Day after day watching the news wears me down.

It muddies the waters, but some things become clear.

My L. A. is a relatively peaceful city that can manage its own problems, and the current “problems” didn’t start until ICE invaded.

The Washington Gang and the Gang Leader hate L. A. and know its significance. They figure if they can subdue us, the rest of the country will cave and cower. They’re probably right about that. Maybe. Partly.

So the arrests began. Peaceful documented legals, even citizens, are being kidnapped by nameless hooded men without explanation or a warrant or an identified reason, handcuffed, thrown into unmarked cars and driven off into oblivion.

That’s illegal. The courts have said so.

Washington doesn’t care. Not about the law, not about our rights, not about our country, not about the people who are us.

Democracy threatens tyranny. So the tyrants try to destroy it. They control the courts or ignore them, congress is frozen, and law is a relative whim.

It is widely conceded that if we don’t stop it now, it will be too late.

L. A. is California and can do what it needs to in this matter.

Let me give you an example.

Many many years ago, Shirley and I were on a bus coming from or going to the Hollywood Bowl. It was night.

An unsavory man probably drunk or drugged was harassing a woman on the bus and it looked like it might escalate to rape. The driver saw with his mirror, was getting nervous, I think called it in, and pulled over to try to de-escalate the situation.

Shirley and I were about to get nervously scared.

Then two tall young men, strong, fit, apparently gay, obviously together, took the guy in hand, literally, lifted him off the bus and took him aside for a quick workshop on behavior modification. They said to us passengers as they left, “It’s OK everyone, this is L. A., we take care of our own.”

The driver resumed his route, we reached our destination, and this is only one example of many.

We don’t need the army, the National Guard, or the marines right now. Or the dictator who sent them.