Tag: los angeles

The L.A. Sheriff’s Office Is Mad at Starbucks—Over a Pig Doodle

Over the weekend, a sheriff’s deputy reported receiving rude treatment at a chain restaurant. Not only did he complain to management, but his own boss called and threatened the restaurant’s corporate management on the deputy’s behalf.

In a statement posted to social media over the weekend, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) said it was “deeply concerned” about an incident that took place at a “local coffee shop in the city of Norwalk.” (The department has since confirmed it was a Starbucks.)

On January 9, the statement said, a LASD deputy “was deliberately served a cup bearing a hand-drawn image of a pig, which is commonly used to demean law enforcement. This action was extremely offensive, inappropriate, and unacceptable. The deputy quickly reported the incident to the store manager, who advised that the matter would be investigated.”

“It felt discouraging and disrespectful, especially after a long day of serving the community,” the deputy wrote on Instagram. “All I wanted was caffeine, but instead I left feeling uneasy.”

Assuming the deputy was correct, it’s certainly unprofessional to draw disparaging doodles on a customer’s cup. But the matter didn’t stop there.

“Upon learning about this incident from the employee,” the statement continued, LASD Sheriff Robert Luna “immediately escalated the matter and contacted an individual in the coffee company’s corporate security division to formally raise concerns and to ensure accountability. In addition, the Sheriff spoke directly with the deputy to check on his well-being, convey his full support, and make it clear that disrespectful actions will not be tolerated against our personnel.”

This detail is galling. If a server is rude, you have the right to complain to their boss; you’re also free to eat at a different restaurant, or to just forget about it and move on. What you can’t do is call the police because a member of the wait staff was mean to you.

And yet an officer was so offended that he not only told the manager, but his boss—the top law enforcement official in the largest sheriff’s department in the country—felt compelled to get involved in something that is in no way within the police’s purview.

Because no matter how uneasy or disrespected the deputy felt, the First Amendment protects our right to insult or disparage the police. Numerous court cases have made clear that this includes giving the finger and calling them discourteous names—yes, including pig.

Telling Starbucks corporate security that disrespectful sketches “would not be tolerated” is an egregious misuse of Luna’s authority.

Besides, it’s not even clear whether the barista intended to disparage the deputy.

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U-Haul Driver Rams Through Protestors in Los Angeles

A U-Haul truck mowed through a crowd of protesters in Los Angeles on Sunday during a demonstration in support of the Iranian people. 

The number of injured individuals is currently unclear.

Video from the scene shows protesters surrounding the truck and smashing a window before the truck drives through the crowd. Protesters can be heard screaming as the truck makes its way through the crowd.

Aerial footage shows police later surrounding the abandoned U-Haul truck. Authorities have reportedly not identified the driver.

Per NBC 4:

Hundreds of people marched in Westwood to show support for Iranian protesters as the crackdown on demonstrations in the Middle Eastern country resulted in the deaths of hundreds.

At least 583 people have been killed since unrest began in Iran two weeks ago over the economic crisis, according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency.

In Westwood, activists organized a demonstration in support of the Iranian people. At least two people were examined but denied medical attention, according to the LAFD.

Cellphone video showed the driver being punched as a group of people attempted to get him out of the large truck. The vehicle’s windows were also broken.

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Reality TV Star Spencer Pratt Announces Los Angeles Mayoral Bid, Vows to ‘Expose the System’

Reality television star Spencer Pratt is taking the city of Los Angeles to task, as he launches a mayoral bid one year after losing his home in the destructive Palisades wildfire.

Pratt, 42, announced his campaign for office while delivering remarks at the “They Let Us Burn” rally set up by the Palisades Fire Residents Coalition on Jan. 7.

“It’s official,” Pratt captioned the video of his speech posted on X. “I’m running for Mayor of LA. I’ve waited a whole year for someone to step up and challenge Karen Bass, but I saw no fighters. Guess I’m gonna have to do this myself.”

The rally landed on the anniversary of the wildfire in the Pacific Palisades, which burned more than 23,000 acres and destroyed 6,837 structures. Twelve people lost their lives.

Pratt gathered alongside other residents in demanding accountability from California leaders and local agencies, who they say have not made progress in creating a clear prevention plan or taking other precautionary actions.

“The system in Los Angeles isn’t struggling, it’s fundamentally broken,” Pratt told a crowd of fire survivors and rallygoers. “It is a machine designed to protect the people at the top and the friends they exchange favors with while the rest of us drown in toxic smoke and ash.”

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Investors Scoop Up 40% Of Vacant Lots Sold After Los Angeles Fires: Report

Almost a year after January’s devastating California wildfires, real estate investors have been buying up nearly 40 percent of the land sold in the areas impacted by the fires.

A Dec. 30 report from Redfin stated that many of these now-empty lots once retained some of the nation’s most expensive homes, before they were reduced to rubble when the fire ripped through over 40,000 acres and destroyed more than 11,000 single-family homes in the Los Angeles suburbs.

