Feb 28, 2025 #MoreFromThomGerrymandering, voter purges, and signature rejections aren’t fair—but they’re legal. Why are Democrats refusing to use them to save the country?

INDIVISIBLE SF

EVENTSRESOURCESCURRENT ACTIONSCA BILL TRACKEREXPLAINERSBLOGABOUTABOUTPRESSFAQGAZA

BACK TO ALL EVENTS

• Saturday, June 14, 2025
• 11:30 AM  2:00 PM
• Dolores Park(map)

Indivisible SF and 50501SF are hosting a No Kings mass mobilization on June 14, 2025. We are planning for a March and Rally in San Francisco showing our commitment to democracy and the power of We the People.

We will gather at Dolores Park, then march to Civic Center Plaza for a rally.

Please join us for this historic mobilization. RSVP on Mobilize.

Want to help spread the word? We’ve got flyers! Download our flyers:

English full-page flyer

English 4-up mini-handout

Spanish full-page flyer

and print at home. Be sure to follow the City’s sign-posting policies. You can also use the above image to help spread the word on social media (or check out our own social media profiles and boost our posts).

Source:: https://www.mobilize.us/nokings/event/785608?rname=Indivisible+SF

• Posted in Actions, Action Spotlight
• Tagged No Kings, No Kings San Francisco, Mass Mobilization, June 14, Flag Day

(TheOnion.com)

California Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla attempts to get access to a press conference led by U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem at the Wilshire Federal Building on Monday, June 12, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. 

(Photo: Luke Johnson / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

“Senator Padilla is a respected leader of great dignity and he has every right to ask a question of Secretary Noem without being slammed down and handcuffed,” said one Democratic senator.

ELOISE GOLDSMITH

Jun 12, 2025 (CommonDreams.org)

Fellow U.S. senators reacted with fury and condemnation to footage of Democratic California Sen. Alex Padilla being handcuffed on the ground after being forcibly removed from a news conference that was held by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in Los Angeles on Thursday.

In a video of the episode, Padilla can be heard saying “I’m Senator Alex Padilla. I have questions for the secretary,” as federal agents push him out of the room. Outside the room, agents forced Padilla to the ground and then handcuffed him.

“I’m on my way to the Senate floor to talk about the assault on my colleague, Senator Alex Padilla,” wrote Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) X on Thursday. “This is a horrifying moment in our nation’s history.”

“What’s next, brown shirts?” wrote Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I), who was likely referring to the “brownshirts,” a name for the paramilitary group that aided the rise of Adolf Hitler. Whitehouse added: “What do Republican colleagues have to say? At long last, colleagues, have you no sense of decency?”

“This is insane. A United States Senator was just violently thrown to the ground and handcuffed while trying to question the administration. We need a countrywide response to this all out authoritarianism. This cannot stand,” Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) wrote on X.

https://x.com/amyklobuchar/status/1933242210474176900?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1933242210474176900%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2Fpadilla-california-homeland-security

“Sickening,” said Sen. Mazi Hirono (D-Hawaii). “This is what authoritarians do. None of us is safe from this regime.

Speaking to press later on Thursday, Padilla said he was not arrested or detained. Padilla said he was waiting to be briefed by federal officials when he learned that Noem was giving a press conference in the same building.

“Over the course of recent weeks, I [and] several of my colleagues have been asking the Department of Homeland Security for more information and more answers on their increasingly extreme immigration enforcement actions, and we’ve gotten little to no information in response to our inquiries. And so I came to the press conference to hear what she had to say, to see if I could learn any new additional information,” he said.

“I will say this,” Padilla added. “If this is how this administration responds to a senator with a question, if this is how the Department of Homeland Security responds to a senator with a question, you can only imagine what they’re doing to farm workers, to cooks, to day laborers out in the Los Angeles community and throughout California and throughout the country.”

The Department of Homeland Security released a statement along with a video of the episode accusing Padilla of “disrespectful political theatre.”

Outside watchdogs like the Not Above the Law Coalition, which consists of over 150 organizers, think tanks, and nonprofit advocacy groups, also condemned the incident and called on every U.S. lawmaker, regardless of party affiliation, to do the same.

