It is happening here

Sean Beckner-Carmitchel has been out in the streets of Los Angeles reporting on the federal and local cops' assault on the city and its beautiful people. He writes for Hell World on what it has been like to be there the first few days since this wave of protests kicked off despite having been shot in the face by cops with a tear gas canister. Read his dispatch down below.

Police and federal agencies continued to riot and instigate violence against citizens, immigrants, and the press alike in cities throughout the country on Tuesday. In Los Angeles a curfew was put into effect last night and hundreds were arrested just as thousands more national guard and hundreds of marines are being deployed there by a president who has lied and said it's an attempt to prevent the city being "conquered by a foreign enemy." In Texas governor Greg Abbott is also poised to send in the national guard.

This all comes as thousands of troops and pieces of heavy military machinery are set to parade through Washington D.C. on Sunday for the delight of the little birthday boy in chief. Protesters in all 50 states are planning dozens of "No Kings Day" rallies that day and the question on everyone's minds right now is will the U.S. military fire on its own people as the president has threatened. I certainly hope they will not but I'm not sure why people seem so certain that there's any bright line between the military and the police anymore. A troop after all is nothing more than a cop.

Then again it's not like it's all bad news out there.

Meanwhile elected Democrats and many of their most useless supporters are – you guessed it! – criticizing the protesters' tactics. Especially the number of Mexican flags they are being forced to look at.

Don't make me tap the sign again:

And again:

And this yet again from almost one year ago today:

Traffic that you’re not even sitting in

Almost was good enough

Welcome to Hell WorldLuke O’Neil

It's been heartening to see so many ongoing protests around the country including one that shut down the Brooklyn Bridge yesterday. Naturally protests like this are always going to be condemned in the harshest terms by the right but I'm also seeing a lot of the same type of very concerned handwringing about proper tactics from centrists and squishy liberals that we saw during the Black Lives Matter marches. Maybe you've even thought something like this yourself. Getting annoyed about traffic that you're not even sitting in!

The truth is that no matter what your cause is and no matter what you do there will always be people saying that you're not protesting the right way. That your slogan needs editing.

Worse than that a lot of them will pretend that they would of course have been sympathetic if only you had your proper protesting papers in order. If you weren't (hypothetically) inconveniencing some (imagined) victim they claim to be speaking on behalf of.

Once you see this in action you can't help but notice it everywhere. People feigning at potential solidarity with a cause or issue yet outsourcing their own actual but concealed personal disagreement with it to other people. "The average voter won't like this" etcetera. It's a kind of political ventriloquism.

Please do not do this. Do not force a mule to smuggle your sincerely held beliefs across the discourse border for you. Just say what you believe.

Oh and what a coincidence! From five years ago this week:

For further updates from Beckner-Carmitchel follow him here:

You might also consider following Hell World correspondent Joey Scott as well.

He wrote about the fires in the city back in January:

The city has never felt smaller

There is a very small chance that you will be robbed or assaulted today by a random criminal. There is a near 100% chance you will be robbed or harmed today by a landlord or corporation or healthcare company or even the government. Today Joey Scott writes about what it

Welcome to Hell WorldLuke O’Neil

And People's City Council Los Angeles.

They wrote this piece for Hell World earlier this year:

The long radical tradition of Los Angeles protests

Let the kids rebel

Welcome to Hell WorldLuke O’Neil

As someone who was out in the streets in 2020 up through the anti-genocide protests on campuses (and is still out here today), this has been incredibly inspiring to witness. I love the youthful energy, but I’m annoyed by all the armchair quarterbacks who think they know what’s best. I’ve seen a bunch of people say things like “where was this energy in November?” which is hilarious considering these are teens out there protesting. Also, I hate to break it to you all, fascism is not merely an electoral phenomenon, thus it cannot be “defeated” at the ballot box. As George Jackson reminds us, fascism has already been here.

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It is happening here

by Sean Beckner-Carmitchel 

Days and days of escalation by federal agencies within the County of Los Angeles have left protesters, the community, and journalists alike reeling. In Los Angeles a fog of rumors, raids, reports and confrontations have led to a feeling of unease within myself that I won’t be able to shake, or analyze, for a long time.

News broke on Friday that a federal immigration raid was in progress at a Home Depot in the Westlake neighborhood near downtown Los Angeles. Federal agents had detained day laborers in the parking lot. 

Buying a bus ticket and taking a bus ride was my main goal when I woke up that day. I’d had it in my head that I’d give myself a cushy gig covering the opening of a bus line that connects to shuttles going to Los Angeles International Airport. LAX is a miserable place, and public transport finally being accessible there was by nearly unanimous community opinion a step in the right direction. I’d interview a few people on the rails. Easy day, I thought to myself.

