Veronica Paredes

Still recruiting PhD students for our Media Studies Department! Please see link below for more info @joshshepperd.bsky.social @stevenfrost.bsky.social @cumediastudies.bsky.social

Trump Is Releasing the Full Force of Federal Police on Chicago Trump is normalizing attacks on blue cities because he intends to overpower hubs of democratic resistance.

This morning, a friend who had been traveling and was out of the loop asked me for resources to catch up on what has been happening in Chicago. If you are in a similar situation and need to catch up on the details, this piece outlines the events of the past week or so.

Federal Agents Storm South Shore Building, Detaining Families and Children Families were woken by flashbangs and helicopters as hundreds of federal agents raided their homes. Days later, neighbors are still searching for the missing.

southsideweekly.com/federal-agen...

The building is in a 27 million dollar foreclosure filed by Wells Fargo. The next day, Wells Fargo filed an emergency motion for receivership. The fascist regime kindly emptied the building for donor Wells Fargo.

ICE in tacky skull siege mask (commonly worn by neo Nazis)

Normal fucking country

Hope and solidarity won tonight, and will win again in November.

Congratulations, @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social

This feeling of dread is so familiar. All the lives that will be lost for nothing. Death and destruction all the way down.

L.A. Press Club, Media Outlets Sue Los Angeles County for Harm to Journalists Sheriff’s deputies were shooting so indiscriminately at protestors and press alike that other law enforcement officers were harmed.

Today @lapressclub.bsky.social‬ @statuscoupnews.bsky.social @thesouthlander.com‬ sued L.A. County and Sheriff Robert Luna for harm to journalists covering protests in L.A.
firstamendmentcoalition.org/news/post/l-...

L.A. Taco has confirmed with the family of 20yr old Adrian Andrew Martinez, who was taken by ICE while working at Walmart in Pico Rivera, is a US citizen who was speaking up for his coworker that was detained. ~ @eltragon.bsky.social

I captured the same moment on the other side of the bridge.

Police Violently Crack Down on L.A. Protests Demonstrators, journalists and bystanders faced LAPD tear gas and projectiles following ICE raids.

Last week I published this story explaining the violence that LAPD exercises toward protesters and press. Today I saw them seriously injury many with the exact same tactics. capitalandmain.com/police-viole...

This is why the “peaceful protest” distinction does not matter - the pigs will fire at you & beat you either way. All you’re doing is playing into the state’s narrative of “good” vs “bad” protesters.

You cannot guarantee safety but it’s on ALL of us to look out for each other

Must-Reads and Some Thoughts on This Moment of Mass Protest "What do you want people to know, and what do you want them to do?"

My weekly curated list of must-read articles and some thoughts about this moment of mass protest (and where it can take us). If you want resources to help people understand this moment, this edition is for you.

The WestLos Rapid Response Network (operating throughout the westside) has been working on these “nanny kidnapping” tips all day. They all originated from one false report in Santa Monica. This was based on an alert text sent out by a school that many took as fact, but (we called the principal who sent it and visited the school to talk to admin) it was really only based on one call from a parent. We spoke to a nanny who was an eyewitness who confirmed this report stemmed from one man in plainclothes with an “earpiece” who was filming from the parking lot for an hour, and then left. he never spoke to any of the nannies or children and no one was detained, but many of them panicked and left. we have no photos or videos of the sighting. we had our rapid responders clear that park and several other parks across the west side, from Santa Monica all the way to the Westwood area (Cheviot Hills) several times throughout the day and confirmed by speaking with staff at those parks that no activity had been seen, but they had heard the same rumor. One had also heard about the man recording at the original park. To repeat, no nannies and certainly no children have been detained *to our knowledge*. It is very possible that an undercover agent was scooping out that first park and we will continue to patrol that park and the others daily for the foreseeable future. If there were any detainments of nannies, we have not seen any proof of them or spoken to anyone who saw them take place.

statement from the WestLos Rapid Response Network re: rumors of nannies kidnapped at the park:

Please rely on updates from community groups on the ground. Sometimes things spread like wildfire & it’s tough to control the misinfo

Always remember to ask- where did they hear this? & how do they know?

L.A. TACO has confirmed with Brian Gavidia who filmed this troubling footage, that federal agents abducted his U.S.-born Mexican American friend, Javier Ramirez yesterday at 4 PM in Montebello. ~ @theglutster.bsky.social

Protest, Power, and the Violence Debate "We are told we are experiencing peace, so long as everyone is cooperating."

@prisonculture.bsky.social and I have been encouraging people to read chapter six of our book, Let This Radicalize You, which deals with the question of "violence" in social movements. We have decided to share the chapter publicly, to offer some context and grounding for the current conversation.

What I Saw in LA Wasn’t an Insurrection. It Was a Police Riot. As Trump mobilizes the marines to quell an “insurrection” in LA, it’s essential to be clear about how the protests started and what actually happened.

This says so clearly what almost everyone in LA is thinking and what everyone in the world needs to know. Please read it. Every word. www.thenation.com/article/acti...

I'm proud I don't have Andrew Cuomo's record of corruption, scandal and disgrace.

And the name is M-A-M-D-A-N-I.

Another video of Senator Padilla’s violent arrest at DHS Sec Noem’s press conference in LA. You can see him thrown to the ground by FBI agents and handcuffed.

(video shared by Padilla’s staff with Elex Michaelson of Fox LA and posted on X)

It is imperative to recognize and call out this regime's bigoted identity politics. Their treatment of nonwhite electeds amounts to Taneyism.

To them, these officials hold no authority they are bound to respect. Padilla, McIver, Baraka are merely the latest. They are doing this to POC on purpose.

today at 12pm pacific i'll be streaming as part of this, we're raising money for CHIRLA and we already raised like three grand it's crazy twitch.tv/libtron

Sen. Alex Padilla was just removed from Kristi Noem's press conference in Los Angeles (video: Bill Melugin/Fox News)

Worth considering that one reason Bluesky doesn't always feel super fun is that current events are relentlessly horrifying and bad

In a press conference, Bass says this is her message to Trump: "Don't you want the World Cup to be a success? A success for you? Well, if that's what you want, give us help."

Five days and we're still doing this? It is very clearly not what he wants! Our vision is not aligned here!

Not thrilled to see my hometown of Oxnard in the spotlight for being a target rn. But here we are. 🧊out of Oxnard, out of the 805, out of LA, out of our plane of existence

Take a listen and seriously consider it. While this is not an uncommon practice, I am glad people are beginning to speak up about it.

i've been trying to see what the right wing platforms (even outside of X) are showing people regarding the protests in LA and i am not sure it can be overstated just how much the AI slop is being used to reinforce the idea that downtown is a post-apocalyptic war zone

AI chatbots are increasingly being used by online users as fact-checking tools.

But incorrect answers by ChatGPT and Grok are misleading users about the origin of photos showing National Guard troops, sent to Los Angeles during the recent unrest, sleeping on floors.

Protesters march in the streets

Protesters march in the streets

We’re in the streets in downtown Chicago.

Shouting out my incredible colleagues in independent media who are doing amazing work to tell the story of the LA anti-ICE raids and subsequent overreaction from the WH. I have deep respect for the consistent care and accuracy in their reporting. Follow them, support their work. 🧵