“The images of federal agents tackling and handcuffing Senator Alex Padilla should send chills down every American’s spine,” the coalition said in a statement. “It is shocking enough to see someone manhandled for exercising their First Amendment right to free speech. That it happened to a sitting U.S. Senator attending a public DHS press briefing in his home state is outrageous and un-American.”

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.

ELOISE GOLDSMITH

Eloise Goldsmith is a staff writer for Common Dreams.

Full Bio >

Published: June 12, 2025 (TheOnion.com)

LOS ANGELES—Triumphantly planting the pole firmly into the ground, U.S. Marines reportedly raised the American flag outside a cell phone store Thursday after defeating a group of skateboarding teenagers. “Victory!” cried out 1st Lt. Eric Mullaney, who wiped the sweat and grime from his brow and gazed up at the poignant sight of the billowing Stars and Stripes as it flew outside the small but strategic city strip mall. “It was a daunting five-minute battle, but we held our ground. May freedom ring over this Cricket Wireless! Semper fi!” At press time, sources reported that one of the Marines had tragically fallen in the line of duty after tripping over an electric scooter.

Video shows San Francisco police firing pepper-spray rounds, but SFPD brass says no ‘weapon’ or chemical ‘agent’ was deployed

by ABIGAIL VÂN NEELY June 11, 2025 (MissionLocal.org)

San Francisco police officers used force 20 times during the anti-ICE protests on June 8 and 9, and arrested 247 people, Paul Yep said Wednesday evening at his first Police Commission meeting as acting chief. 

One officer was hospitalized during the June 8 protest around 8 p.m. in the Central District, Yep added. 

“This is in relation to the First Amendment activity that was occurring,” Yep said, referring to hundreds-strong protests on both nights against immigration arrests in San Francisco and raids in Los Angeles. “Protesters were throwing objects at officers that were in a squad, and at least one officer was hit.” 

Want the latest on the Mission and San Francisco? Sign up for our free daily newsletter below.Sign up

The officer is in stable condition. Mission Local observed eggs and at least one glass bottle thrown at officers during the June 8 protest outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office downtown.

Yep said he had no information on whether police discharged weapons on either night. He also said he was not aware of any deployment of “O.C. spray” (pepper spray) or another agent. 

It appears that Yep’s statement is accurate. But it depends on what you consider a “weapon,” and it’s not clear that less-lethal munitions are considered that by the department. It also depends on what you consider an “agent.” 

Less-lethal munitions were definitely fired upon demonstrators: Mission Local witnessed and captured video of an officer firing what seemed to be a “pepperball” at an individual late on Monday night. 

While San Francisco police are forbidden to indiscriminately deploy pepper spray into a crowd, they are permitted to fire pepperballs at targeted individuals within a crowd. Pepperballs are, essentially, pepper spray in powdered form. It affects people in much the same way, but the effect is far more localized and would not affect large swaths of the crowd. 

The officer fired a yellow gun in the direction of a demonstrator. The projectile did not hit him, and the man ran off. The projectile also narrowly missed a nearby Wall Street Journal reporter. 

The rounds expelled a small cloud when they hit the ground, and made onlookers cough. Police sources say these characteristics are typical of a pepperball, which emits a puff of powder upon impact.  

Sgt. Brent Bradford also discharged a 40mm black gun that fires sponge rounds. A police source identified both launchers. 

“Leave the area, or force will be used,” one officer shouted. “Media, get back,” another yelled. “You stay here and you are going to get — ” a third began to say. 

SFPD sources said it is possible that both the SWAT team’s equipment and its policies may have changed even since Yep’s retirement from the department in 2023. 

https://videopress.com/embed/DgdGFAVb?cover=1&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=1&hd=0An SFPD sergeant firing pepper-spray rounds at onlookers while anti-ICE protesters were arrested on June 9, 2025. Video by Joe Rivano Barros.

In response to a question about how use of force is tracked, Yep told the commissioners that officers self-report use of force “as they’re required.” “In other instances,” he said, “the persons that are generally adversely affected” raise the issue. 

On June 8, the San Francisco Police Department said 154 people were cited and released, including six juveniles between 14 and 17 years old.

On June 9, Yep said, officers arrested 92 people. Eighty-nine were cited and released. One person was booked for outstanding warrants, and another for threats. 

That night, Mission Local observed two people being loaded into ambulances.

Yep declined to say whether any civilians were injured when asked by the commission. He said he would provide more information next week. 

