Democratic politicians have spent the years since 2020 coddling their rioter base, through both rhetorical defenses and deflections, and creating a permissive legal environment that allows rioters to avoid the consequences of their actions.
The Los Angeles riots against Immigration and Customs Enforcement provide the latest example of how Democrats enable rioters. ICE was attempting to deport known criminal illegal immigrants in Los Angeles, which sparked protests that inevitably turned violent. “Protesters” tried to throw rocks and chunks of concrete through the windshields of federal agents’ cars, and it was clear that the situation was going to grow worse.
President Donald Trump called in the National Guard to maintain order. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) and Democratic Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass could have chosen to condemn the violent riots, full-throatedly and with no equivocations. Instead, they claimed that Trump, and not the rioters trying to kill ICE agents, was escalating the situation. Newsom sued, arguing that the commander in chief does not, in fact, have the power to federalize the National Guard to maintain order against the violent thugs preventing federal agents from doing their jobs. All the while, rioters began throwing rocks and concrete through the windshields of cars belonging to Los Angeles Police Department officers and the California Highway Patrol.
It took days for Bass to offer unequivocal denunciations of the rioters that did not include her blaming Trump for the rioting, saying, “We will not allow violence, vandalism, or other dangerous behavior today,” and “Violent actors will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.” Newsom couldn’t even manage that, saying that California would hold accountable the “violent criminals who take advantage of Trump’s chaos.” For days and even still, Bass and Newsom deprive the rioters of their agency, acting as if the violence was a natural consequence of the Trump administration trying to detain violent illegal immigrants.
Now, put aside the “Trump made them do it” defense of the rioters. Ask yourself this: Do you really think that Los Angeles and California, bastions of criminal justice reform fighting against “mass incarceration,” are truly keen to hold left-wing rioters accountable? Newsom’s legislature is, at this moment, seeking to make it so that murder is no longer an automatic life-without-parole crime under the logic that 25-year-old murderers are too young to be locked up for life.
In fact, we know that it is likely that most of the rioters arrested by state and local authorities will get nothing more than a slap on the wrist, because that is how Democrats have operated with every group of rioting thugs or law-breaking protesters. When Black Lives Matter riots broke out in Minneapolis and other cities in 2020, Democratic politicians and activists called for police departments to be defunded. Then-Sen. Kamala Harris, who went on to become the leader of the Democratic Party in 2024, supported the bail fund that sought donations to help get rioters right out of jail and back to the streets, where they would be free to riot even more (don’t even get started on the murderers that the same bail fund also helped get released).
It did not stop at the bail fund, though. By November, more than 90% of the rioters who were charged in Minneapolis had their charges dropped. Portland dropped charges against 82% of rioters. More than 5,000 summonses written by police in New York City were dismissed by a summons court. Detroit, Philadelphia, Houston, Dallas, and Los Angeles all dismissed a vast majority of the charges that were pursued by police.
Portland was particularly galling, as the city’s progressive leaders even doled out massive settlement payments to rioters. Portland handed out some $3 million to loser antifa activists complaining about the police, including a “nonbinary” activist who was given $375,000 for “emotional distress” from nonlethal crowd control methods.
Democratic politicians and activists defended violent rioters during the Black Lives Matter summer, ignored the looting and arson that came with those riots, helped get arrested rioters bailed out of jail, and then had the charges against most of them dropped. It echoes how California Democrats have defended Los Angeles rioters and ignored their violence. Newsom has ensured that California does all it can to keep criminals out of jail. All that is left is dropping whatever charges for the people he and Bass claim they will hold “accountable.”
The Black Lives Matter riots were not a one-off. After Palestinian terrorists slaughtered 1,200 Israeli civilians and took several hostages, “pro-Palestinian” terrorist sympathizers took to college campuses to protest against Israel’s existence. Those protests led to illegal encampments on campuses, “pro-Palestinian” activists blocking Jewish students from crossing campus, and mobs of terrorist sympathizers taking over buildings.
In one such case, a mob of antisemites stormed a building at Columbia University. Police showed up and arrested the lawbreakers, 45 in total. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg then dropped the trespassing charges against 30 of the activists and would have dropped charges against 14 more if they hadn’t rejected a deal. Bragg’s office cited a “lack of evidence” to prove trespassing against the group, who were arrested by police inside the building where they were trespassing.
The attorneys general in Washington, D.C., and Michigan have similarly dropped charges against criminal pro-Palestinian “protesters,” while many universities rolled back their suspensions and other disciplinary actions against student protesters. The message was clear: Hateful, antisemitic protests that break both university policy and the law were allowed, and neither the universities nor the Democratic “prosecutors” who have jurisdiction over them would hold left-wing protesters accountable.
Through all of this, Democrats constantly claim that the political Right is the only home to political violence and discord. They have normalized their left-wing rioters to the point that boarding up businesses during “protests” becomes a regular occurrence in Washington, D.C., or Los Angeles. The rot rises up to the top of the party, from former presidential candidate Harris to future presidential candidate Newsom.
You can expect the same thing to play out in Los Angeles, as it has time and time again through the Black Lives Matter riots and antisemitic college demonstrations. Whatever lawbreakers are arrested and charged by Los Angeles and California law enforcement will have their charges dropped en masse, and what few are actually prosecuted for their crimes will likely be let off with no jail time. Community service and diversionary programs for violent criminals; that is the story of the California criminal “justice” system.
POLICE DROP RILEY GAINES CASE OF ASSAULT AND RANSOM AGAINST PROTESTERS
When these riots are put in the rearview mirror, the left-wing professional protester base will simply wait for the next excuse to take to the streets. Democratic politicians will continue to rile them up with talk about how Republicans are cruel dictators and how we must “fight” against them at every opportunity. When those next riots turn violent, those Democratic politicians will then argue there is no violence, like Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), or that the rioters are just a little too caught up in the emotion of the moment, like Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), or that the violent, rioting left-wingers are Trump’s fault, like Gov. Gavin Newsom.
The playbook is the same as it has been for the past five years. Democrats coddle and enable the unruly activists who make up their base, no matter how many businesses are destroyed or law enforcement officers are assaulted.