Sit down, roll up a joint with me, and take a deep breath. I need to tell you about what it feels like living in Los Angeles this week. A departure from my usual content about food, w**d, and travel, but this is important.
Watch // If you don’t know how to roll, I’ll show you 3 ways to roll a j in the above video. There’s a ritual in slowing down to roll. Much like origami, there’s patience and art in it. Don’t be discouraged if it doesn’t work out perfectly the first several tries. We get better with practice and repetition.
0:20 min — Using a rolling machine
02:55 min — Hand-rolled joint
06:07 min — Tulip joint, bonus tutorial for paid subscribers
Standing in my lush summer garden freshly planted with this season’s c*nn*bis, tomatoes, eggplants, squash, and kale, I feel warm sunshine on my face as an unrelenting ominous hum of helicopters and military planes fly overhead. It’s like I’m in a Studio Ghibli movie, but not one of the cute whimsical ones with magical creatures. It’s giving “Porco Rosso” and “Grave of the Fireflies,” rather than “Totoro.” I’m in one of Miyazaki’s darker, sadder post-war tales.
The city noise, sirens, and ghetto birds aren’t anything new here in my neighborhood. LAPD helicopters and officers terrorize the city on the regular. But this week the sounds are different. Sirens and choppers whooshing thru the skies headed towards downtown (the center of the immigration protest activity) combined with empty, silence in the streets feels sickening.
Do you know what it feels like to be terrorized by your own government?
If you’re a child of immigrants, I bet your parents and grandparents do. Maybe you’ve heard their stories, or more likely they’re so traumatized they won’t even talk about it and you’re haunted by their unspoken fears.
“They snatch you like a dog. The streets ain’t safe… They don’t ask anything. They rope them up, and if you try to run they run 10-15 cars deep and they cover every corner.”
– LA Taco reporting on ICE. detaining two taqueros and four customers in East Los Angeles (Support independent journalism!)
This is what’s actually happening in Los Angeles right now, just 8-miles away from downtown L.A.
I write this on the weekend of No Kings day of protests. I just got an alert on my phone warning of mandatory curfews from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. around the DTLA and Chinatown area, just a few miles down the street from my home. There are ICE checkpoints across the city, making it difficult and terrifying for people to go where they need to go. People are being racially profiled and snatched up off the street at their jobs, at schools, and wherever they are around the city and being detained to fill an arbitrary quota.
How would you feel if government officials and military forces rolled up in your neighborhood and you watched as friends and neighbors are handcuffed, stuffed in a van, and disappeared with no warrant, no due process, and no regard for their families or children? What the actual f*ck.
“But Los Angeles is a sanctuary city, this is illegal!”
It sure is, but none of that matters because the rules no longer apply. And that’s the scary part. I had felt that L.A. was at least safe, untouchable, a sanctuary from the crazy machinations of fascist dictators. Which makes sense why it’s a prize target.
Taco trucks, restaurants, construction sites, nail salons, farms, and all kinds of businesses are being raided by ICE officers. The situation here right now is to terrorize and detain first, no questions asked. The military force and police officers are cornering (kettling), tear gassing, shooting, and using their horses to trample peaceful protestors and arresting people with no just cause. People are afraid to leave their homes. The local economy, small businesses, and people are are suffering and losing daily income while billionaires and corporations profit off this display of unnecessary force.
Angelenos are protecting their city, fighting for their friends and neighbors, and demanding that ICE and the federal government get the f*ck out of our city.
Ask yourself, why are the most powerful and wealthy attacking the poorest people with the least resources?
Don’t make excuses to justify these unjust and inhumane acts of violence and indignity because they’re undocumented. That's a ploy and you’re too smart for that. This is a political class war for power and control. We are living in dangerous times. Remember, the rules don’t apply anymore.
Yes, the protests and so-called chaos and riots the media are showing you are contained to small pockets of the city. Yes, there is looting, rioting, and other stupid nonsense but that also happens any time the Lakers or Dodgers win a big game. Many of the demonstrations and protests have been peaceful and a beautiful display of freedom of speech and community activism in support of our immigrant community.
No, Los Angeles is not on fire (that really did happen 5 months ago and we’re still recovering). Most residents are not affected by the protests and violence downtown, but we did show up in force for the Saturday protests. I’m shaken, angry, and upset because this raid on our city and its people by the federal government affects us all – across the entire city, the state, and the U.S. and abroad.
It’s hard to know what’s real and what’s fake.
It’s confusing and frustrating as f*ck to figure out accurate information amongst the noise. Community members are warning each other of ICE sightings and protecting each other. Neighbors are offering to get groceries and pick up kids from schools for those who are too scared to leave their house.