I love the bus. I want to report on the bus. But I felt a sense that the weekend was about to become very different as I heard discussions in group chats about the developing police presence. More pressing matters in the community had suddenly erased any plans I had.

By the time I’d arrived in Westlake, the immigration officials had left. A few people were there who’d seen everything happen. One man showed me a video of the detainments; large burly men chased after people who just minutes before were looking for work and then handcuffed them. A woman nearby worked at a school across the street; she immediately texted the principal. She told me she was grateful none of the schoolchildren were put in handcuffs.

Another man showed me a piece of paper on which he’d jotted down the names of his friends he’d just watched get detained. At various points during the weekend it has sunk in for me that he will likely never see those people again in the United States. 

Within all the reporting on the protests, statements from government officials, online debates, teargas and check-ins there’s a very real danger of losing sight of what caused all of this in the first place. Federal officials came in to take people away from their community. In the same way that 2020’s George Floyd solidarity protests eventually gave way to protests against law enforcement’s reaction to protests, more and more discussion is going towards a real fear that the entire American experiment might be in a full crisis. Indeed the president seems determined on that very outcome. 

Once things had settled down in Westlake a series of tips flew in that there was another operation in the Fashion District of Los Angeles. Videos of federal agent actions began to fill social media. When I arrived the Los Angeles community networks had managed to assemble hundreds of people who shouted, held signs and demonstrated all throughout the street.

It’s surreal seeing large amounts of people in the Fashion District of Los Angeles. Many consider it to be a far-flung corner of downtown filled with nothing but warehouses. Those people are wrong. But like much of Los Angeles you have to do your own homework. If you’re willing to ignore the opinions of people who never leave their one bedroom in Sherman Oaks there’s a thriving community here of immigrant run stores and people selling fabric and clothing at wholesale prices.

I arrived in the Fashion District to find dozens of megaphones, several helicopters, and slogans echoing throughout the street corridors. It was disorienting for anyone trying to locate the source of these sounds. Gigantic federal vehicles futilely tried to block vehicles in the street. 

As soon as I exited my car, large bearcats and other FBI vehicles appeared to reinforce the federal agents already outside a retail store on Towne. Protesters had surrounded the agents’ perimeter around the store and were shouting. A large truck of demonstrators with a megaphone asked protesters to stay on the sidewalk, but the situation was rapidly changing..

SEIU President David Huerta was thrown to the ground; his head had hit the corner of a pavement and he was taken into federal custody after a hospital visit. He’d eventually be let out on a $50,000 bond after being charged with conspiracy to impede an officer. The US Attorney’s Office says it’s a felony and could result in up to six years in prison.

Several detainees could be seen past the FBI perimeter being lined up in handcuffs. Once they were visible the crowd became louder. 

“Less lethal” munitions were occasionally fired into the protesters. At the time, it seemed like a large amount. After five days of the protests in Los Angeles that moment was just a precursor to more.

Suddenly, another flash point. Vehicles began to leave the store’s gates, and were quickly pelted with eggs, signs and fists by the crowd. One protester was hit by a federal vehicle; I checked in with him and he said he was “fine,” tersely. Stun grenades were thrown by the agents into the crowd of protesters as their vehicles raced quickly away.

As federal agents began loading up, the crowd continued to move alongside them. Even more stun grenades were thrown by the FBI. A few fireworks were thrown at the vehicles.

Once the detainees and many of the federal vehicles left, the protest on Towne began to dwindle. Passing by with several colleagues, we caught up with one man who had shrapnel from a stun grenade embedded into his skin. A man with a preacher’s white collar spoke with him. The limited supplies of a protest medic weren’t enough. As we left, we saw a Los Angeles Fire Department ambulance take him to a nearby hospital.

An emergency protest was called in downtown Los Angeles by a litany of labor, social welfare, and immigrant rights groups within several hours. Word came down the pipeline that some of the people who’d been detained that day by federal deportation agencies were being housed at Metro Detention Center. A colleague and I raced down to the area and found dozens of families waiting to be able to speak with their loved ones.

Harried looking lawyers and volunteers with immigrant rights groups brought water to family members that looked desperate. Many hadn’t yet heard from their loved ones but had heard that detainees were being housed in the Southern California heat in tents on the grass in a common area of the detention center because it was past capacity. 

As I spoke to several families, eventually an employee of the jail went outside to speak to them. “You’re going to be waiting a long time. If you’re willing to wait, then you’re going to wait,” he said.

One man asked “What about the people that have been here for three days?”

Another family member cursed the detention officer out. The detention officer replied “You don’t have to curse at me,” then slammed the door shut.

