Flag and Pony Show

The jackboots made a showing in LA's MacArthur Park on Monday. Federal law enforcement officers, with the help of the National Guard, arrived in armored vehicles and on horses to conduct an immigration raid in the park.

Officers dressed in combat fatigues, armed with guns, and a peaked in high school attitude scoured an empty park. A federal officer watched on from the top of an armored vehicle mounted with a rifle while a Black Hawk helicopter circled overhead.

Another agent, who likely pulled the short straw that day, carried around an American flag on a pole.

"Operation Excalibur" was a soft invasion of a historic city park, an operation that was part hype video and part show of force. It is the first testing-of-the-waters moment by the administration to see what they could get away with.

Yet, despite all of their resources, they didn't get away with much besides a parade through the city.

That's partially thanks to community members who warned people in the park of the raid.

With nobody there to abduct, it turned their propaganda production into a limp spectacle. DHS now has to find a way to cut the videos to omit the reality of what happened–people in military uniforms marching through an empty park and driving away in retreat.

Not exactly the hype video they were looking for, but one that the people of Los Angeles gave them.

You can ignore whatever video they post on social media about it and instead watch journalist Tina-Desiree Berg's reporting on the raid as it unfolded.

Check it out:

"We'll go anywhere, anytime we want in Los Angeles."

Failed photo-op aside, the threat of another operation still looms over the city. The one in MacArthur Park is likely the start of a further escalation by DHS and ICE.

Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino said so himself when speaking to Fox LA's reporter and fascist fanboy Bill Melugin, "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.”

Bovino and other Trump officials love to play macho, tough-guy theatrics, but it's impossible to downplay the threat as mere bluster given what's still happening in Los Angeles.

The ICE raids haven't stopped or slowed, abducting and disappearing nearly 100 people a day since the raids began a month ago. ICE is also taking no days off, even spending its 4th of July snatching people off the street.

There's also a crackdown on protesters and activists already underway, including an activist being charged with conspiracy to aid and abet civil disorder for handing out protective gear to protesters.

Not to mention, the U.S. Marine Corps soldiers guarding federal buildings and the Reaper drones flying over protests.

Mayor Bass, on her way to mark the six-month anniversary of the wildfires with Governor Newsom, made a detour to the park after learning of Monday's ICE operation.

The mayor, who's visited conflict zones during her tenure as a congressperson, said in a press conference about the operation, "It’s the way a city looks before a coup.”

Before a coup? Los Angeles has been under occupation for a month now. The coup is already here.

What Bovino is threatening is a new normal. One worse than this one. Where the violence is implied and ICE's presence is more well-known.

With ICE's staggering new $145 billion budget, Bovino and his ICE counterparts have more resources than ever to live up to that threat and continue their cruelty, anywhere and anytime they want.

Los Angeles is a test case for the Trump administration's vision nationwide.

What happened on Monday will happen elsewhere.

This is Los Angeles now–it will be everywhere soon.