Meanwhile across town, I received an invitation to a swanky grand opening party for a new exclusive members-only c*nn*bis lounge in West Hollywood across from Chateau Marmont for Saturday afternoon. The same day and time as the No Kings protests. Gross.
At the shop I work at, I chat with regulars who have privilege and means who tell me they’re moving out of the country to GTFO and avoid whatever will happen next. Vancouver, Barbados, Mexico, Croatia, Portugal, South Africa, and Puerto Rico, are just a few of the places they’re relocating to — whether temporary or indefinite. Meanwhile, immigrants with no means and the least resources are fighting for their lives to stay while the U.S. declares suspect travel advisories and threatens to close the borders. To keep us in or others out, or both?
We’re all on edge right now. We don’t know what to do. We’re staring fascism in the face trying to figure out what we can do to fight this. Violence is what they want to fuel a false narrative to justify their actions. We need to be smart, calculated and thoughtful with our actions. The dissonance of seeing what’s happening and continuing on with our Starbucks lattes and Amazon purchases like everything is normal makes me sick to my stomach.
If you think this doesn’t affect you because you’re documented, you’re legal, you’re privileged, you were born here… think again. We are all one egomaniac’s pen stroke away from incarceration.
“The most powerful force in the world isn’t wielded by any government. It’s not in tanks and tear gas. It’s in the love we have for one another, and for this place. It’s in the sense of belonging that connects each and every one of us, documented or undocumented. History has shown us again and again, in the marches and the sit-ins and the hunger strikes, in the revolts and the boycotts and the elections, it’s the people who have the power.”
– excerpt from “Power to the People and Thoughts on Los Angeles” by Brian Champlin, We Like L.A.
I f*cking love Los Angeles.
We stand up and fight for our neighbors, friends, community, and show up in force. The creativity and mobilization of the city and its people to care for one another is inspiring to watch.
I love it here. I love my neighborhood. I love my city and the people who make it sing. Sunset walks while listening to the sweet dulcet sounds of mariachi soaring through the hills. My local donut shop, run by a Laotian immigrant, has the best apple cinnamon bear claws in town. The sizzling, delicious smells of al pastor from tacos trucks at every corner (now silent and empty), late night bacon-wrapped hot dogs, menudo on Saturdays, fragrant bowls of pho and creamy dan dan noodles, spicy Korean hot wings, greasy cheeseburgers, and crunchy chicharrones dipped in molcajete salsa are part of the rich tapestry that makes Los Angeles come alive.
I sobbed thinking about this beautiful slice of life and the people who make it possible. These people aren’t the “illegal aliens and criminals” stealing your jobs and causing that right-wing propaganda wants you to believe to justify their actions. They’re ordinary people and families, who fled their countries because of violence, poverty and war in search of a peaceful, better life. Just like yours did, whenever they immigrated. Unless you’re indigenous, there is no denying that everyone in the United States are children of immigrants.
I don’t know what to do.
We’re triggered, traumatized, scared for our safety, and wondering what we can actually to enact change. How do you stop tyrannical bullies who turn its on its own people?
We’re like lobsters boiling in a pot. Slowly conceding our freedoms for what exactly? Have you watched 1997 movie based on the 1984 book “Wag the Dog” with Dustin Hoffman, Robert DeNiro, Woody Harrelson, and Kirsten Dunst? Watch it and you’ll understand what I’m talking about.
Self-defense, physical violence, and the simple act of resistance could likely land us in jail. Our right to peaceful protest and freedom of speech is threatened through intimidation and fear. Information and facts are manipulated and fed to us through algorithms and tech giants who shamelessly kow-tow for access to power. This is NOT what a democracy looks like.
The orange clown in the White House is not the cause, he’s simply the puppet and scapegoat, a performer and entertainer doing what he does best. Like I said… watch the movie.
What can we do?
Stop being invisible.
Don’t be silent and complicit.
Be intentional with your actions and dollars.
Open your eyes to systematic racism, prejudice, injustice and actively work to correct them.
Stop believing lies told by billionaires designed get them money and power.
Question your learned prejudices and be humble enough to set them aside.
Check your privilege and use it for good.
Don’t allow history to be erased and rewritten.
Reduce your participation in systems that benefit the 1%.
Stop giving your money and power to corporations that don’t care about you.
Have a f*cking heart and care for people, no matter the color of the skin or economic class.
Grow your own food and medicine.
Fight like hell for humanity, decency, and the future we all deserve.
My dad warned me about all of this when I was a kid. Young, idealistic me didn’t want to believe that it was true. “No dad, it’s not like that anymore! You don’t understand, we’re better than that!”
It pains me to admit that he was right. He’s right.
Happy Father’s Day.
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