LA news anchor sparks fury for calling rioters ‘a bunch of people having fun watching cars burn'
A Los Angeles news anchor sparked outrage for calling rioters 'a bunch of people having fun watching cars burn' — while blaming law enforcement for wanting to stop the carnage.
Jory Rand of ABC 7 dramatically underplayed the violence even as his broadcast showed shocking images of cars completely ablaze in smoke-covered streets.
Noting there was 'a large group of people' running wild, Rand said 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.'
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Anchor Jory Rand of ABC 7 is under fire for his description of the anti-ICE rioters in Los Angeles.
@ABC7Jory/X
Joe Kinsey, a senior editor at Outkick, accused Rand of being 'worse than Baghdad Bob propaganda,' referring to the war-time propagandist for warmongering Iraq leader Saddam Hussein.
Cars have been set on fire, stores looted and dozens arrested since the protests began on Friday.
Aldo-Buttazzoni
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Another viewer outraged by Rand's comments described him as 'a special type of stupid' and claimed he had 'no busy in the media industry.'
'Jory Rand is absolutely tone deaf about the L.A. riots. He's part of the reason why the public can't trust the media anymore,' another posted.
Another called him ther 'biggest woke [journalist] I've ever seen.'
'You're supposed to be neutral and report the news you should just go work for CNN,' one X user said.
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Neither Rand nor ABC 7 appeared to have addressed the outrage.
Several cars, including law enforcement vehicles, have been torched or vandalized and multiple stores looted in the country's second largest city riots that have engulfed downtown Los Angeles since the weekend continued for a fourth night on Monday.
At least five driverless Waymos set ablaze during protests against ICE enforcement in downtown Los Angeles Sunday evening — prompting the company to suspend the ride-sharing service to the area.
Minutes later, the California Highway Patrol dispersed the crowd of protesters from the 101 Freeway — however the agitators returned later and hurling fireworks and rocks at CHP cruisers parked on the highway, according to KTVU.
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Video from the scene shows one CHP car engulfed in flames.
Dozens of rioters have been arrested in the demonstrations, which were sparked by ICE raids and have spread to other parts of the Golden State.
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USA Today
an hour ago
- USA Today
LA isn't burning. ICE has terrorized many into an ominous silence.
The threat of ICE raids on commencement ceremonies was credible enough that our Los Angeles school district devised plans to protect students from being kidnapped as they received their diplomas. Apparently, according to Attorney General Pam Bondi and President Donald Trump, 'California is burning.' Here in Los Angeles, however, we know too well the smell of a serious conflagration ‒ and also the stench of political gas when politicians try to justify corrupt assertions of authoritarian power. We are protesting now not because we are lawless, but because what is happening is a racially selective application of immigration laws that should have been reformed years ago. We are protesting because we still believe in decency, human dignity and respect for hard work and family. Some protesting among us have succumbed to anger, while others have opportunistically caused mayhem the way some revelers do when the Lakers or the Dodgers win a championship. Meanwhile the president and his ministers of cruelty, hysteria and lies are opportunistically causing far more mayhem, disrupting businesses and communities and devastating families and insulting our brave troops by gratuitously deploying them to our streets, pitting them against American civilians, trying to use the selfless members of our military as an authoritarian flex. Rogue opportunists don't represent all LA protesters California is not burning. LA is not burning. Some cars and other objects have been set ablaze by a few individuals who are willing to go to jail for their outrage, nihilism, pyromania or whatever. Their conduct doesn't represent me or most of the rest of us. They certainly do not represent my students now living with terror and dread, watching masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in armored vehicles occupying the parking lots of their supermarkets, scrolling the rumors that scream across social media about the next ICE raid at another Home Depot or factory or a school graduation. The threat of ICE raids on this spring's commencement ceremonies was credible enough that our Los Angeles school district officials devised plans to protect parents, grandparents, and other friends and family members and the students themselves from being kidnapped as they receive their diplomas. My students didn't talk much about it during their last days of the school year. They were trying to be happy about the impending summer vacation. They are exhausted. They spent more than a year of their childhood isolated from peers by the COVID-19 pandemic, many of them trapped in chaotic circumstances, watching the parents who are now treated as expendable when they were essential workers compelled to risk their health and their family's health to keep things going for the rest of us. Some watched those parents get sick and in some cases die or infect grandparents or aunts and uncles who died. My students saw those sacrifices of their parents rewarded with vicious slights and condemnations, heard them called criminals for their very presence in this country. Those adults now must wonder if it is safe to go to work anymore, if there is any other way to provide food and shelter. This summer, end-of-the-school-year silence was ominous We can only guess what is happening to many of our students and their families, though. Not only because of their silent stoicism but because, actually, most stopped attending classes ‒ more of them than usual, even for the last week of school. I don't know what that means but I can imagine. One girl told me almost no one showed up recently at her usually crowded church. With fear and apprehension come small doses of relief. When a graduation goes unmolested by federal