A message from a summer of ICE: Los Angeles isn’t afraid anymore

On June 12, Sen. Alex Padilla interrupted a news conference by Homeland Security director Kristi Noem. Pushing toward her, he said, “I have questions for the secretary” before several agents dragged him out of the room.

Then in early July, L.A. Mayor Karen Bass arrived amid the chaos of an ICE operation in MacArthur Park. Dressed in a bright turquoise blazer amid a sea of federal camouflage, her arms folded tight in anger, she declared, “They need to leave and they need to leave right now!” Not long after, a top immigration official said the feds had considered arresting her.

One message from L.A.’s summer of ICE

In today’s divided media world, these events were instantly cast as either a dangerous erosion of democracy or grandstanding by politicians searching for a viral clip, depending on your source.

But they underscored a clear message from our summer of ICE: Los Angeles isn’t afraid anymore.

A lot of very dark things have happened in Los Angeles over its 244-year history, events driven by misguided zeal, greed, bigotry and intolerance.

But they are always abetted by fear.

• One of the most notorious lynchings in American history occurred not in the Deep South but in 1870s Los Angeles, when a mob killed 19 Chinese people and some in the city were driven by blood lust.
  

• An estimated 170,000 Japanese Americans — many in California — were rounded up and taken from their homes, farms and businesses and held in prison camps. Both the right and the left put aside their differences to eagerly back the internment.

• A year later, in 1943, the streets of Los Angeles became the scene of shocking mob rule as scores of Mexican teens and young men were beaten, stripped of their ornate “zoot suits” and left bloody and naked on the sidewalk. Police officers laughed, encouraged the beatings, then arrested the victims. Politicians and the papers blamed the Mexicans.
  

Fighting our fears

California historian Kevin Starr wrote eloquently about that part of the Los Angeles psyche that sets the city into “a state of psychosis, surrendering itself to the dream-fear.” Real events become magnified into anxiety that no one is willing or able to control. In 1993, Starr wrote about the paranoid rumors sweeping the city in advance of the verdict in the Rodney King civil trial. (More riots! Military occupation! A gang invasion of the Westside!) He thought immediately of the city’s past sins.

“Future historians will look back to these days and struggle to interpret a time in which fear became fact and rumor became the basis of policy,” he wrote. “It became its own horrible reality, and the City of the Angels, as it always feared it would, dreamt itself out of existence.”

A city of dissent

There are a lot of reasons for L.A. to fear criticizing the sweeps and stay silent. It just gives Trump more ammunition. What will he unleash on us next? But that is not happening this time. The protests, the aid efforts, and the many individuals speaking out against the arrests happening before their eyes show that dissent is alive and well here. Yes, living in a deep blue state gives them some cover. But isn’t it better to speak your mind and not fear the consequences? Isn’t that one of the things supporters love about Trump?

Taking a stand can also bring change.

The 1871 Chinese massacre occurred in an L.A. still ruled by vigilante justice, which made dissent hazardous to your health. But as John Mack Faragher chronicles in “Eternity Street,” the killing of 10% of the city’s entire Chinese population brought shame to L.A. — and forced some to finally speak for change. A few brave voices led to a larger movement that established L.A.’s first real criminal justice system and police force, marking an end to the vigilante era.

It didn’t curb racism or injustice, but it was a start.

Today’s top stories

Activists protest in downtown Los Angeles in early June, when immigration raids set off protests, prompting President Trump to order thousands of troops into the city.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Federal cuts leave Los Angeles County’s health system in crisis

• President Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” which passed earlier this month, is expected to soon claw $750 million a year from the county Department of Health Services, which oversees four public hospitals and roughly two dozen clinics.
• And the Trump administration’s budget for the next fiscal year will likely result in a $200-million cut to the county Department of Public Health, whose responsibilities include monitoring disease outbreaks, inspecting food and providing substance use treatment.

After six months under Trump, California and L.A. are battlegrounds

• President Trump’s administration has repeatedly centered its policy battles in California, including on immigration, transgender athletes and guns.
• Administration officials have said they are trying to improve the lives of state residents.
• State and local officials say California’s progressive values are under unconstitutional attack.

How a California cloud-seeding company became the center of a Texas flood conspiracy

• A Los Angeles-based cloud-seeding company called Rainmaker was accused of causing this month’s deadly Texas flood after conducting operations in the area.
• Experts say Rainmaker’s activity could not have caused the flood, but the incident has fueled conspiracy theories and renewed a national conversation around weather modification.

What else is going on

• The driver who police say plowed into a crowd outside a Hollywood club has a violent criminal history including a hate-crime conviction that was subsequently overturned.
• Forget the high road: Newsom is adopting a much more aggressive social media strategy against Trump and his allies.
• After L.A. firestorms and Texas floods, forecasters say they are feeling haunted by warnings not being heard.
• A plan to shoot 450,000 owls — to save a different owl — could be in jeopardy.
• A tech billionaire has vowed to make homeless housing affordable and profitable.

Commentary and opinions

• Want to win an Emmy? It helps if you’re already famous, columnist Glenn Whipp argues.
• A new film about the Ohio State wrestling team sex abuse scandal indicts those who looked away, writes columnist Robin Abcarian.
• Here’s why Jeffrey Epstein’s tangled web is conspiratorial catnip, writes columnist Mark Z. Barabak.

This morning’s must reads

California

For Subscribers

The river took her sister. A stranger dove in to bring her home

In little more than a year, Juan Heredia, a scuba instructor from Stockton, has developed a strange specialty: He has found the bodies of a dozen drowning victims in California rivers after authorities had either given up or paused searches because they deemed conditions too dangerous.

July 20, 2025

Other must reads

• This innovative effort to save L.A.’s shelter dogs fosters human friendships too.
• Summer school for migrant students takes a double hit from Trump. Fewer kids go to the zoo.

For your downtime

(Christopher Knight / Los Angeles Times)

Going out

• Museums: At LACMA, splendid Buddhist art goes on view after years of delay.
• Canine wellness: Inside the luxury world of dog wellness — as experienced by one very lucky golden retriever.
• Botanical gardens: How to see a corpse flower in L.A. that’s ready to bloom.
• Concerts: Vans Warped Tour, the original punk rock circus, returns to Long Beach.

Staying in

• Books: In his new book, “Algospeak,” Adam Aleksic details how the TikTok algorithm created new words such as “unalive.”
• Recipes: Here’s a recipe for charred gazpacho.
• ✏️ Get our free daily crossword puzzle, sudoku, word search and arcade games.

A question for you: What TV show do you think should win the Emmy for best drama?

The 2025 Emmy nominations have been announced. “Severance” was the top nominee, earning 27 total nominations. Who should win?

Email us at essentialcalifornia@latimes.com, and your response might appear in the newsletter this week.

And finally ... your photo of the day

(Mariah Tauger / For The Times)

Today’s photo is from Times contributor Mariah Tauger at the Mount Washington home of Los Angeles architect Lindsay Sheron and her husband, Daniel, who designed their two-story house after they couldn’t afford to buy a house in L.A.

Have a great day, from the Essential California team

Jim Rainey, staff writer
Diamy Wang, homepage intern
Izzy Nunes, audience intern
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Andrew Campa, Sunday writer
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters

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