LA Mayor Bass compares anti-ICE protests to Lakers championship disturbance: 'A few knuckleheads'
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is pushing back, claiming that anti-ICE protests last year didn't devolve into riots, and likening the vandalism and clashes between protesters and police with the actions of fans after a Los Angeles Lakers championship.
Bass was on the "At Our Table with Jamie Harrison" podcast when she remarked on the federalization of National Guard troops and the deployment of several hundred Marines to the city amid several days of anti-ICE demonstrations.
While some protesters voiced their anger at ICE lawfully, others set cars, including law enforcement vehicles, on fire and violently fought with police, while elected officials maintained that the demonstrations were peaceful.
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"Nothing was going on. OK, we have some protests," Bass told Harrison. "You want to know the protests, in my opinion, equaled a Lakers championship."
"You know what happens after a championship right? A few knuckleheads hang around. They're drunk, they start vandalizing things. There was no riot here."
Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House and the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union that represents rank-and-file officers with the Los Angeles Police Department.
The protests were in response to the Trump administration's crackdown on illegal immigration in and around Los Angeles. Suburbs like Paramount and Compton saw vehicles set on fire, objects thrown at authorities and vandalism.
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The violence prompted President Donald Trump to call in the military to restore order and assist local authorities, prompting a rebuke from many Democratic officials, including Bass and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Protesters gathered in downtown Los Angeles for several days near the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse, where local law enforcement fired less-lethal projectiles, tear gas and flash bangs to disperse crowds.
Demonstrators responded by blocking a major freeway, setting vehicles ablaze, and hurling rocks, Molotov cocktails and other projectiles at the police, authorities said.
Bass noted that the protests happened in an area that was about 1-square-mile.
"That majority of the city didn't even know anything was happening. That warrants 4,000 troops?" Bass said.
In December, a federal judge ordered Trump to return the National Guard troops deployed to Los Angeles to Newsom's control, ending the federalization used for immigration enforcement and protests.