A Zillow analysis—also released on Dec. 30—indicates the total residential housing value of the 19,605 homes in the affected regions was $46 billion prior to the fires.

More than 11,000 of those homes were destroyed.

The median home value in Los Angeles suburbs was listed at $1.95 million as of December 2024, prior to the fires.

Zillow’s report shows that for-sale housing supply near the fire zones escalated soon after the fires ended. In addition, new listings within five miles of the fire regions continued to grow from December 2024 to January 2025.

“While home values nearby have dipped a bit, in line with broader Los Angeles trends, the most evident impact was on supply,” Orphe Divounguy, a Zillow senior economist, said in the report.

“The sharp increase in listings just outside the burn zones likely reflects a mix of homeowners accelerating planned sales or owners of second homes deciding to list in response to the sudden shift in local demand.”

According to Redfin, investors were responsible for buying 48 of the 119 lots for sale in the Pacific Palisades area during the third quarter. In nearby Altadena, investors purchased 27 of the 61 lots available, and in Malibu, 19 of the 43 lots for sale were bought by investors.

Redfin’s analysis indicates that many investors made lowball offers for lots in Altadena, where some of the destroyed homes had been built in the 1940s and 1950s. These lots have been selling in the $500,000 to $600,000 range. The report noted that while some owners rejected these offers, others were forced to sell as they lacked the money to rebuild.

By comparison, a typical empty lot sold for $1.6 million in Pacific Palisades, and for $1.3 million in Malibu.

“It’s not uncommon for investors to buy and develop land after natural disasters,” the report stated.

However, while investors have been making inroads in getting vacant land off the market, Redfin agents say there is so much vacant land for sale that much of it remains unsold.

Meanwhile, those homes left standing in the fire zones are attracting offers if they’re reasonably priced, with owners usually handling the ash and smoke damage remediation.

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Deadly LA Palisades inferno took hold in area firefighters were restricted by woke laws protecting endangered plant species

The deadly Pacific Palisades fire, which tore through wealthy celebrity enclaves in Los Angeles, took hold in an area where firefighters had restricted access as part of woke laws protecting endangered plant species. 

A class action lawsuit involving more than 3,000 claimants revealed text messages and avoidance maps in court, showing that state parks officials were concerned about endangered plants when responding to the Lachman Fire on January 1, 2024.

This blaze was believed to have been extinguished in Topanga State Park until six days later, when it reignited into the Palisades inferno, which started on January 7 and burned for 24 days through the wealthy coastal neighborhood of Pacific Palisades. 

The blaze killed 12 people, destroyed 7,000 homes, caused damage worth $150 billion, and occurred simultaneously to the deadly Eaton fire nearby, wreaking havoc on Los Angeles and stretching resources beyond their limit.

Attorneys alleged that the state park officials directly interfered with LAFD’s mop-up operations of the Lachman fire in an effort to preserve endangered milkvetch plants, which were growing in the region.

In messages seen by NewsNation, state park employees discussed their plans to protect the plants during the Lachman fire.

‘There is federally endangered astragalus along the Temescal fire road. Would be nice to avoid cutting it if possible,’ one state park official wrote.

‘Do you have avoidance maps?’

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What is Turtle Island Liberation Front, the extremist anti-government group whose offshoot planned a NYE terror attack

Multiple splinter cell members of the radical Turtle Island Liberation Front, which posts disturbing slogans such as “Death to America” on social media, were arrested last Friday for allegedly plotting a New Year’s Eve terror attack in the Los Angeles area.

Turtle Island Liberation Front (TILF), a little-known “pro-Palestine, anti-law-enforcement, and anti-government” extremist group, has quietly been raising funds and resources to usher in a “revolutionary change in government.”

“TILF also calls for the working class to rise up and fight back against capitalism,” an FBI affidavit noted. “Moreover, TILF advocates that liberalism and peaceful protest will be the downfall of those who believe it is enough, and that ‘direct action is the only way.’”

Where does Turtle Island come from?

The extremist group is named after “Turtle Island,” an Indigenous term, particularly among the Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee, for the continent of North America. It stems from tales about the continent being built on a giant turtle’s back.

That name, which predates the US, dovetails with the extremist group’s goals of eliminating America, which it feels is illegitimate.

Left-wing activist groups such as Black Lives Matter have appropriated the term as well, and it is often used as a means of countering the “colonial” names for the US and Canada.

TILF has taken that concept to the extreme, while mixing a push for “decolonisation” of North America and of Israel.

Its members have used phrases such as “From Turtle Island to Palestine, Occupation is a Crime” to convey that mix.

“When we say ‘Death to America’ and call for an end to colonization, it doesn’t mean the displacement or harm of non indigenous citizens,” the radical group insisted in an October Facebook post.

The group has also proudly posted images on social media of its members brandishing signs such as “Death to ICE!!!” and parading around Palestinian flags.

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Karen Bass Admitted in Interview That the Response to LA Fires Was ‘Botched’ But the Audio is Curiously Missing

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass recently did an interview with Matt Welch of Reason Magazine. He hosts a podcast called the Fifth Column.

