LA protest flames are being fanned by the bully-in-chief

There was never a need for President Trump to send in the national guard to Los Angeles. It was a want. A choice.

- SEAN O'GRADY

All the evidence suggests that the essentially small-scale and non-violent resistance to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials was well within the capacity of the local police, as well as the ICE officers themselves, to deal with.

Much the same goes for the peaceful protests by residents in the area who objected to what they saw as the extra-legal – as well as immoral and inhumane – actions and tactics by sometimes masked ICE officers.

It has to be said that the chief of ICE, Tom Homan – not a man readily familiar with the doctrine of “policing by consent” – was specifically chosen by Donald Trump for the job because of his casual disdain for the law and constitutional niceties. It should be no great surprise that those working for him took their hardline cue from Mr Homan and, indeed, the president himself.

What was happening, it seemed to many protesters, was a process of arbitrary deportation without due legal process – a violation of the ancient right of habeas corpus – as well as the enactment of a cruel policy that was tearing communities apart.