I may be going out on a limb on this, but I think most Americans don’t want to watch their cities being burned down. The majority of Americans like the idea of law and order and frown on groups of people attacking police or federal officials. This may be another area where the Democrat party and the media might want to reconsider their messaging.
On Monday, The Daily Caller reported:
Legacy media outlets have framed violent unrest that began Friday in Los Angeles, California, over Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids as “protests,” despite extensive vandalism, arson and attacks on police.
Riots commenced on Friday after ICE raids in Los Angeles County, prompting President Donald Trump to deploy the National Guard to the city on Saturday. Despite the violent and destructive nature of the demonstrations, several legacy media outlets opted not to describe them as “riots.”
Protesting is legal and is as American as apple pie. Burning property and attacking people is illegal.
The article notes:
For instance, The Associated Press published a Sunday piece noting that protesters impeded access to a significant freeway and set fire to self-driving cars, but neglected to use the terms “riots” or “rioters” when describing the demonstrations.
In fact, the story even compared the Los Angeles riots to previous riots in the city in what appeared to be an attempt to downplay the violence. “The protests did not reach the size of past demonstrations that brought the National Guard to Los Angeles, including the Watts and Rodney King riots, and the 2020 protests against police violence, in which [Democratic California Gov. Gavin] Newsom requested the assistance of federal troops,” the AP wrote.
The article reports:
Moreover, ABC7 Los Angeles anchor Marc Brown on Sunday appeared to downplay the riots as the outlet showed footage of a car burning downtown.
“It could turn very volatile if you move law enforcement in there the wrong way and turn what is just a bunch of people having fun watching cars burn into a massive confrontation and altercation between officers and demonstrators,” Brown said.
CBS News also published a Monday piece that neglected to use the terms “riots” or “rioters,” while reporting on the anti-police violence that occurred on Sunday.
“[S]ome of those remaining threw objects at police from behind a makeshift barrier that spanned the width of a street and others hurled chunks of concrete, rocks, electric scooters and fireworks at California Highway Patrol officers and their vehicles parked on the closed southbound 101 Freeway,” the outlet wrote. “Officers ran under an overpass to take cover.”
This is not acceptable behavior, and unlike what happened during the ‘summer of love’ in 2000, anyone who broke the law needs to go to jail. No charges should be dropped; no bail accepted.