Tag: protests

Judge limits ICE’s crowd control tactics following Minneapolis shooting

Posted on by Lone Candle

“Menendez’s order bars Homeland Security and ICE officials involved in Operation Metro Surge from “using pepper-spray or similar nonlethal munitions and crowd dispersal tools against persons who are engaging in peaceful and unobstructive protest activity.” The judge also prohibited federal agents from stopping vehicles following them, as long as those vehicles are maintaining a safe and “appropriate” distance.

“The First Amendment protects speech and peaceful assembly — not rioting,” DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. “DHS is taking appropriate and constitutional measures to uphold the rule of law and protect our officers and the public from dangerous rioters. We remind the public that rioting is dangerous — obstructing law enforcement is a federal crime and assaulting law enforcement is a felony.””

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/16/ice-minneapolis-arrests-judge-protests-00735416?_bhlid=b376075801834ad0b250c6bc586df392cbc430ab&utm_campaign=the-smile-1-21&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_source=www.readthesmile.com

Why the Protests in Iran Failed

Posted on by Lone Candle

Iran brutally slaughtered its protestors. Up to 20,000 were killed.

Iran’s revolutionary guards are stronger than its regular military and they are loyal to the supreme leader.

Trump literally said that “help is on its way”, and many protesters said they expected Trump to help. When he didn’t, the ones that were still alive, felt betrayed.

A US intervention would likely cause a retaliatory strike, and the US wasn’t prepared for such attacks because it was using resources around Venezuela.

Local partner countries warned against a US intervention, fearing a regional conflict.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Bt6K0Jo0xo

Iranians Risking Everything for Freedom

Posted on by Lone Candle

One reason the Iranian protests were so big, was because Trump called for protest and said he would help. So far, he has left them hanging.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1Pjm6HdVbA

Appeals court backs Trump’s National Guard deployment in Portland

Posted on by Lone Candle

““In Portland, protests have endured for months, and the [Portland police have] been either unwilling or unable to respond to the disturbances,” the appeals judges wrote.
Nelson and Bade said Immergut relied too heavily on Trump’s social media commentary — calling Portland “war ravaged” — to conclude that his deployment was “untethered” from reality, noting that the unrest had required a surge of law enforcement from the Federal Protective Service to contain.

The 9th Circuit panel majority repeatedly cited a similar decision issued by three colleagues permitting Trump’s deployment of Guard troops to Los Angeles earlier this year. In the ruling, the judges said Trump is owed great deference in determining whether civil unrest reaches a point in which the military may be called in for support.

The majority said Immergut used a faulty definition of rebellion in her decision, but the appeals judges did not address whether Trump had a valid claim that such unrest was underway when he sent in the Guard. (They did say they were not endorsing Trump’s description of Portland as a “war zone.”)

The appeals panel’s dissenting judge, Clinton appointee Susan Graber, called the majority’s decision ”absurd,” pleaded with her 9th Circuit colleagues to quickly reverse it and urged the public to “retain faith in our judicial system for just a little longer.”

“We have come to expect a dose of political theater in the political branches, drama designed to rally the base or to rile or intimidate political opponents. We also may expect there a measure of bending—sometimes breaking—the truth,” Graber wrote. “By design of the Founders, the judicial branch stands apart. We rule on facts, not on supposition or conjecture, and certainly not on fabrication or propaganda.”

Graber emphasized that even though there had been unruly protests in Portland in June, they had largely subsided and by September routinely featured 30 or fewer demonstrators and virtually no violence or requests for local police assistance.”

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/20/national-guard-deployment-oregon-ruling-00615660

Decades-long peace vigil near White House is dismantled after Trump’s order

Posted on by Lone Candle

“Law enforcement officials on Sunday removed a peace vigil that had stood outside the White House for more than four decades after President Donald Trump ordered it to be taken down as part of the clearing of homeless encampments in the nation’s capital.
Philipos Melaku-Bello, a volunteer who has manned the vigil for years, told The Associated Press that the Park Police removed it early Sunday morning. He said officials justified the removal by mislabeling the memorial as a shelter.

“The difference between an encampment and a vigil is that an encampment is where homeless people live,” Melaku-Bello said. “As you can see, I don’t have a bed. I have signs and it is covered by the First Amendment right to freedom of speech and freedom of expression.”

…

The small but persistent act of protest was brought to Trump’s attention during an event at the While House on Friday.

Brian Glenn, a correspondent for the conservative network Real America’s Voice, told Trump the blue tent was an “eyesore” for those who come to the White House.

“Just out front of the White House is a blue tent that originally was put there to be an anti-nuclear tent for nuclear arms,” Glenn said. “It’s kind of morphed into more of an anti-American, sometimes anti-Trump at many times.”

Trump, who said he was not aware of it, told his staff: “Take it down. Take it down today, right now.”

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/07/peace-vigil-near-white-house-dismantled-00549764

Jon Stewart on Israel’s “Urgent” Iran Strike, Minnesota Murders & MAGA’s Blame Game | The Daily Show

Posted on by Lone Candle

Israel leader Netanyahu has been saying Iran is weeks away from a nuke for over a decade.

Many Republicans called for the violence in LA to be crushed with military force and for Democrats to be removed from office, even though the violence and vandalism were contained and the Los Angeles Police Department had it under control.

When an immigrant kills someone, Republicans want to move and spend Heaven and Earth to limit all immigration and deport all illegals, devastating the lives of many people, but when Americans repeatedly murder, massacre, and assassinate fellow Americans with guns, they offer simple condolences.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Q08a7BI9XI

Gavin Newsom on the LA Protests, Trump’s Response and Why It’s a Defining Moment for Democracy

Posted on by Lone Candle

Local law enforcement had the vandals and rioters under control and sending the military was uncalled for.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTLKFojoYAA