The Partial Observer by Jennifer Hill

No Defense for Trump Administration’s Violent Rhetoric, Tactics

AllOtsego’s June 12 editorial, “No Defense for Violence,” decried “the riots and violence” in Los Angeles while whitewashing and ignoring the Trump administration’s own violent tactics and rhetoric that triggered the L.A. protests and threatened to escalate situation.

The editorial board said the “riots” broke out in response to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arresting people “without formal immigration documentation” as if ICE were conducting normal, routine work. Since Trump’s inauguration, ICE has been arresting and disappearing people off streets, workplaces, farms, during court appearances, and even from their homes. They are not just those without documents, but people with the “formal” documents, who are legal residents and even U.S. citizens. Families have been torn apart, with one parent and children suddenly taken away to border cities, to be deported within hours—even a 4-year-old child with a life-threatening illness.

We just heard that happened in Oneonta on Saturday, June 14, a man getting into his car to go to work when ICE arrested him and wouldn’t let him go back inside his house to show he was here legally, with his “formal immigration documentation.”

That is violence. That is what triggered the L.A. protests. Because no one wants to find out their friends, neighbors, co-workers, favorite waitress, and especially children have been suddenly disappeared from their communities, with seemingly no recourse.

The editorial also failed to mention that hundreds of L.A. police officers and state troopers were deployed to control the protests. The editorial board said violence the next night prompted Trump to send 2,000 National Guard troops to L.A. That is inaccurate. Trump sent 2,000 National Guards to Los Angeles because he felt like it, without California Governor Gavin Newsome’s request or consent for them. When Newsome objected to it, Trump called him “Newscum” on social media, agreed Newsome should be arrested, and then sent 700 U.S. Marines to L.A.

That is not normal. No president had sent in the National Guard without a governor’s consent since 1965. Trump did it to challenge Newsome’s authority and to inflame more violence so he could use the U.S. military to go after civilians. We know Trump has long wanted to do that and came close to it during peaceful George Floyd protests in D.C. in 2020. But the op-ed said nothing about it.

Since the op-ed was published, the administration’s threat and use of violence have escalated, which is no surprise since it has since January 20, 2025. At a news conference on June 12, U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Secretary Kristi Noem said the military was “to liberate [Los Angeles] from the socialists and the burdensome leadership of the Democratic leaders of California and Los Angeles.” She labeled Californians and their leaders as “socialists” to paint them as enemies of the country and to justify removing them from power with military force.

When U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA) began asking Noem about it, he was wrestled to the ground and handcuffed. Despite what Noem, Fox News and other Republicans claimed, you can clearly hear Senator Padilla identifying himself before he spoke and see he did not lunge at her in a video clip.

Is this really where we are now in America—the president and his cabinet threatening to remove elected officials of states and cities from power, arresting senators and congressional representatives from the opposing party for speaking up and doing their jobs, and then lying about it despite clear evidence to the contrary?

The editorial board quoted an October 2024 editorial by Thomas Pullyback at length about the importance of accepting the results of the election, that the “the fabric of American society is ripped apart or patched up depends upon [it.]” Americans did accept the results, without violent protests, unlike four years earlier.

But we are beyond the election and we are seeing the Trump administration use heavy-handed, illegal and violent tactics toward immigrants, documented or not, U.S. citizens, and toward elected officials. We see Trump wanting to stoke violence and use the military to go after civilians even when they are peacefully protesting.

That is ripping apart the fabric of American society, not a week of protests, sometimes peaceful, sometimes violent, in Los Angeles. We need to stop whitewashing and normalizing the administration’s violence and instead, condemn it. There should be no defense for it.

Jennifer Hill is a resident of Oneonta.