Shut Up and Obey: The First Amendment, Brought to You by the Marines

Manufactured fear in Los Angeles

It’s already been a heavy year in LA. The wildfires alone were enough. But this week? This week has been infuriating. Federal agents are detaining people at work, pulling them from immigration hearings, and showing up at graduations like it’s normal—all to make deportation quotas. Instead of talking about the Republican-backed budget that’s about to strip healthcare from millions and gut lifesaving programs, we’re being told to focus on a few blocks of protest in downtown LA.

I’ve heard the helicopters, the sirens, and the speeding SUVs rattling through my neighborhood every night this week. So yeah, I have a few thoughts.

"If they come for me in the morning, they will come for you in the night." — Angela Davis

If you're out here eating up images of a few city blocks in DTLA to say you "hate California" or that it's about time the so-called lawlessness of socialist Los Angeles (or whatever your fever dream tells you) gets what it deserves, you sound like someone who’s never been within 100 miles of either. 

Half of you are yelling about states' rights one day and then foaming at the mouth about a city you’ve never set foot in the next. You call everyone else out of touch while clinging to a version of America that stopped evolving when LA started leading the way.

You don’t get to hate on LA unless you live here. And if you do live here, then you know it’s not perfect, but it’s real. People love to throw out the usual critiques: it’s vapid, flaky, traffic-choked, too obsessed with image. Fine. Those things aren’t totally wrong. But what gets missed is what makes LA matter.

Photo by Noah Fuentes on Unsplash

This city holds both flaws and beauty at once. It's driven by determination. It's shaped by compassion. It’s built from communities that span every language, culture, and story imaginable. There’s a reason people from all over the world keep showing up to chase something, to build something, or just to be in a place that doesn’t ask them to shrink.

So when Trump calls it a hellhole and tries to turn it into a backdrop for his small-man complex temper tantrum, I don’t just disagree, I’m disgusted. 

This city isn’t broken. It’s bold. We’ve always known how to stand up, speak out, and have each other’s backs. We are not the crisis, but what’s happening to us is. What's happening here is a warning for all of us. And like Angela Davis said: when they come for one of us, they’re coming for all of us.

From @wehavethedata on Instagram

The President is manufacturing fear. He’s using our streets to sell a lie. Once again, LA is the chosen prop. The helicopters, the barricades, the hand-wringing about safety and order is all theater. It’s not about fixing problems. It’s about building a case for suppression.

He’s not sending Marines to “keep the peace.” He’s sending them to make a point: that protest(a right guaranteed by the First Amendment) is dangerous, that dissent equals disloyalty, and that any city brave enough to demand better should prepare to be punished.

This isn’t strength. It’s a tantrum with a tank.

LA Has Never Waited for Permission

We’ve always known protest isn’t supposed to be comfortable. We’ve walked out, marched through, and stood up. Not because it was easy, but because it was necessary.

• Zoot Suiters refused to be dehumanized in the 1940s.

• Chicano students walked out of East LA schools in the 1960s.

• Rodney King’s beating set off a truth the system tried to ignore.

• Workers—teachers, nurses, hotel staff—refused to be disposable in 2024.

• In 2023, writers and actors shut down Hollywood, not just for better contracts, but to draw a line against corporate greed and the exploitation of creative labor.

And yes, people were uncomfortable every single time. Because protest works. Not by being polite, but by refusing to disappear.

Stop Waiting for a Savior. They’re Not Coming.

History doesn’t move because one person fixes it. It moves when enough people get tired of waiting and act. You don’t need to be famous to matter. You don’t need a cape to make change.

The Civil Rights Movement wasn’t beloved in real time. Most Americans disapproved of the marches, the sit-ins, the demands. We rewrite that story now to feel good about ourselves. It was deeply unpopular. Until it wasn’t.

Too many people are still watching and waiting for some heroic figure to emerge. Someone else to fix it. Someone else to call it out.

They’re not coming. They’re not coming because that figure is you. It’s all of us. 

People love to act like they would've marched with Dr. King, but most of them would've been clutching their pearls in real time. 

“Magneto was right” isn’t just a comic book meme. It’s a warning about what happens when a system keeps asking for patience while turning up the pressure. Waiting for change to come politely is how we end up here in the first place.

This Fight Is Bigger Than LA

We’re not just standing up for our city. We’re standing up for the right to stand up—period.

If Trump can turn LA into a symbol of fear, he can do it anywhere. That’s the point. Use one city to justify suppressing all cities. Use one protest to attack the idea of protest itself.

Don’t let it work. Don’t let them convince you that caring is chaos. Don’t fall for the storyline that keeps changing the subject from injustice to inconvenience.

We’re not in crisis. We’re in motion. And the fact that it scares them? That means we’re doing something right.

Like the lyric from Run the Jewels warns: “Funny fact about a cage, they're never built for just one group. So when that cage is done with them and you're still poor, it come for you.”

This isn’t just about defending LA. It’s about making sure the rest of the country knows—we’re not going quiet. Not now. Not ever.

Resources

Know Your Rights with ICE: Explainers in Multiple Languages and for different situations

National Immigration Law Center: Dedicated to advancing and defending the rights and opportunities of low

California Immigrant Policy Center: Resources Hub

Immigration Advocates Network: National Legal Resources

-matt