I can't wait to take a break from 'hellscape' America

US author Attica Locke on being a chronicler of the Trump era in crime fiction, the fear and loathing dominating her home city, and why social media critics of the 47th President seem to have a target on their backs

- By Craig Sisterson

WARD-WINNING screenwriter and novelist Attica Locke has been champing at the bit to swap her home town of Los Angles for the North Yorkshire spa town of Harrogate and the delights of next week's Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival.

"I'm thrilled to get a break from the hellscape in which I'm currently living," she admits over Zoom.

"It is not great here in the United States, particularly not in Los Angeles. So it will be kind of buoyant and uplifting to see other people not having a boot on their neck."

The hellscape Locke refers to is, in general, America under Donald Trump's second term as US President, and, more specifically, the ICE US Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids currently sweeping through LA and other big US cities.

Videos have shown agents swarming poor neighbourhoods and detaining farm workers, day labourers and street vendors. Earlier this week, dressed in camouflage, some carrying rifles, others on horseback or driving armoured vehicles, ICE officers marched through Los Angeles' popular MacArthur Park mob-handed, as children played in a football field.

There has been widespread concern over the fact ICE is not targeting criminals or gang members rather, going for the low-hanging fruit of undocumented migrants.

And while she is American through and through, having grown up in Houston, Texas, where she was born in 1974, Locke has admitted: "I'm even afraid of not being let back into the country after this trip. I'm getting ready to take to the UK!"

In fact, there have been concerns about abuse of power, with opponents of Trump seemingly targeted by law enforcement. Several individuals have been denied entry to the US or had their visas revoked due to social media activity or criticism of Trump.