ICE Marched Through LA's MacArthur Park to Shamelessly Show off Its Power
Briefly

In MacArthur Park, federal agents from ICE arrived with heavy equipment during a children's summer camp. Mayor Karen Bass confronted them, criticizing their presence as outrageous and un-American. She noted the fear expressed by an eight-year-old child about ICE taking parents away. Activists had preemptively cleared the park of people and faced off against the federal presence with determination. The federal agents ultimately retreated amidst chants and thrown items. There was criticism from news outlets about the operation, and the event is seen as a public performance piece resisting authoritarian actions.
"I went and I spoke to an eight-year-old [who told] me that he was afraid of ICE taking his parents, and he didn't think it was good to take people away," Bass said, while slamming the podium with her fist.
When federal agents arrived, a children's summer camp was taking place at the park. It is outrageous and un-American that we have federal armed vehicles in our parks when nothing is going on in the parks," she said.
The goon squads beat an embarrassing retreat during which they were treated with chants of Get the fck out! and the occasional fruit salad projectile.
This was a public performance piece, complete with a Fox News embed, that was stymied by people who were better at street action than they were, and by a mayor who backed those people up.
Read at www.esquire.com
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