Federal Agents March Through L.A. Park, Spurring Local Outrage

New York Times

5 hours ago

It had been a quiet morning in MacArthur Park, a hub in one of Los Angeles's most immigrant-heavy neighborhoods. Children at a summer camp were playing outside, but the park was otherwise largely empty.
Then, dozens of armed federal agents began marching over soccer fields and grass berms, based on footage of the incident. Military-style vehicles blocked the street and a federal helicopter flew overhead.
They wore fatigues, masks and helmets and marched in lines. Some were on horseback. Camera crews followed alongside them.
Los Angeles leaders have grown weary after thousands of National Guard troops and Marines arrived nearly a month ago and immigration raids have become a regular, visible occurrence. But they took particular umbrage at Monday's extraordinary show of force in MacArthur Park and issued a swift and furious rebuke.
'What I saw in the park today looked like a city under siege, under armed occupation,' Mayor Karen Bass said in a news conference on Monday afternoon, adding that she had traveled regularly into conflict zones as a member of Congress. 'It's the way a city looks before a coup.'
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