Tuesday, June 10, 2025

The Provocateur

Courtesy of Mark Fiore:



Watching reporters walk along the narrow line between police and protesters in L.A. Monday took me back 57 years to 1968 in Memphis and Dr. Martin Luther King’s last march in support of the city’s sanitation workers, who were on strike for better working conditions.

At times like these, the first thing you note is the mixture of anger and fear in the young faces of both sides of that line.

The danger is high. One misstep by anyone and disaster could ensue.

However you might choose to characterize the situation in L.A., one thing is clear. This is exactly the kind of scenario Trump has been preparing for in his grab for complete power.

This may well be how the U.S. and its fragile democracy will teeter over into authoritarianism, not this time but in the future. Trump has already taken illegal steps by federalizing the national guard and deploying marines — steps California has challenged in court.

Keeping the peace is not Trump’s intent. His acts seem meant to provoke a conflict that turns violent, giving him an excuse to invoke the Insurrection Act and further escalate the situation.

Playing into Trump’s hands were the small numbers of anarchists who threw objects at the police, defaced buildings and started fires. We’ve seen these agitators infiltrate large protests on the west coast in the past, whenever they can melt into the crowd and elude arrest.

That the overwhelming majority of protestors are peaceful, law-abiding residents was one key to the process of de-escalating the confrontation. As of late Monday night, most of them had dispersed, lowering tensions and raising hopes that this crisis will pass — for now.

The other key was the restrained but forceful professionalism of the LAPD and other local law enforcement agencies.

That left the provocateurs — both on the streets and the White House — naked and exposed for all to see.

Mark Fiore is a PulitzerPrize-winning cartoonist and former colleague of mine at KQED. Please check out his Substack page.

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