federal facility.

The image was unmistakable: street chaos aimed directly at the seat of federal authority in the center of America’s second-largest city.

This is happening yesterday and today — not in some unstable foreign capital.

It is happening in Los Angeles, on streets where families work, live and commute.

Yes, many people gathered earlier to protest federal immigration enforcement. That is their constitutional right.

But a violent faction broke off and turned the streets into a confrontation zone where rioters attacked officers, threatened bystanders and destroyed property.

Federal officers were the first on the front line.

They were forced to defend a federal facility as the crowd grew more aggressive and more emboldened.

Local police later moved in to support federal law enforcement efforts to disperse the crowd and arrest the people committing acts of violence and mayhem.

Their role became one of reinforcement after the situation had already deteriorated into open confrontation.

Los Angeles’s sanctuary posture has been treated like a moral badge by its leaders.

But the moment violence erupts — assaults, vandalism, arson, obstruction — the
argument is over. Those are crimes, not political statements.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli has drawn the line clearly: “Every American has the right to peacefully protest. What is not constitutionally protected is a right to engage in violence … or to impede federal agents … by assaulting … or obstructing their operations.”

That is not politics.

That is the law, stated plainly.

And yet this weekend is another reminder that Mayor Karen Bass governs by press
release and platitude rather than firm, visible leadership.

Angelenos do not need carefully calibrated messaging when officers are under attack outside a federal facility.

They need leadership.

They need unmistakable condemnation of violence and immediate enforcement that deters the next wave before it forms.

Instead, we get the same pattern: public disorder first, official resolve later.

More reminders of her leadership failures during the unrest from last summer, when the city also struggled to project control.

Weak signals from leadership invite stronger waves of disorder.

When lawlessness appears to go unchecked, the most extreme actors take that as
permission to escalate.

If City Hall will not enforce order early and clearly, then the federal government must protect its own people and property.

President Donald Trump does not need the Insurrection Act to strengthen federal
protection of federal facilities; existing federal authority already provides tools to
safeguard federal property and the people on it.

Los Angeles should not be a battleground between mobs and officers.

It should be a city where the rule of law is not negotiable and public safety is not filtered through political caution.

If Mayor Bass will not draw the bright line between protest and riot, Washington may have to draw it for her.

Jon Fleischman, a longtime strategist in California politics, writes at SoDoesItMatter.com.

https://nypost.com/2026/01/31/opinion/criminals-not-protesters/