Editor:
Kristi Noem said something outrageous at a press conference, so Sen. Alex Padilla tried to ask her a question and got pushed out of the room, onto the ground, and handcuffed by federal agents. The treatment of Padilla got the press coverage, but Noem’s statement deserves more attention.
She said: “The Department of Homeland Security and the officers and the agencies and the departments and the military people that are working on this operation will continue to sustain and increase our operations in this city. We are not going away. We are staying here to liberate this city from the socialists and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor had placed on this country and what they have tried to insert into the city.”
In other words, the Trump administration is out to liberate the people of Los Angeles from the officials they elected (“Bigger Surge of Law Enforcement and Military Coming to LA,” June 12)! (Trump got about 32 percent of the votes in L.A. County in 2024.) So much for Democracy!
John Williams, Petrolia
This article appears in Restaurant Week 2025.
Are you absolutely sure that Los Angeles’ US Citizens voted to have their city burned and rioted?
Or could there be foreign nationals waving foreign flags involved?