LA's image scuffed amid protests, raids & politics

This isn't the image Los Angeles wanted projected around the globe.

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Clouds of tear gas wafting over a throng of protesters on a blocked freeway. Federal immigration agents in tactical garb raiding businesses in search of immigrants without legal status. A messy war of words between President Donald Trump and Gov Gavin Newsom.

Photos captured several Waymo robotaxis set on fire and graffiti scrawled on a federal detention centre building, while videos recorded the sounds of rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades hitting crowds.

In a city still reeling from January's deadly wildfires—and with the World Cup soccer championships and the 2028 Olympics on the horizon Mayor Karen Bass has been urging residents to come together to revitalise LA’s image by sprucing up streets, planting trees and painting murals so LA shows its best face to nations near and far.

"It's about pride,” she’s said. “This is the city of dreams.”

Instead, a less flattering side of Los Angeles has been broadcast to the world in recent days. Protests have mostly taken place in a small swath of downtown in the sprawling city of 4 million people. As Trump has activated nearly 5,000 troops to respond in the city, Bass has staunchly pushed back against his assertions that her city is overrun and in crisis.