Example #1 - She was not a protestor. She was not violent. She was alone and trying to go home when a masked police officer fired on her with a non lethal rubber bullet.
Example #2 - She was not a protestor. She was non-violent. She was Lauren Tomasi, a credentialed Australian reporter speaking into a camera, not even standing in a crowd, not in a violent scenario, when the decision was made to shoot her from behind, causing pain and damage to the young woman.
Example #3 - He was not a protester. He was not violent. 60 year old British photojournalist Nick Stern was hit in the leg by what medical reports describe as a 40 mm "sponge bullet"that lodged in his thigh and required surgical removal. He was not engaged in civil unrest or any violence, just doing his job, when President Trump’s military detachment in LA fired upon him. Doctors reported finding and extracting the round—described as 40 mm wide and 60 mm long—from his leg after he underwent surgery.
Government Assaults on Non-Violent, Non-Protestors
This post is not about the constitutionality of deploying the National Guard or United States Marines to Los Angeles. Nor is it about the principles of federalism and states’ rights, once hallmarks of the Republican political platform. Those are critical conversations, and as a constitutional attorney, I take them seriously. This post is not about Gavin Newsom and his battles with the President.
But this is about something more specific, and far more alarming.
This is about the violent use of an representatives of the government. local, state or federal in Los Angeles, against nonviolent residents, peaceful bystanders, American citizens, and even foreign journalists lawfully doing their jobs.
There are many complex questions in times of civil unrest. But whether a young, unarmed woman trying to return to her apartment should be shot is not one of them. Nor is the question of whether it is acceptable to shoot a female journalist from Australia—clearly identifiable and clearly nonthreatening—as she reports from the streets of an American city.
These are not gray areas. These are bright lines. And yet this White House, now operating in full authoritarian mode, treats such fundamental moral boundaries as if they were mere political distractions.
We’ve seen this pattern for four months from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue: moral equivocation. That moral confusion inevitably infects legal, political, and strategic decision-making. The same administration that blames the Ukrainian victims of Russia’s war crimes for their own suffering at the hands or rapists, mass murderers, sadistic torturers, and war criminals, apparently sees nothing wrong with wounding innocent civilians in our own neighborhoods.
Let us be absolutely clear: the young woman on her way home was not shot for violating a curfew. If they wanted to arrest her for returning to her home late, they could have done so. She was not part of a protest. She was standing still, trying to explain that she simply needed to get home. They shot her completely unprovoked.
The masked government officer who pulled the trigger on an unarmed, nonviolent American citizen must be named, investigated, prosecuted, and, if found guilty, imprisoned.
Violent Protests Are Unacceptable. Government Abuse is Unacceptable
Let’s not whitewash history. During the Biden Administration, looting and violence filled the streets largely unchecked and even encouraged by Left wing political leaders during the BLM post-George Floyd shooting protests. It was criminal, unacceptable and a bridge too far for most Americans.
During the Trump Administration, the military is now being weaponized in the name of law and order, to quell protests in response to heavy handed ICE arrests and deportations. This weaponization has resulted in federal soldiers brutally and criminally firing on unarmed, non-violent, non protestors.
There has been real criminal behavior by protestors on the streets of LA. Everyone engaged in violent crimes should be apprehended and prosecuted. But the existence of some criminal behavior is not a blank check for the United States government to foment a heavy handed approach which normalizes intentional, cruel and excessive conduct against reporters doing their jobs, or a young women simply trying to get back to her homes and go to sleep.
The United States is Not Russia. Not Yet.
Yes, Americans are understandably very concerned about violent protests and violent illegal criminals on American streets. But we are actually more concerned about a weaponized government.
The United States is not Russia. Not yet. Due process and freedom still matter. The line between order and authoritarianism is not thin. It is clear. Shooting non violent young women is crossing it.
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DW Phillips is a constitutional attorney, a filmmaker, and journalist who directs Ukraine Story, a foundation for documentary reporting.
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