Space invaders

They staged out of a convoy assembled on Wilshire, exiting the armored vehicles, humvees, and generic white vans — all parked in the bus lane, by the way — a blur of rifles, grenades, helmets, combat boots, fatigues, tactical vests; their cowardly faces obscured by gaiters. For Los Angeles, the scene had become horrifically commonplace; yet another vignette in the never-ending nightmare that has played out all day, every day, on our streets and sidewalks and parking lots for the past month. But on day 32, they came for our parks.

On Monday morning, about 100 federal agents, some on horseback, marched directly into MacArthur Park, a 35-acre urban oasis in the most densely populated neighborhood west of the Mississippi. They advanced past the playground, past the Levitt Pavilion bandshell that hosts free Saturday summer concerts, until they valiantly occupied... an empty soccer field. The siege was equal parts terrifying and pathetic; an abbreviated version of Trump's sad birthday parade. Although somehow even sadder? Suggesting it looked like a film set is far too generous. LA Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson accurately described it as "staging for a TikTok video." Even the name was dumb: Operation Excalibur.

LA Mayor Karen Bass was on her way to a press conference in Pasadena to commemorate the six-month anniversary of the January firestorm, but turned around and headed to the park instead. She emerged from her SUV, a teal power suit in a sea of camo, exuding extreme talk-to-the-manager energy as she worked her way to someone in charge (how you could tell: he was wearing a cowboy hat, not a helmet). You can watch the whole astonishing exchange on video: cowboy hat guy places a call and hands the phone to the mayor, who requests that the troops depart, "ASAP." And after about a half-hour of traipsing around the park looking bored, they did — their vehicles chased out by a growing, chanting crowd. No one appeared to be detained. "The goal is to spread fear," Bass said later. "To terrorize Angelenos. To tell immigrants in our city of immigrants that they should stay home."

Rumors began to surface weeks ago that MacArthur Park would become a command center, perhaps similar to what federal agents attempted to stage at Dodger Stadium. (Until the Dodgers, allegedly, told them to take a hike — is it really this easy to get them to leave after all?) Rapid response networks, already very active in the neighborhood, began preparing for the inevitable: scrambling legal observers, establishing foot patrols, and tacking up warning signs with red duct tape. By the time the feds arrived, most park-users were already long gone. Public areas are eerily vacant citywide, but when I ran through the usually bustling park late last week, aside from a handful of commuters headed to the subway or couples taking a stroll before it got too hot, it was striking to see just how empty MacArthur Park was.

But yesterday, as the videos began to stream through my timeline, I knew there was one part of the park that was definitely filled with people. As I watched troops climb onto a matte black military vehicle WITH A MACHINE GUN MOUNTED ON TOP, I gazed directly across the grass at the recreation center where LA's parks department operates a summer camp.

Sure enough, Bass confirmed, about 20 campers playing outside had been rushed indoors moments before the feds rolled in. "They were ushered inside so that they didn't get exposed to the troops that were walking in formation across their playground area," she said. "
We did not want the children to be aware that it was ICE." But at this point, all LA kids know. Afterwards, Bass went to talk to the campers. "I never let on what was going on upstairs," she said. "But did this 8-year-old tell me that he was afraid of ICE? Did the 8-year-old tell me that he was afraid of ICE taking his parents and he didn't think it was good to take people away? So understand that an 8-year-old knows enough of what's going on, that he's already traumatized in anticipation."

Bass's office later shared a photo of the mayor hugging a group of campers. Wearing the same powder blue shirts my kids wear to their summer camp at another LA city park. Where, apparently, nothing could stop this from happening again today.

Summer is a precarious time for parents even without the threat of a U.S. military attack. We must rearrange our routines, improvise to fill inevitable childcare gaps, cobble together a schedule, cross our fingers week-to-week, and hope our kids don't have a meltdown with every change of venue. LA's city park camps are a sure bet: wonderfully managed, heavily subsidized, and neatly distributed across 100 rec centers. (Although, as Torched readers know, we could really use twice as many of them.) But an LA city park does not offer the same security assurances as LAUSD's very stringent anti-ICE policies do. And some parents I know didn't feel comfortable sending their kids to a park camp this summer because of this very possibility. The first weekend of summer break, a rumor had rippled through my mom chats that ICE had kidnapped nannies at several parks on the westside. Those reports were never confirmed. But the following weekend, raids forced Pasadena to shut down programming at three parks. Disrupting the safety net of LA's summer camps blows yet another hole in the city's cratering economy. (Also, hello? LA28? Are you going to say anything about this happening at the very same rec center where you're giving free sports lessons to future Olympic and Paralympic athletes?)

The state of MacArthur Park has become an obsession of right-wing politicians, who are attempting to weaponize the park's challenges in order to unseat current officials, including Bass and Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, both up for re-election in 2026. Some of them might even defend a federal crackdown on supposed criminal activity. (Norm Langer, who keeps threatening to shut down his restaurant if the problems aren't solved, didn't issue a statement about the military parade but did issue a statement about the closure of a competitor.) But in alleged leaked documents that assessed the park's danger — "Threat level: HIGH" — Monday's operation was half-heartedly justified as an opportunity to surveil the largest "open-air market" of fake IDs in the southwestern U.S. Even if that's true, they're a few months too late: the city already erected huge fences blocking the sidewalks around the park as part of its own crackdown on vendors. As I wrote last year, I live 1.5 miles away and the public spaces near me are facing many of the same challenges. But when the military helicopters shuddered over my home yesterday, it was the first time I genuinely felt that my proximity to MacArthur Park was unsafe.

And that's the point: they want LA to feel like no park will ever be safe again. As Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino — who's just really not that good at this — told Fox News: "Better get used to us now, cause this is going to be normal very soon. We will go anywhere, anytime we want in Los Angeles."

At the press conference, surrounded by a coalition assembled in an hour's notice, Bass described what happened in MacArthur Park as a demonstration of LA's unity — and, to be clear, it definitely was. Immigrant advocates said they were undeterred by the "psychological warfare" inflicted upon them by the U.S. government. Street medics who had guns pointed at them by federal agents vowed to return to their unhoused clients in the park. But when Hernandez stepped up to the mic, visibly shaken, she framed the day's events as a warning. Looking directly into the camera, Hernandez issued a plea to all electeds across the country.

"What you see happening in MacArthur Park is coming to you," she said. "$140 billion new budget for ICE. 
What do you think that's going to do? That's going to transport what's happening here in our neighborhoods to your front doorstep. So wake up." Your city is next. 🔥