02/12/2026
It occurs to me that I can start sharing what I notice for anyone who is curious and not local to a city like LA...
This was taken outside of the Metropolitan Detention Center moments before the bedlam broke out. I left after ingesting too much tear gas (my system is sensitive at the moment) so I missed the piles of garbage, tearing down of what looked to be a bus stop type structure, etc. but again, this pic was just before.
What I have noticed is that the protests start off passionate but peaceful. People from all walks of life are present. Some are yelling. Some are calm and quiet, letting their presence speak for itself. Eventually the crowds get closer to the gates of the center and the police push back in a line, all it seems with a hollow look in their faces and many pointing their non-lethal weapons at the protestors. Soon thereafter the throwing of plastic water bottles begin and sometimes, off we go like on the 31st.
Perhaps this is too simplistic but the sense I get is that the lack of dialogue, the lack of the protestors feeling heard or seen, is in large part what leads to the escalation. People are there because they are worried about their country, their neighbors, their friends. They want to feel like someone hears them and the blank faces that return their desperate cries I think, sends some over the edge. And once the righteous anger begins to express it catches like wildfire.
It would do a lot of good to have SOMEONE in government (with power of course) out in the streets/ on the news/ in the press saying "this is changing, we hear you".
As we’ve seen, public sentiment is turning harshly against Immigration and Customs Enforcement, even in polling conducted before ...
