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Posted early on Sunday by law professor Jeff Baker, a chancellor of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles:
Some history: The major “riots” in Los Angeles – Watts, the Rodney King uprising in 1992 – arose from excessive and violent police tactics and abuses among poor and working-class brown and black communities. It’s a tale as old as America. Over-policing and economic extraction in places marked by poverty, segregation, lack of investment, and racism create “criminals.” Excessive police violence on a pretense sparks an outcry, and the people protest for their liberties. State agents escalate and accelerate past anyone’s tolerance, and then when the Americans resist, the state declares the demonstration a “riot” and deploys overwhelming violent force.
Do not be deceived. There is absolutely no legal, constitutional, moral justification for federal troops in Los Angeles right now. Yesterday’s operation brought masked, unmarked troops in tactical gear and armored vehicles to a Home Depot parking lot to sweep away day laborers who are working subsistence jobs to care for their families and themselves. Sure, some may be undocumented, but they are peaceful, hard working, tax paying, contributing members of a city that relies on them. They are not an invading force, and they are due lawful process under the Constitution like every other person.
Then their neighbors protested non-violently, putting their bodies in the way of government troops, to protect their rights and communities. Predictably, the troops escalated and accelerated to violence. Now the President is activating the National Guard over the objection of the Governor in gross disregard of a state’s rights and will use the ensuing protests and resistance for more heavy handed actions.
We actually held a revolution over this kind of governing in the 1770s. The people are the patriots, not the government invading working class neighborhoods in Los Angeles. Like all Americans, the people will protest peacefully and without violence until they cannot tolerate it, but they may well rebel when the tyrants squeeze too hard.
There is nothing new under the sun. Watch carefully to see who is the provocative aggressor in this tense moment. History teaches us that it won’t be the people protesting for their human dignity and the rule of law.