LA Anti-ICE Protests: Yes, There’s Violence. There’s Also Hope

LA’s anti-ICE protests have dominated headlines and television news stations over the last week. And depending on where you’ve been consuming your media, it might seem that Los Angeles is currently in a citywide meltdown.

But a number of women have taken to social media to debunk the narrative coming from the administration that LA is out of control, and only the military can save it.

Glamour spoke to Abigail Porter, a content creator living in DTLA, about why her video showcasing the peaceful side of LA’s anti-ICE protests has struck such a chord with viewers—many of whom said in the comments that they didn’t realize there was another side to the story. The video has received more than 12.5 million views as of publishing.

“I was there for about three and a half hours,” Porter says of the protest she attended on June 9 near the El Pueblo Historical Monument and the Robert A. Young Federal Building.

“I shot that video really quickly…but it’s pretty accurate what the protests are really like. Everything is very well-organized, they have a lot of really incredible speakers that have been talking and getting people inspired. People are there dancing and chatting with each other, and chanting and protesting and handing out water and snacks,” she says.

“Obviously it’s a tough situation that we’re in, but the community has really come together and shown up for each other…I’ve lived in LA for about 4 years. There is a real sense of community here,” she adds, noting that California is a “blue state” that did not vote for Trump and his mass deportation agenda. “It’s scared a lot of people. It’s a shame. We didn’t want any of this mess.”

As for the response to her viral video—it was shared by actor Pedro Pascal—Porter has been struck by just how much her footage clashes with what people have already decided is the only acceptable narrative of what Los Angeles is like right now.

“The most surprising thing honestly is people coming into the comments and…it’s almost like they’re telling [me] that what I’m seeing and what I’m sharing is not real,” she says. “They’re like, ‘what about all of the unrest?’ And I’m like, ‘that’s what I’m showing you isn’t happening, that’s the skewed narrative that you’re being shown. And I’m showing you something else and you’re telling me that my lived experience is not what I’m experiencing? Like, how does that make sense in your brain?’ [It’s] blatant denial of what I’m literally showing.”

Again, that’s not to say that it has been calm at all times. There has been destruction of property. Many immigrants are scared, reporters have been hurt covering the protests. But truth devoid of context is still biased, and images of violence without the context that many protests and much of Los Angeles is just fine serves the agenda that we need the military here, and we really don’t. Don’t take it from me.