Eventually protests outside of the detention center became more intense. At a parking entrance for the building, protesters shouted at Department of Homeland Security agents. DHS fired volleys of pepper balls, stun grenades, and sprayed chemical munitions into the air.

Things at that point seemed to be “happening.” A group of protesters choked through and returned with water bottles. More intense “less lethal” rounds were met by more intense objects as water bottles from the crowd gave way to pieces of concrete and even a chair stolen from the parking attendant’s area. This continued for hours. By the end of the night my jacket reeked of cigarette smoke and the distinct “habanero” smell of chemical irritant.

Both local law enforcement agencies, LAPD and LASD, have consistently stated they would not assist with federal immigration raids. They were caught on 15th street that day dispersing crowds. Near MDC, they were the law enforcement agency responsible for clearing the street in front of the detention center. Protesters eventually were moved away from MDC by several dozen LAPD officers and a great number of “less lethal” munitions.

On Saturday, a raid conducted by federal officials at a Home Depot in Paramount brought even greater escalations and more than a few serious injuries. Protesters confronted federal agents for nearly eleven hours.

When I arrived things were already dangerous. Sheriffs futilely attempted to block the street on Alondra Boulevard several blocks west of the raid.

Across the street from Home Depot, protesters shouted and were confronted by intense volleys of chemical irritant and stun grenades. Several stun grenades caught bushes on fire. 

Protest medics raced from person to person as violent choking sounds would erupt from crowds just ahead of the clouds. I saw a number of people run choking out of their homes in a panic in the street. Blocks away protesters, children and elderly community members had collapsed into a small green patch in front of a Chevron station.

It’s difficult to put into words what seeing the faces of a family fleeing their home in fear for their lives does to you. It makes you realize how important keeping love in your heart is. Some of them likely were terrified of the presence of federal immigration officials just hours ago; clouds of nauseating gas wafting into their homes must have been a secondary trauma of immense proportion.

Some neighbors sat with their garden hoses in their hands offering to wash off the effects of the gases. After the sixth volley I went through, the hose was the only thing that helped me continue to report throughout the day. A colleague of mine later told me “Some of these people likely already have seen conflict zones like this before they came here.”

LASD then cleared the street. Taking a break, I phoned a colleague. The heaviness was beginning to sink in.

As I returned to the center of things in Paramount, it began to falsely calm. Then quite suddenly federal agents ran into the street and began batonning the few people who had remained. A large crowd once again ran onto Alondra Boulevard. The now seemingly routine practice of protesters moving their way onto Alondra, agents firing tear gas, then protesters fleeing started again. Off to the side, a large volley of tear gas began to fill Alondra once again.

I felt a sudden blunt pop on my head that felt like a baseball. I heard a loud noise and saw a large bang just to my right. As far as I can tell, I was hit directly in the temple with a teargas grenade.

My eyes watered and pain seeped into my temple. Barely able to see, me and a colleague, who had also been hit, found our way outside of the area. My entire right side was absolutely covered in the particulate dust that causes chemical irritation.

Once I realized I’d already begun to form a large swelling lump on my head I made my way to the vehicle of a colleague. She drove me to the emergency room.

Somehow I’d avoided a concussion. The colleague and I went to go eat at a Mexican restaurant in East Los Angeles, then it was back to the grind. I’m grateful to them, as well as fellow journalist Mel Buer who stepped in to call my family and assure them of my safety.

Upon returning the protest had moved on from Alondra into Compton city limits. A white car which had been set aflame earlier sat in front of Dale’s Donuts. Though the crowd had dwindled to about 50 people, volleys of fireworks returned by stun munitions continued long into the night. It took me hours before they’d let me drive home.

Overnight President Donald Trump federalized a number of California National Guardsmen. Every few minutes someone I knew texted me to ask if it was really true until early in the morning. Not entirely hard to believe but still. 

Sunday I was on assignment to cover a march organized by several community groups from Boyle Heights to Metro Detention Center. The group assured me their plan was to go near MDC and shout, and nothing more. The group had children, labor leaders and even nonagenarian labor and feminism icon Dolores Huerta. As far as I can tell they kept their word, even though they were about to be confronted by waves of teargas.

There was already a group of several dozen in front of the detention facility. Around the same time the Boyle Heights marchers arrived, a squad of National Guard and federal agents lit a wave of teargas into the crowd. Dozens ran in fear or to escape the effects of the gas.

Eventually other groups from throughout the city arrived and swelled into thousands. It was the most I’ve seen in a protest crowd in California since 2020. The sheer, massive scope made it impossible to know exactly what was happening without communication with other journalists.

At various points there were protesters that made speeches, took freeways, threw things at police, got gassed, got foam-batonned, got hit by police on horseback and set Waymos on fire. A great deal of national attention was placed on the flaming Waymos near the 101 freeway. Many of the local journalists have seen a vandalized Waymo at nearly every protest they’ve seen in Los Angeles over the past few years.