agents. When a kid reaches out by email to say they and their family are all right ‒ and asked that I round their grade up to a B. The end of a school year usually brings a silence that is a break from the constant cacophony. This year, that end-of-the-day at the end-of-the-school-year silence was ominous. This year, that silence reminds me of the cruelties. Not just the ICE raids and not just the threats to people who wish to exercise their First Amendment rights, but also the threats to Pell Grants and other forms of student financial aid that could derail the hopes and dreams of my students and undermine the hard work that my colleagues and I commit ourselves to every day. As a parent myself, I know how difficult it is to go through adolescence with a child. It can be frustrating and terrifying, and the feelings of powerlessness can overwhelm. I cannot imagine what it is like to experience that and wonder if you're going to suddenly be seized by armed men and not know if you will ever see your child again. So when I see the silent stoicism of my students, I don't know what to make of it. Is it fatalism or denial disguised as optimism or something else that I don't understand? Whatever it is, my colleagues and I will continue to indulge it and keep things as optimistic as the kids want it, understanding that there could be some we won't ever see again and others returning to school without parents at home. We will try to prepare ourselves to pick up the pieces left by the brutality that is being unleashed on some of the most vulnerable people in our city. Larry Strauss, a high school English teacher in South Los Angeles since 1992, is the author of 'Students First and Other Lies: Straight Talk From a Veteran Teacher' and "A Lasting Impact in the Classroom and Beyond," a book for new and struggling teachers.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Editorial: ICEing out any dissent — Trump arrests of elected officials are intimidation
President Donald Trump's needlessly rough and cruel attitude for ICE in his mission to round up as many people as possible for the mass deportation of millions, including non-criminals, has extended to elected officials, with city Comptroller Brad Lander being detained at immigration court Downtown as he attempted to escort a man following a hearing. ICE is brooking no dissent. The arrest of Lander, who was released after a few hours, followed the aggressive detention of California Sen. Alex Padilla as he tried to ask Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem a question last week, the arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and indictment of New Jersey Rep. LaMonica McIver stemming from the same May incident at a detention facility. In each of these cases, federal personnel had some ostensible reason for their actions; Lander can be seen holding onto the man he was escorting, Padilla approached Noem at a public press conference, while Baraka and McIver were attempting to enter a heavily secure facility. The administration wants you to believe these circumstances mean they were justified in these actions, but each case really is just a pretext to interfere with elected officials asking questions on behalf of constituents, exercising oversight roles or making decisions about their jurisdictions with the objective of dissuading this in the future. In each case, officials knew who they were detaining. Baraka and McIver had arrived as part of a congressional delegation — who, it's worth noting, the federal government is by law obligated to allow in to conduct facilities inspections — while Padilla is captured on video loudly and clearly announcing that he is a United States senator. A reporter for The City heard a federal agent asking another 'do you want to arrest the comptroller?' before Lander was handcuffed. The charges are so ridiculous that Lander's and Baraka's were immediately dropped, with a judge raking prosecutors over the coals in the latter case. Still, the Justice Department is bewilderingly insisting on attempting to prosecute McIver, a sitting member of Congress engaging in the type of oversight that she was expressly permitted to do by law. What Trump and his lackeys ultimately want is not the safety of their officers — whom they are openly putting at risk by having them engage in aggressive operations while unidentified, raising concerns that they could be targeted by people who are unaware if they're federal agents or not — but the silencing of criticism. They have roughed up these officials for the same reason that they have gone after universities and law firms: these are the actors best equipped to push back on the administration's authoritarian efforts. Smaller organizations or less prominent individuals are going to find themselves even less likely to speak out politically seeing what happens to more powerful critics. If you are an ordinary citizen, you are probably much less likely to use your First Amendment rights once you've seen elected representatives tossed to the ground and arrested for speaking out. Yet that's why it's important for elected officials to keep sticking their necks out; it signals that the administration won't succeed at shutting down dissent. Judges should make it clear this tactic is unacceptable. _____
The Hill
2 hours ago
- The Hill
Freed from prison, Belarusian dissident Tsikhanouski tells AP about 5 years in solitary confinement
VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — Siarhei Tsikhanouski is almost unrecognizable. Belarus' key opposition figure, imprisoned in 2020 and unexpectedly released on Saturday, once weighed 135 kilograms (298 pounds) at 1.92 meters (nearly 6'4') tall, but now is at just 79 kilos (174 pounds). On Saturday, Tsikhnaouski was freed alongside 13 other prisoners and brought to Vilnius, the capital of neighboring Lithuania, where he was reunited with his wife, exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, and their children. Speaking to The Associated Press the day after, Tsikhanouski tries to smile and joke, but struggles to hold back heavy sighs recalling what he endured behind bars. 'This is definitely torture,' Tsikhanouski told The Associated Press in the first sit-down interview since his release. Prison officials 'kept telling me: 'You will be here not just for the 20 years we've already given you.' We will convict you again,'' he said. 