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Stephen Downing

@stevedowning.bsky.social

Stephen Downing is a retired LAPD deputy chief, a screenwriter, television producer and investigative journalist.

30 Followers  |  75 Following  |  150 Posts  |  Joined: 13.11.2024  |  2.0842

Latest posts by stevedowning.bsky.social on Bluesky

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The Ministry of Misinformation (Local Edition) How DHS spins, ICE sins, and city halls across America shrug — seen up close from Long Beach.

In The Ministry of Misinformation I expose how federal spin and local silence have fused into a single, dangerous pattern: propaganda at the top, paralysis on the ground. From Chicago’s Blackhawk “Tuesday night terror” to Long Beach’s car-wash raids

open.substack.com/pub/stephend...

21.10.2025 22:49 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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When the King Lost His Throne — and His Control Trump’s AI tantrum reveals everything you need to know about his view of the First Amendment, the American people, and his bowels.

Trump’s grotesque fantasy video—dropping feces bombs on protesters—and exposes it for what it is: a deranged confession masquerading as propaganda. It’s a blistering look at the mind of a man who mistakes humiliation for power and contempt for leadership.

open.substack.com/pub/stephend...

20.10.2025 22:32 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Long Beach Finds Its Voice — and Its Sense of Humor It was one of those blue-sky Long Beach Saturday mornings that feels like freedom itself – if freedom came with sunscreen, protest signs and the occasional Golden Doodle. The city’s 1.5-mile stretch o...

beachcomber.news/content/long...

19.10.2025 04:06 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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When ICE Comes to the 50-Yard Line Bad Bunny, the NFL, and the Playbook for Patriotic Resistance

open.substack.com/pub/stephend...

17.10.2025 22:27 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Father, Son & ICE: A Recruitment Story We Didn’t See Coming Where the hip meets the nerve and the satire meets the Department of Homeland Security

open.substack.com/pub/stephend...

ICE has dropped age limits and is now recruiting father-son teams. My son and I have 55 years of law enforcement service between us — but something tells me our loyalty to the Constitution over personalities might not make the cut. Satire, hip pain and more:

08.08.2025 04:15 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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A Federal Ruling, A Local Responsibility: The Ninth Circuit Just Gave City Councils, Sheriffs and Police Chiefs Their Backbone Back The court has spoken: detaining people based on race, language, job, or location is unconstitutional—and cities and counties have no excuse for enabling it.

open.substack.com/pub/stephend...

The Ninth Circuit just gave city councils a spine—unlawful ICE detentions based on race or language are now clearly unconstitutional. No more excuses. If your leaders won’t act, they’re not confused—they’re complicit.

02.08.2025 23:17 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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When Truth Is Fired—How Authoritarians Crush Accountability One Statistic at a Time Erika McEntarfer’s firing isn’t about jobs. It’s about power, propaganda, and a man’s obsession with controlling reality.

open.substack.com/pub/stephend...

01.08.2025 22:17 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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The Nero Doctrine: Trump’s Second Hundred Days and the Fall of American Democracy A former LAPD Deputy Chief examines how tyranny, loyalty cults, and democratic decay have become normalized under Trump’s reign—and why silence is complicity.

open.substack.com/pub/stephend...

29.07.2025 19:20 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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The Screamer and the Jury, Part II: When the Law Lies, and Power Looks Away First came the tantrum. Now come the facts. Perjury, impunity, and a DOJ that protects the abusers.

open.substack.com/pub/stephend... Federal agents lied under oath—and not one has been charged, fired, or investigated. Meanwhile, peaceful protesters faced felony indictments. This isn’t law enforcement. It’s authoritarianism. Read it, share it, and speak up.

28.07.2025 19:13 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Character on Trial How Trump’s Legal Enforcers Are Rewarded—While Integrity Gets Fired

open.substack.com/pub/stephend...

27.07.2025 20:41 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Predators in Power: Trump, Epstein, and the Rise of America’s First Gestapo From Gaddafi’s rape rooms to Trump’s obsession with burying the Epstein files, history shows when unchecked power and sexual predation collide—and how ICE will become the enforcer of that silence

open.substack.com/pub/stephend...

21.07.2025 18:26 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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THE DAY CONGRESS WAS LOCKED OUT A Fictional Warning Rooted in Historical Fact

open.substack.com/pub/stephend...

20.07.2025 19:32 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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The Line That Wasn’t: When MAGA Loyalty Trumps Innocence Itself When political loyalty outlasts even the innocence of children, the problem isn’t just the leader—it’s the followers who’ve forgotten where the line is.

open.substack.com/pub/stephend...

