A brief report from Downtown Los Angeles

Finding and spreading peace against a narrative of fear

Jun 11, 2025

An Apple CarPlay screen displays the music player interface showing the song “Down Rodeo” by Rage Against the Machine from their album Evil Empire. The album artwork features a young boy in a red superhero-style outfit with a lowercase “e” on his chest and a banner reading “Evil Empire.” The background of the artwork is bright yellow with an orange star. The song is 4 seconds into playback, and the interface shows standard controls like pause, skip, and back. Icons for maps, music, and phone apps appear on the left. The device is connected to 5G. — On the car sound system during some driving in DTLA yesterday

On Monday June 9th, my wife and I drove into downtown Los Angeles. We were braced for some cross between Mad Max and World War Z. The media and the U.S. President had us believing that it was the End Times for the City of Angels. Yes there were attacks on some ICE officers and vandalism, but this is America where people who brazenly attack federal buildings and personnel get pardoned! Scores of people engaged in sporadic violence doesn’t justify invading a city with thousands of National Guard troops and hundreds of active duty U.S. Marines. Someone should tell DOGE about this excessive use of taxpayer dollars.

What greeted us in downtown LA instead was… peace. That afternoon, overnight and the morning of Tuesday June 10th we walked and drove around, met up with friends, and not once did we engage in rebellion against the federal government.

I recorded this video with my friend, Mike de la Rocha. He’s co-founder of the social action company Revolve Impact and the Pasadena coffee shop, Tepito, and author of the just-released book, Sacred Lessons: Teaching My Father How To Live. We recently collaborated on the Week of Citizening stories I launched with Jon Alexander this April. Mike’s story was our closer, the story of Dena Heals, a mutual aid operation in the Altadena and Pasadena areas hit hard by this year’s LA fires. I really couldn’t imagine a better friend with whom to brave the soon-to-be area of operations for U.S. Marines. We hadn’t seen each other in person in several years and were brought together, a Black man and Brown man, by the rising tide of wanna-be dictatorship in the USA.

That’s right. Spread Love, it’s the Brooklyn way but also what’s going on in LA. This attack on a U.S. city isn’t the end of the line for this administration. They have more dirty deeds up their sleeves, but we can counter that with clarity and unity and love.

And here are some short moments on the streets Monday night and Tuesday morning.

Still no signs of widespread insurrection except for the actions of the Executive Branch.

The people are stirring and leaders are starting to follow. Gavin Newsom delivered this excellent address which all in the nation should see:

Please be safe. Channel peace. Exude love in the face of hate. Link up with your first circle of personal first responders. Let’s engage on our terms, not theirs. We will win.

Update 11 June 07:51, Jacob Soboroff shared this.

jacobsoboroff