At one point near the end of their discussion, she apparently admitted that the response to the Los Angeles fires was botched, but the audio has been cut from the interview and no one seems to know why.

It’s not exactly a breaking news story that the response was botched. All you have to do is look at the disgraceful lack of rebuilding in Los Angeles to know that.

The Los Angeles Times reported on this:

‘Both sides botched it.’ Bass, in unguarded moment, rips responses to Palisades, Eaton fires

The setting looked almost cozy: Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and a podcast host seated inside her home in two comfy chairs, talking about President Trump, ICE raids, public schools and the Palisades fire.

The recording session inside the library at Getty House, the official mayor’s residence, lasted an hour. Once it ended, the two shook hands and the room broke into applause.

Then, the mayor kept talking — and let it rip.

Bass gave a blunt assessment of the emergency response to the Palisades and Eaton fires. “Both sides botched it,” she said.

She didn’t offer specifics on the Palisades. But on the Eaton fire, she pointed to the lack of evacuation alerts in west Altadena, where all but one of the 19 deaths occurred.

“They didn’t tell people they were on fire,” she said to Matt Welch, host of “The Fifth Column” podcast.

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5th person arrested in NYE bombing plot is a ‘trantifa’ Marine vet out to ‘recreate Waco’ on ICE: complaint

The fifth person arrested over an alleged New Year’s Eve bombing plot by a far-left terrorist group is a transgender Marine veteran who wanted to “recreate Waco” on ICE agents, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Tuesday.

Micah James Legnon, 29, was arrested in Louisiana on Saturday after being tied to chats with suspected members of the far-left terrorist group Turtle Island Liberation Front as they allegedly plotted to plant pipe bombs on businesses and then ICE agents, according to the FBI investigation.

Legnon — who went by “Kateri TheWitch” and “DarkWitch She/Her” in chat groups — appeared to be planning an attack in New Orleans to coincide with others attacking southern California, the complaint alleged.

Legnon shared pictures of assault rifles and body armor — and federal agents “found sniper training manuals, SWAT training manuals, assault rifles, and multiple rounds of ammunition” in a raid on the suspect’s home in New Iberia, the complaint said.

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Report: At Least 2 of the 5 Leftist New Year’s Eve Bombing Suspects Are Transgender

A new report claims that two of five people arrested in connection with what the FBI said was a plot to unleash a wave of terrorist bombings in Los Angeles on New Year’s Eve are transgender.

The FBI said that the people arrested were a splinter group of the Turtle Island Liberation Front, which federal officials said has a pro-Palestinian, anti-law-enforcement, and anti-government ideology, according to USA Today. The suspects were part of a Signal group chat calling itself “Order of the Black Lotus.”

FBI Director Kash Patel named four suspects — Audrey Ilene Carroll, 30; Dante Garfield, 24; Zachary Aaron Page, 32; and Tina Lai, 41– and said five businesses were being targeted.

The defendants also allegedly discussed using pipe bombs to attack U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities, with Carroll accused of saying, “That would take some of them out and scare the rest of them.”

Journalist Andy Ngo said there is another dimension to the arrests.

“I can exclusively report that the fifth unnamed arrested suspect in the Turtle Island Liberation Front New Year’s Eve mass bombing terror plot is Trantifa militant Micah James Legnon,” Ngo posted on X.

“Legnon is on a federal hold in Lafayette, La. He is a trans activist and identifies as a female. His social media is filled with posts calling for the m-rder of people he labels as ‘fascists,’” Ngo wrote.

“Authorities say the Turtle Island Liberation Front, a far-left communist ‘decolonization’ terror group, planned to blow up ICE agents and locations with homemade bombs,” he wrote.

“Audrey Illeene Carroll, 30; Zachary Aaron Page (trans), 32; Tina Lai, 41; and Dante Gaffield, 24, are the other comrades arrested in Los Angeles after they were caught allegedly traveling to the desert to test their explosives,” he wrote.

“Legnon is an ex-Marine and a former cop,” he wrote.

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FBI Thwarts Major Leftist Terror Plot Involving Apparent Trans Ringleader

In a stunning victory for law and order under President Trump’s administration, the FBI has dismantled a chilling terrorist scheme orchestrated by far-left militants hell-bent on unleashing chaos in Los Angeles on New Year’s Eve.

These anti-capitalist agitators, fueled by hatred for America and its institutions, planned to detonate improvised explosive devices (IEDs) at multiple sites, targeting businesses and even ICE agents. Thanks to Trump’s September 2025 executive order prioritizing the hunt for domestic terror groups like Antifa and their ilk, this nightmare was averted just in time.

The plot’s exposure underscores the festering threat from radical leftism blended with Islamist sympathies—a toxic mix that could have turned festive celebrations into scenes of mass carnage.

The foiled attack centered on the Turtle Island Liberation Front, a self-described anti-capitalist, anti-government outfit with pro-Palestine leanings. According to federal prosecutors, the group aimed to hit at least five logistics centers in Orange and Los Angeles counties, coordinating backpack IEDs to explode at midnight.

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