Member-only story
Wait. Who are the Bad Guys Again?
There’s a lot of talk about protests in legacy media, but not enough talk about the state violence that prompted them
A CNN headline reads, “Trump deploys National Guard to LA in response to immigration clashes.” A headline in the New York Times reads, “Tensions Flare Between Protesters and Law Enforcement in LA.” Another headline in the Associated Press reads, “Protests intensify in Los Angeles after Trump deploys hundreds of National Guard troops.” Each of these suggests that protesters are the aggressors and whitewashes the reason that brought them out in the streets.
It’s only been a weekend, and suddenly the news is about protesters and not so much about the inhumanity we’re all seeing as Trump’s racist agenda is live-streamed for the whole world to see. The news cycle shifted from finally covering Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) the way legacy media should have been to talking about protesters and deportation numbers while saying, “To be fair, DHS is pointing us to a dozen people who were arrested in LA recently who do have serious crimes they have committed,” as NBC’s immigration reporter Julia Ainsley said on MSNBC on Monday.
On the first day of ICE raids in Los Angeles, they arrested 118 noncitizens, and only 5 were alleged gang members…