17.07.2025 04:25 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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History Rhymes in Sirens: From Daryl Gates to Tom Homan, the Fight for LA’s Soul Rages Again From Battering Rams to Blacked-Out Vans: Why LA’s Past Policing Wounds Are Bleeding Into a Federal Immigration Crisis

open.substack.com/pub/stephend...

14.07.2025 23:27 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Trump’s Desperate Deflection: The Epstein Files and the Specter of Accountability Donald Trump’s latest social media post reads less like a serious statement from a United States President and more like a panicked rant scribbled on the back of a cocktail napkin during a 3 a.m.

open.substack.com/pub/stephend...

13.07.2025 04:17 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Shrimp Cocktail, Family Dreams, and the ICE Assault on Our Humanity What I witnessed at a Long Beach food truck is what America is supposed to be. What Trump and Stephen Miller are doing to it is everything we’re supposed to resist.

open.substack.com/pub/stephend...

11.07.2025 06:52 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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BREAKING NEWS: Gestapo on the Green: The ICE Assault on MacArthur Park and the Death of Lawful Order Trump’s Heinrich Himmler, Stephen Miller, has launched his second act and once again targets Los Angeles with militarized raids, political vengeance, and the machinery of fear.

open.substack.com/pub/stephend...

07.07.2025 22:51 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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When ICE Abuses Its Power — And Local Law Enforcement Stands Down It’s time to demand your city or county step up, intervene, and defend your rights

open.substack.com/pub/stephend...

06.07.2025 19:19 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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When ICE Overreaches and Local Law Backs Away: A Call to California’s Chiefs and Sheriffs A July 3rd Los Angeles Times article revealed what no democratic society should ever normalize: masked ICE agents, operating in Los Angeles, seized a woman on the street and shoved her into an unmarke...

open.substack.com/pub/stephend...

06.07.2025 09:21 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Read This and Weep for the Republic A veteran cop’s warning: when public servants are forced to serve a man instead of the law, we’re no longer a democracy—we’re a regime.

open.substack.com/pub/stephend...

05.07.2025 20:02 — 👍 9    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Public Service Fellowship Alumni of the federal workforce and civil service with expertise in national security, law, and policy

@lawfaremedia.org has been producing incredibly important scholarship and commentary on national security and rule of law issues for fifteen years now, and I’m beyond excited to join their team this fall.

12.06.2025 11:16 — 👍 209    🔁 33    💬 19    📌 5
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Read This and Weep for the Republic A veteran cop’s warning: when public servants are forced to serve a man instead of the law, we’re no longer a democracy—we’re a regime.

open.substack.com/pub/stephend...

05.07.2025 19:58 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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They Wear Masks Because They Know What They’re Doing Is Wrong SB 627 wouldn’t be necessary—if we had a government that still believed in the rule of law.

open.substack.com/pub/stephend...

25.06.2025 19:22 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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The DHS Hit List: How Kristi Noem Is Turning Homeland Security into a Political Smear Machine When a federal agency starts issuing press releases that read like campaign attack ads, it’s time to stop calling this governance—and start calling it what it is.

open.substack.com/pub/stephend...

30.05.2025 16:23 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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The Pulpit and the Pentagon: When Faith Becomes a Weapon of Command Hegseth, Potteiger, and the Quiet Threat Facing Every Service Member Who Doesn’t Bow to Their Brand of Christianity

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22.05.2025 05:05 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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The Grotesque Unleashing of Police Power Why President Trump’s executive order threatens the integrity of American policing and the constitutional principles that sustain it.

open.substack.com/pub/stephend...

01.05.2025 05:19 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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When Propaganda Replaces Due Process: DHS, Trump, and the “Kidnapped” Child The Smell of Propaganda Is Hard to Miss

open.substack.com/pub/stephend...

28.04.2025 03:39 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Muscle, Not Justice: The Outrageous Arrest of Judge Hannah Dugan The arrest of Judge Hannah Dugan wasn’t law enforcement — it was political theater designed to intimidate America’s judiciary into silence

open.substack.com/pub/stephend...

26.04.2025 11:39 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Trump’s Grift Economy: When Dictatorship Meets Day Trading Cronyism, Capitulation, and Chaos—And Why His Latest Retreat Makes Him More Dangerous

open.substack.com/pub/stephend...

25.04.2025 12:55 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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What Did They Expect? How Pete Hegseth’s Appointment Exposed the GOP’s Willful Incompetence—and Why His Fall Might Be the Pentagon’s Chance to Recover

open.substack.com/pub/stephend...

22.04.2025 04:27 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

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