'They told me that 'You would never get out.' And they kept repeating: 'You will die here.'' One of Belarus's most prominent opposition figures, Tsikhanouski said he 'almost forgot how to speak' during his years in solitary confinement. He was held in complete isolation, denied medical care, and given barely enough food. 'If you had seen me when they threw only two spoons of porridge onto my plate, two small spoons …' he said, adding that he couldn't buy anything anything in the prison kiosk. 'They would sometimes give me a little tube of toothpaste, a little piece of soap as charity. Sometimes they would, sometimes they wouldn't.' Now 46, Tsikhanouski, a popular blogger and activist, was freed just hours after Belarusian authorities announced that authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko met with U.S. President Donald Trump's envoy for Ukraine in the Belarusian capital, Minsk. Keith Kellogg became the highest-ranking U.S. official in years to visit Belarus, Moscow's close and dependent ally. Tsikhanouski, known for his anti-Lukashenko slogan 'stop the cockroach,' was arrested after announcing plans to challenge the strongman in the 2020 election and shortly before the campaign began. He was sentenced to 19 years and six months on charges widely seen as politically motivated. His wife ran in his stead, rallying crowds across the country. Official results handed Lukashenko his sixth term in office but were denounced by the opposition and the West as a sham. Lukashenko has since tightened his grip, securing a seventh term in disputed January 2025 elections. Since mid-2024, his government has pardoned nearly 300 prisoners — including U.S. citizens — in what analysts see as an attempt to mend ties with the West. Tsikhanouski credited U.S. President Donald Trump with aiding his release. 'I thank Donald Trump endlessly,' Tsikhanouski said. 'They (the Belarusian authorities) want Trump to at least, a little bit, somewhere, to meet them halfway. They are ready to release them all. All of them!' Tens of thousands of people poured into the streets in the aftermath of the August 2020 vote. Thousands were detained, many beaten by police. Prominent opposition figures either fled the country or were imprisoned. At least 1,177 political prisoners remain in custody, according to Viasna, the oldest and most prominent human rights group in Belarus. Among them is Viasna's founder, human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski. Also behind bars are Viktor Babaryka, a former banker who was widely seen in 2020 as Lukashenko's main electoral rival, and Maria Kolesnikova, a close ally of Tsikhanouskaya and charismatic leader of that year's mass protests. Tsikhanouski called his release 'a dream that's still hard to believe.' On Saturday, he said, guards removed him from a KGB pretrial detention center, put a black bag over his head, and handcuffed him before transporting him in a minibus. He and other prisoners had no idea where they were going. 'To be honest, I still can't believe it. I was afraid I'd wake up and everything would still be the same. I don't believe it, I still don't believe it,' he said, pausing frequently and wiping away tears. Tsikhanouski's children — his daughter, aged 9, and 15-year-old son — didn't recognize him when they were reunited. 'We came in and my wife said to my daughter, 'Your dad has arrived,'' he said, crying. 'At first she couldn't understand, and then she rushed in — she was crying, I was crying … for a very long time. My son too! These are emotions that cannot be described.' Tsikhanouski, who says his health has deteriorated behind bars, plans to undergo a medical examination in Lithuania. He says cold and hunger were 'the main causes of illness' that affected nearly all political prisoners in Belarus, who were subjected to 'especially harsh conditions.' 'There were skin diseases, and everyone had kidney problems from the cold — and no one really understood what was happening,' Tsikhanouski said. 'Blood came out of my mouth, from my nose. Sometimes I had convulsions — but it was all because of the cold, that terrible cold when you sit in those punishment cells.' 'There is no medical care in prison — none at all, just so you know …' he said. Tsikhanouski said conditions slightly improved after the February 2024 death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in a prison colony. 'When Alexei Navalny died, I thought, that'll probably be me soon … And then something changed. It was clear that someone at the top said, 'Make sure he doesn't die here. We don't need that problem.' It got just a bit softer … At some point, word came down: Tsikhanouski must be kept alive, not killed.' Tsikhanouski blames Russian President Vladimir Putin for propping up Lukashenko, both during the 2020 protests and to this day. Russia supports Belarus's economy with loans and subsidized oil and gas. In return, Belarus has allowed Moscow to use its territory to launch troops and weapons into Ukraine, and hosts Russian forces and nuclear weapons. Tsikhanouski expressed strong support for Ukraine, calling the Kremlin a common evil for both countries. 'If it weren't for Putin, we would already be living in a different country. Putin recognized Lukashenko's victory in the election, he called black white. That is, he refused to see the falsifications,' Tsikhanouski said. 'They help each other. Because of Putin, this illegal government is still in Belarus.' Some analysts have speculated that by releasing the charismatic and energetic Tsikhanouski, Belarusian authorities may be trying to sow division within the opposition. But Tsikhanouski insists he has no intention of challenging his wife's role as the internationally recognized head of the Belarusian opposition, and he calls for unity. 'Under no circumstances do I plan to criticize any Belarusians, condemn or complain about anyone,' he said. Tsikhanouski says he will not stop fighting and wants to return to active work as both a political figure and a blogger. But he is skeptical that Lukashenko, now 70, will step down voluntarily, despite his age. 'I don't know anymore — will he go or won't he?' Tsikhanouski said. 'Many people say nothing will change until he dies. But I'm still counting on democratic forces winning.' ___ Associated Press journalists Elise Morton in London, and Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed to this report.