“In general, given the huge amount of attention to these protests in Los Angeles and nationwide, I think as long as there’s substantial activity, it should be included in the report as well,” Commissioner Kevin Benedicto said. 

In his own remarks on the subject of state-wide immigration protests, Yep read directly from a statement released to the press three days ago. He kept his answers to the commissioners’ questions brief.

Reported assaults citywide increased by 72 percent from last week, from 29 to 50 incidences. Police commission president Cindy Elias asked if this was related to protest activity. Yep said he did not know the cause of the spike. 

On both protest days, SFPD drones were deployed, though Yep did not know how long they were used or when.

Benedicto also asked Yep if he had a response to a letter sent to the police department by the First Amendment Coalition and Society of Professional Journalists, Northern California, about the protests. 

“I was made aware of that just before today’s meeting,” Yep said. “It’s under investigation.” 

On the night of June 9, Mission Local reported that two student journalists from the University of California, Berkeley’s Daily Californian were detained for 30 minutes by police, despite displaying press credentials. 

“Do you have a plan of action for the next protest?” Elias asked.

“We will always do our best to facilitate the First Amendment using the resources we have,” Yep said, adding that he would work with organizers. 

SFPD, he added, does not cooperate with federal immigration agents. 

Additional reporting by Joe Rivano Barros and Joe Eskenazi.

ABIGAIL VÂN NEELY

abigail@missionlocal.com

Abigail covers criminal justice, accountability, and behavioral health. She’s originally from New York City, where she was a youth advocate and watched hundreds of arraignments. Now, she enjoys foggy San Francisco mornings with her cat, Sally Carrera. (Yes, the shelter did in fact name the cat after the Porsche from the animated movie Cars.)More by Abigail Vân Neely

140 active duty Marines will replace National Guard in Los Angeles, according to state official

by ABIGAIL VÂN NEELY June 12, 2025 (MissionLocal.org)

Mission Local has a $25,000 match!

That means every dollar you give in June is doubled! About 65% of our revenue comes from individuals like you — help support a growing local newsroom today.about:blank

Donate!

A federal judge ruled in San Francisco District Court on Thursday that President Donald Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops to Los Angeles is illegal.

But hours later, an appeals court paused the judge’s order until next week, when it considers the case. The stay postponed a Friday deadline given by U.S. District Court Judge Charles R. Breyer for Trump to return control of the California National Guard to Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The federal government had appealed Breyer’s decision, and the order’s implementation will be put off until the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals hearing next Tuesday.

Want the latest on the Mission and San Francisco? Sign up for our free daily newsletter below.Sign up

It’s unclear whether the White House will follow the appeal court’s ruling when it comes. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had previously refused to commit to obeying any judicial order.

Newsom filed a lawsuit Monday, following Trump’s deployment of up to 4,000 National Guard troops on June 7, ostensibly to quell protests against immigration raids. The governor requested a temporary restraining order that would limit troops to guarding federal buildings and preventing them from accompanying workplace raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. 

Within the next 24 hours, a California deputy attorney general said on Thursday, 140 Marines will replace and relieve National Guard troops in Los Angeles. 

“The federal government cannot be permitted to exceed its bounds and in doing so create the very emergency conditions that it then relies on to justify federal intervention,” Breyer wrote in his ruling.

These are “issues of extreme significance,” Breyer earlier told a courtroom filled with journalists, retired immigration attorneys, and two U.S. marshals. The “matter has an urgency about it.” 

Trump justified his move under U.S. code 12406. The statute allows the president to call in troops whenever the United States is in danger of foreign invasion or a rebellion against the government, or the president is unable with “regular forces” to execute the laws of the United States. 

Breyer questioned whether the president complied with these requirements. 

Addressing the first condition, federal attorney Brett Shumate said whether or not there is a foreign invasion “is an inherently political question that the president gets to decide,” not the court. 

Whether the Los Angeles protests constituted a rebellion, Shumate continued, was also up to the president’s discretion. As was the determination that ICE could not enforce federal immigration laws because of “mobs” rioting on June 6 and 7. 

Thus, he argued, the court should not rule on whether the conditions existed; that is up to the president to decide. 

“There can be no debate that most protesters demonstrated peacefully,” Breyer wrote in his decision. “The idea that protesters can so quickly cross the line between protected conduct and ‘rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States’ is untenable and dangerous.”

