Wild times. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is speaking out following a surprise federal presence at MacArthur Park that shook the local community and sparked intense political backlash. On Monday, July 7, federal agents reportedly linked to Immigration and Customs Enforcement rolled into the park accompanied by Department of Homeland Security personnel and military vehicles. Eyewitnesses and local reports described the arrival of at least four white vans, commonly used for detaining and transporting individuals to jail or holding centers.
Bass, stunned by the sight of armed federal units in a public space, immediately took to socials to share a video and confront the situation directly. “Minutes before, there were more than 20 kids playing — then, the MILITARY comes through,” she wrote. “The SECOND I heard about this, I went to the park to speak to the person in charge to tell them it needed to end NOW. Absolutely outrageous.”
Get this, during a press conference later that afternoon, Bass stood alongside City Council member Eunisses Hernandez and Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson, denouncing the raid in strong terms. She pointed to a broader agenda behind the operation, saying the event was “another example of the [Trump] administration ratcheting up chaos by deploying what looked like a military operation in an American city.”
What’s more, Bass continued, “It’s outrageous and unAmerican that we have federal armed vehicles in our parks when nothing is going on in the parks. It’s outrageous and unAmerican that the federal government seized our state’s National Guard.”
Councilmember Hernandez echoed those sentiments and called for immediate action. “We will continue to have each other’s backs, and we will continue to demand the immediate withdrawal of federal troops and ICE from our city,” she said. Hernandez also warned that Los Angeles could be a signal of what is to come elsewhere, calling the city “the canary in a coal mine” for the rest of the country.