The scope of kinetic “less lethal” munitions on the crowd was massive. It’s impossible to know how many were deployed. The number is at minimum in the thousands.

A crowd dancing to La Chona was foam-bulleted by LAPD officers; the crowd would later dance to the song multiple times around large fires. Protesters on a bridge over the protest were hit by LAPD officers with kinetic munitions; many of those bullets hit the bottom of the bridge and ricocheted into those officers.

Around City Hall a group of protesters began to rip benches from nearby Grand Park and constructed a crude barricade as officers pelted them with kinetic munitions. The standoff lasted for quite some time. LAPD would later state they used more than 600 less lethals on that standoff alone.

Eventually LAPD charged the barricade with horse mounted units and threw chemical munitions at them. A few journalists were hit by wooden sticks, as the cops threw gas canisters directly into an ad hoc press viewing area.

Then the group amassed onto 1st and Spring. Privately, I told another journalist that had just flown in to cover the protests that at some point it’s likely the crowd would notice that LAPD’s headquarters was completely unguarded. Several hours later, the crowd would prove my prediction true.

On Monday a palpable sense of the real effects of civil unrest and government crackdowns was apparent in the streets of Los Angeles. Protesters continued to march through the city, even after the president promised to send a contingent of marines into the area. Stores were broken into, and on several occasions fireworks were lobbed from balconies at police. A security guard stood fully kitted out, with an orange pepper ball rifle armed. I asked him if he was only armed with the pepper rifle during the protests. He proudly replied yes.

Also on Monday, a former City Councilman sent out a mass email. Its subject line read “It is happening here.”

Sean Beckner-Carmitchel is a freelance reporter. He has video credits with CNN, Al Jazeera English, Good Morning America and dozens of other outlets. He has bylines with CalMatters, LA Public Press, and others.

Sorry if there are any typos in this issue. More so than usual I mean. It's still really hard to type and I've got like four different braces on my wrists and elbows. No one has ever suffered like me. Only half joking this shit fucking suuuucks.

Reading this is worth your time:

The Los Angeles Protests Are an Act of Self-Defense

Residents of L.A. aren’t merely protesting ICE; they’re attempting to protect their communities from ICE’s raids.

The New RepublicMelissa Gira Grant

It is very difficult to believe that Los Angeles’s political leadership—or California’s governor or other state officials—truly wish to stop ICE raids when they are willing to arrest the only people who are actually standing in ICE’s way. The politicians want to define protest as merely voicing a demand without disrupting anything; they don’t want to recognize the value of putting one’s body between the state and the scapegoated. There is apparently no “peaceful” way to do that in Los Angeles. And for those of us elsewhere, who would like these raids on immigrants to end, who want to end Trump’s abuse of power—we will fail if we defer to such “leadership” and line drawing. What we are witnessing in Los Angeles is not only a protest; it is self-defense.

Some other recent videos you should look at:

There is no way they aren't trying to trample this protester with their horses deliberately.

Sorry to every skate video ever for not being this cool.

I'm so fucking sick of this term "less lethal" by the way. No one should be using the term "less lethal" when referring to the missiles and projectiles shot at protesters unless you are content doing PR for cops. Which is 90% of the media so there you go. A punch in the face or a whack on the skull with a baton are both "less lethal" than a bullet from a gun sure but like these projectiles they can all nevertheless maim or kill.

You may remember Linda Tirado wrote for Hell World a few years ago about her experience being shot in the face by cops.

I wait for the day I can sit in the sun again

The Last Normal Day Part 11 by Linda Tirado

Welcome to Hell WorldLuke O’Neil

I remember a dull thud to my face and I remember stupidly thinking “Well, fuck. This isn’t good.” Then I remember the gas hitting my eyes and the wetness and swelling. I don’t remember pain exactly except from the gas, but I knew my face was growing. I could feel it by the millimeter. I thought I was going to have a black eye. I like mosh pits and UFC as much as the next aging punk chick. I know what a shiner feels like.

I woke up the next morning in a hospital and the doctors came to tell me that I didn’t have Covid, which they knew because they had tested me before they did surgery on my left eye, the one I’d never see out of again. I told the nurse it was hilarious that all I had to do to get a Covid test was lose an eye and she laughed but the doctors didn’t, because nurses are way funnier than doctors. I’ve learned that lately, because once one has been shot in the face one sees a lot of medical personnel.

This piece is unrelated to all the [gestures at the entire expanse of the world] but it is so good. My god I was crying my eyes out by the end of it.

I don't know what else to tell you bud. Here's a couple of new songs to enjoy.