Los Angeles' image is scuffed since ICE raids and protests, with World
Cup and Olympics on horizon
[June 10, 2025]
By MICHAEL R. BLOOD
LOS ANGELES (AP) — This isn’t the image Los Angeles wanted projected
around the globe.
Clouds of tear gas wafting over a throng of protesters on a blocked
freeway. Federal immigration agents in tactical garb raiding businesses
in search of immigrants without legal status. A messy war of words
between President Donald Trump and Gov. Gavin Newsom. Photos captured
several Waymo robotaxis set on fire and graffiti scrawled on a federal
detention center building, while videos recorded the sounds of rubber
bullets and flash-bang grenades hitting crowds.
In a city still reeling from January's deadly wildfires — and with the
World Cup soccer championships and the 2028 Olympics on the horizon —
Mayor Karen Bass has been urging residents to come together to
revitalize LA's image by sprucing up streets, planting trees and
painting murals so LA shows its best face to nations near and far.
“It's about pride,” she's said. “This is the city of dreams.”
Instead, a less flattering side of Los Angeles has been broadcast to the
world in recent days. Protests have mostly taken place in a small swath
of downtown in the sprawling city of 4 million people. As Trump has
activated nearly 5,000 troops to respond in the city, Bass has staunchly
pushed back against his assertions that her city is overrun and in
crisis.
Bass, in response to Trump, said she was troubled by depictions that the
city has been “invaded and occupied by illegal aliens and criminals, and
that now violent, insurrectionist mobs are swarming our federal agents.
I don’t know if anybody has seen that happen, but I’ve not seen that
happen.”
The series of protests began Friday outside a federal detention center,
where demonstrators demanded the release of more than 40 people arrested
by federal immigration authorities.
Immigration advocates say the people who were detained do not have
criminal histories and are being denied their due process rights.
An international city
Much like New York, Los Angeles is an international city that many
immigrants call home. The city’s official seal carries images
referencing the region’s time under Spanish and Mexican rule. Over 150
languages are spoken by students in the Los Angeles Unified School
District. About half of the city's residents are Latino and about
one-third were born outside the U.S.
Bass faulted the Trump administration for creating "a chaotic
escalation” by mobilizing troops to quell protests.
"This is the last thing that our city needs," Bass said.
Los Angeles resident Adam Lerman, who has attended the protests, warned
that protests would continue if the Trump administration pushes more
raids in the city.
“We are talking about a new riot every day,” Lerman said. ”Everybody
knows they are playing with fire."
It's not the publicity LA needs as it looks to welcome the world for
international sporting events on a grand scale.
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A person reacts to irritants during protests near the Metropolitan
Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles, Sunday, June 8, 2025. (AP
Photo/Ethan Swope, File)
“At this stage in the process, most host cities and countries would
be putting the final touches on their mega-event red carpet,
demonstrating to the world that they are ready to embrace visitors
with open arms,” said Jules Boykoff, a Pacific University professor
who has written widely on the political and economic impacts of the
Olympic Games. The scenes of conflict are “not exactly the best way
to entice the world to plan their next tourist trip to the U.S. to
watch a sports mega-event.”
A mayor under pressure
The federal raids and protests have created another dicey political
moment for Bass, who has been struggling with a budget crisis while
trying to recover from political fallout from the wildfires that
ignited when she was out of the country.
She's been careful not to discourage protests but at the same time
has pleaded for residents to remain peaceful. The mayor will likely
face backlash for involving the Los Angeles Police.
And she needs to fight the perception that the city is unsafe and
disorderly, an image fostered by Trump, who in social media posts
has depicted Bass as incompetent and said the city has been
“invaded” by people who entered the U.S. illegally. Los Angeles is
sprawling — roughly 470 square miles (750 square kilometers) — and
the protests were mostly concentrated downtown.
"The most important thing right now is that our city be peaceful,"
Bass said. “I don’t want people to fall into the chaos that I
believe is being created by the (Trump) administration.”
On Monday, workers were clearing debris and broken glass from
sidewalks and power-washing graffiti from buildings — among the
structures vandalized was the one-time home of the Los Angeles Times
across the street from City Hall. Downtown has yet to bounce back
since long-running pandemic lockdowns, which reordered work life and
left many office towers with high vacancy rates.
Trump and California officials continued to spar online and off,
faulting each other for the fallout. At the White House, Trump
criticized California leaders by saying “they were afraid of doing
anything” and signaled he would support Newsom's arrest over his
handling of the immigration protests.
If Los Angeles' image was once defined by its balmy Mediterranean
climate and the glamor of Hollywood, it's now known “primarily for
disaster,” said Claremont McKenna College political scientist Jack
Pitney.
“A lot of perception depends on images," Pitney added. Right now,
the dominant image "is a burning Waymo.”
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Associated Press writer Jason Dearen contributed.
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