LOS ANGELES: This isn\u2019t the image Los Angeles wanted projected around the globe.
\nClouds of tear gas wafting over a throng of protesters on a blocked freeway. Federal immigration agents in tactical garb raiding businesses in search of immigrants without legal status. A messy war of words between President Donald Trump and Gov. Gavin Newsom. Photos captured several Waymo robotaxis set on fire and graffiti scrawled on a federal detention center building, while videos recorded the sounds of rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades hitting crowds.
\nIn a city still reeling from January\u2019s deadly wildfires \u2014 and with the World Cup soccer championships and the 2028 Olympics on the horizon \u2014 Mayor Karen Bass has been urging residents to come together to revitalize LA\u2019s image by sprucing up streets, planting trees and painting murals so LA shows its best face to nations near and far.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s about pride,\u201d she\u2019s said. \u201cThis is the city of dreams.\u201d
\nInstead, a less flattering side of Los Angeles has been broadcast to the world in recent days. Protests have mostly taken place in a small swath of downtown in the sprawling city of 4 million people. As Trump has activated nearly 5,000 troops to respond in the city, Bass has staunchly pushed back against his assertions that her city is overrun and in crisis.
\nBass, in response to Trump, said she was troubled by depictions that the city has been \u201cinvaded and occupied by illegal aliens and criminals, and that now violent, insurrectionist mobs are swarming our federal agents. I don\u2019t know if anybody has seen that happen, but I\u2019ve not seen that happen.\u201d
\nThe series of protests began Friday outside a federal detention center, where demonstrators demanded the release of more than 40 people arrested by federal immigration authorities.
\nImmigration advocates say the people who were detained do not have criminal histories and are being denied their due process rights.
\nAn international city
\nMuch like New York, Los Angeles is an international city that many immigrants call home. The city\u2019s official seal carries images referencing the region\u2019s time under Spanish and Mexican rule. Over 150 languages are spoken by students in the Los Angeles Unified School District. About half of the city\u2019s residents are Latino and about one-third were born outside the US
\nBass faulted the Trump administration for creating \u201ca chaotic escalation\u201d by mobilizing troops to quell protests.
\n\u201cThis is the last thing that our city needs,\u201d Bass said.
\nLos Angeles resident Adam Lerman, who has attended the protests, warned that protests would continue if the Trump administration pushes more raids in the city.
\n\u201cWe are talking about a new riot every day,\u201d Lerman said. \u201dEverybody knows they are playing with fire.\u201d
\nIt\u2019s not the publicity LA needs as it looks to welcome the world for international sporting events on a grand scale.
\n\u201cAt this stage in the process, most host cities and countries would be putting the final touches on their mega-event red carpet, demonstrating to the world that they are ready to embrace visitors with open arms,\u201d said Jules Boykoff, a Pacific University professor who has written widely on the political and economic impacts of the Olympic Games. The scenes of conflict are \u201cnot exactly the best way to entice the world to plan their next tourist trip to the US to watch a sports mega-event.\u201d
\nA mayor under pressure
\nThe federal raids and protests have created another dicey political moment for Bass, who has been struggling with a budget crisis while trying to recover from political fallout from the wildfires that ignited when she was out of the country.
\nShe\u2019s been careful not to discourage protests but at the same time has pleaded for residents to remain peaceful. The mayor will likely face backlash for involving the Los Angeles Police.
\nAnd she needs to fight the perception that the city is unsafe and disorderly, an image fostered by Trump, who in social media posts has depicted Bass as incompetent and said the city has been \u201cinvaded\u201d by people who entered the US illegally. Los Angeles is sprawling \u2014 roughly 470 square miles (750 square kilometers) \u2014 and the protests were mostly concentrated downtown.
\n\u201cThe most important thing right now is that our city be peaceful,\u201d Bass said. \u201cI don\u2019t want people to fall into the chaos that I believe is being created by the (Trump) administration.\u201d
\nOn Monday, workers were clearing debris and broken glass from sidewalks and power-washing graffiti from buildings \u2014 among the structures vandalized was the one-time home of the Los Angeles Times across the street from City Hall. Downtown has yet to bounce back since long-running pandemic lockdowns, which reordered work life and left many office towers with high vacancy rates.
\nTrump and California officials continued to spar online and off, faulting each other for the fallout. At the White House, Trump criticized California leaders by saying \u201cthey were afraid of doing anything\u201d and signaled he would support Newsom\u2019s arrest over his handling of the immigration protests.
\nIf Los Angeles\u2019 image was once defined by its balmy Mediterranean climate and the glamor of Hollywood, it\u2019s now known \u201cprimarily for disaster,\u201d said Claremont McKenna College political scientist Jack Pitney.
\n\u201cA lot of perception depends on images,\u201d Pitney added. Right now, the dominant image \u201cis a burning Waymo.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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