A few “stray bad actors” going too far does not “wipe out” everyone else’s right to protest the government, the judge added.

“You’re telling me that the president acted on evidence,” Breyer said in court. “Did he have to?”

“He didn’t have to,” Shumate said. 

If the three conditions are met, the statute continues, then the president’s orders “shall be issued through the governors of the States.” 

California’s attorneys have argued the statute requires Newsom to first approve Trump’s orders, but federal lawyers said that’s not the case. “The states are subservient,” said Shumate, so it was sufficient that Newsom received a copy of Trump’s order.

The federal government’s “version of executive power,” California Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Green said, is “breathtaking in scope.” 

The president, Green argued, only becomes commander in chief when Congress gives him the authority to call forth the militia. Trump, however, is trying to deploy the National Guard “whenever he perceives that there is disobedience to an order,” Green said. 

The “difference between a constitutional government and King George,” the judge said, is a “leader following the law as set forth in both the Constitution and the states.”

At one point, Breyer waved a pocket-sized constitution in the air. “If you want me to look at it,” he told the Trump administration attorney, “I’ve got it.” 

“We live in response to a monarchy. This country was founded in response to a monarchy,” Breyer added. “I’m just trying to figure out where the lines are drawn.”

ABIGAIL VÂN NEELY

abigail@missionlocal.com

Abigail covers criminal justice, accountability, and behavioral health. She’s originally from New York City, where she was a youth advocate and watched hundreds of arraignments. Now, she enjoys foggy San Francisco mornings with her cat, Sally Carrera. (Yes, the shelter did in fact name the cat after the Porsche from the animated movie Cars.)More by Abigail Vân Neely

MeidasTouch Streamed live 3 hours ago California Governor Gavin Newsom holds a major press conference on Trump losing in federal court where the judge blocked Trump’s federalizing the national guards. Vist https://meidasplus.com for more

For 45 years as a law professor, the author has told each of his students, including these 2024 graduates of UC Berkeley Law School, that they have an obligation to care about those affected by their advocacy and their work. Jessica Christian/S.F. Chronicle

“In fighting to uphold the law, we also must not lose sight that we are fighting for the human beings protected by it,” UC Berkeley Law dean Erwin Chemerinsky says

By Erwin Chemerinsky June 10, 2025 (SFChronicle.com)

For the past five months, myself and others in the legal world have criticized the illegality and unconstitutionality of President Donald Trump’s extreme executive actions.

Last month, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem announced that Harvard could no longer enroll international students — and that those already attending needed to transfer. There is no doubt that the administration hopes that if it can force Harvard to capitulate, it will send a message to all colleges. Indeed, Noem explicitly posted on X, “Let this serve as a warning to all universities and academic institutions across the country.”

It is a blatant illegal act of reprisal against Harvard to target its international students.

But, lost in the legalese, I fear we have at times failed to pay sufficient attention to the basic lack of humanity in so many of these actions.

What about those 6,700 international students who are enrolled? Where are they supposed to attend school next year? What does it mean to tell a doctoral student in the midst of laboratory research to transfer?

President Donald Trump’s policies and actions are cruel. We can’t lose sight of that.

The students are simply the collateral damage for the Trump administration’s efforts to make Harvard cower.

We see that same dynamic now playing out on the streets of Los Angeles.

In deporting undocumented individuals, the Trump administration could return them to their home countries, which is the standard procedure. Instead, it has moved hundreds of people to a brutal maximum-security prison in El Salvador. Not one of these individuals has been convicted of any crime to warrant imprisonment. We know that some were taken by mistake. And even if they had been convicted of a crime, why the inhumane conditions of the Terrorism Confinement Centre in El Salvador?

Another group of individuals was deported to a U.S. Naval base in Djibouti, apparently on their way to be held in South Sudan. Apart from violating court orders, there is no apparent reason for this other than to move those deported as far from the United States as possible and to harsh conditions. The cruelty is stunning and unprecedented.

And that’s the point.

As the ongoing events in Los Angeles show,  Trump’s aggressive and even cruel use of ICE are designed to provoke an understandably angry reaction.  And he is using that as an excuse for an unprecedented nationalization of California national guard troops to send a message that he will not hesitate to use military force to stop demonstrations.

This inhumanity of those at the top of government sends a message to those who carry out its policies.

