Los Angeles Is Losing the War for Public Opinion
Burning Waymos are creating an image of an out-of-control city, which could lead to harsher measures from the federal government.
These optics don’t help the cause.
Photographer: Benjamin Hanson/AFP/Getty ImagesIt was, by any stretch of the imagination, an ugly Sunday of violence and vandalism in downtown Los Angeles. After President Donald Trump took the extraordinary step of bypassing the authority of California Governor Gavin Newsom and summoning the National Guard, ostensibly to quell protests over federal immigration raids, thousands of Angelenos angrily took to the streets.
Tear gas canisters were thrown. Then bottles and fireworks. And by late afternoon, some protesters had blocked traffic on a vital stretch of the 101 Freeway and set ablaze a few vehicles and dumpsters. It didn’t take long for those images to start ricocheting around both social and legacy media. The sense of being on the brink was amplified by the Trump administration and buttressed by an assessment from Los Angeles’ own police chief that “this thing has gotten out of control.”