Demonstrations against migration policy | “Our city is not in flames,” answer Trump the inhabitants of Los Angeles

(Los Angeles) A ​​few streets from the place where a handful of virulent demonstrators opposed the police in Los Angeles on Wednesday, residents took advantage of their lunch in the sun, sweeping the claims of Donald Trump that their city was in flames.

After six days of sometimes violent demonstrations, under the magnifying glass of the media of the world and social networks, after a curfew and the deployment of the troop decided by Donald Trump to the chagrin of local officials-life in the city of angels took place largely as usual on Wednesday.

“Everything is good here at the Ground Zero,” joked Lynn Sturgis, a retired teacher who demonstrated in front of the federal complex in the heart of gatherings in the center of Los Angeles. The terms “Ground Zero” refer to the point of impact on the land of an atomic bomb and, in the United States, to the New York site of the September 11 attacks.

“Our city is not at all in flames, as our deplorable leader wants you to believe,” she said to AFP, in reference to the multiple statements of the Republican president that the situation is chaotic and out of control in this democratic bastion megalopolis, where a large immigrant population of Latin America lives.

While dedicating to the gemonies local democratic leaders, including the ambitious Californian governor Gavin Newsom who is a potential candidate for the White House in 2028, Donald Trump maintains for example that if he had not decided to send the army, Los Angeles “would burn to his foundations today”.

In reality, the clashes, sometimes spectacular and very amply relayed by the media and social networks, remained sporadic and limited to certain areas, with looting, exchanges of projectiles between demonstrators and police, some destroyed cars, disturbed traffic, but not burned buildings or human losses so far.

Another demonstrator opposed to Donald Trump’s migration policy also assures that “everything is very calm”. “I have lived in Washington for a long time, and I participated there in major events, millions of people. Here, it is not much in comparison, ”says Ellen Carpenter, a former civil servant.

“Everything was pinned up by the administration,” insists M^me Sturgis.

Protected windows

As for the presence of the military of the National Guard, a reserve force of the American army, and a few hundred marines, “it is an error,” said Tracey, a real estate agent who refuses to give his family name. “I don’t feel safe” with them, she said, while also admitting that they were “frightened” at certain times by demonstrations.

Thomas, a retired actor who does not want to give his name either, believes on the contrary that the deployment of the troop is a good thing.

“As soon as darkness comes, scum leaves and sows disorder,” he says.

And it was the National Guard that calmed things, according to him. “More strength, they only understand that. You have to intervene and assert yourself ”.

In broad daylight on Wednesday, restaurants around areas of events were full at the meridian break.

But in the midst of this daily banality, maintenance agents cleaned the tags under the objective of passers-by who immortalized the moment, and traders barricad their windows in anticipation of the weekend, in case the situation degenerates.

“The glass behind these panels is expensive and we are worried, so we do not want to take risks,” said Chris Gonzalez, who supervised the implementation of protective before a business.

“It seems that there will be a big demonstration on Saturday. We just want to prepare for the worst. I’m not saying they are wrong to demonstrate, but clearly, when you have a business to run and protect, it scares. ”