Stories of awful actions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents abound. 

There was a horrifying picture of a teenage girl pinned to the ground by police as her mother was apprehended by ICE agents to be deported. There was the story of a 4-year-old child suffering from cancer being deported without essential medications. And there was a 10-year-old U.S. citizen with brain cancer who was apprehended with her family in Texas while they were on their way to receive medical care.

Even during the first Trump administration, ICE agents would not go into schools, churches or hospitals. But that policy has been revoked, and now parents are afraid to send their children to school, people are afraid to worship and many will not seek needed medical care, even when they have communicable diseases that can infect others.

The lack of humanity is reflected in the Trump budget bill passed by the House of Representatives. It is estimated that 11 million people will lose their health insurance coverage if it is enacted. People will suffer and die due to the lack of access to medical care. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that over 3 million people — and it says that may be a low estimate — will lose food assistance because of cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the largest food assistance program. 

How many children will go to bed hungry and be malnourished because of this cut? The elimination of the U.S. Agency for International Development and its assistance will lead to countless deaths in foreign countries due to a lack of food and medicine.

There is a heartlessness at the core of so many of the Trump administration’s actions.

For the past 45 years as a law professor, I have concluded each semester by telling my students that it is not enough to contemplate and to argue effectively. As lawyers, they have an obligation to care — to care about those affected by their advocacy and their work. 

But where is the caring by those who are now running the federal government?

Myself and others have extensively written about the assault on the rule of law. It’s also our duty to speak about the war on compassion. We have talked about democracies that have become authoritarian, but we haven’t talked enough about societies where the government cares so little for humanity and the horrors that have resulted.

At a time when our society is deeply divided over policy, can’t we still share a commitment that children be treated humanely? Can’t we all agree that no one should needlessly suffer? Can’t we all condemn unnecessarily cruel Trump administration policies?  

In fighting to uphold the law, we also must not lose sight that we are fighting for the human beings who are protected by it.

Erwin Chemerinsky is the dean and Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law at the UC Berkeley School of Law.

June 10, 2025

A woman holds hands with a child as she waves an American flag while California National Guard personnel stand outside of a federal building during protests in Los Angeles on June 10, 2025. 

(Photo: Apu Gomes/AFP via Getty Images)

“Worth stressing that he’s not threatening rioters or people who are violent or lawless but literally just ‘protesters.'”

JAKE JOHNSON

Jun 11, 2025 (CommonDreams.org)

U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday threatened to respond with force to protesters who gather this coming weekend in opposition to his costly and authoritarian military parade in Washington, D.C., remarks that came amid growing fears that the administration is planning to mobilize troops across the country.

In his comments, Trump made no effort to distinguish between peaceful demonstrators and those who commit violence or property damage, telling reporters, “For those people that want to protest, they’re going to be met with very big force.”

“I haven’t even heard about a protest, but you know, this is people that hate our country, but they will be met with very heavy force,” the president continued.

Under the banner of “No Kings,” roughly 2,000 rallies have been planned across the United States on June 14 to protest Trump’s birthday military parade and grave abuses of power, including his deployment of National Guard troops and U.S. Marines to crush demonstrations in Los Angeles.

Organizers opted against holding a “No Kings” rally in the U.S. Capitol, saying that “real power isn’t staged in Washington.”

“Instead of allowing this birthday parade to be the center of gravity,” they said, “we will make action everywhere else the story of America that day: people coming together in communities across the country to reject strongman politics and corruption.”

Leaders of the rallies have stressed their commitment to nonviolence, saying in a statement this past weekend that “organizers are trained in de-escalation and are working closely with local partners to ensure peaceful and powerful actions nationwide.”

Public Citizen, a “No Kings” partner organization, was among those responding with alarm to Trump’s remarks on Tuesday.

“That’s a dictator,” the group wrote on social media.

MSNBC host Chris Hayes wrote that it’s “worth stressing that he’s not threatening rioters or people who are violent or lawless but literally just ‘protesters’ with ‘very big force.'”

“My strong instinct is that Trump’s threats against Americans’ First Amendment right to peaceably assemble are going to massively juice attendance at Saturday’s protests,” Hayes added.

A map of rallies planned across the U.S. can be found here.

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.

JAKE JOHNSON

Jake Johnson is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.

Full Bio >