Transgender actress Jen Richards was hit with rubber bullets and stun grenades at the ongoing LA protests against president Donald Trump’s aggressive anti-immigration and mass deportation policies.
The actress, who has starred in Mayfair Witches and Tales of the City, detailed the incident in an Instagram post on Sunday evening (8 June): “We were in downtown LA today. Thousands of peaceful protestors showed up to demonstrate that we won’t stand by as our neighbors get rounded up to appease the racist fever dreams of a President and his fragile ego.
“I was hit by flashbangs and rubber bullets, all while walking backwards with my hands up (and @bekahdc was shoved in the chest with a police baton).
“I’m a rather fragile, sensitive, fight-with-my-words type, but sometimes shit goes too far and you gotta stand up for truth, liberty, and empathy. Now is that time. (If anyone knows who the person in the first picture is, let me know! Their composure in the face of LAPD’s rabid aggression was stunning.)
“p.s. Flashbangs aren’t too bad, they’re loud and sting. Rubber bullets however … well, check out my foot. It tore through my docs!”
Images she shared as part of the post show one unnamed individual squaring off against several police officers, other protesters demonstrating on LA’s streets and a picture of her badly bruised foot, an injury allegedly caused by the rubber bullets.
In recent days, federal agents and protesters have clashed in the US’s second largest city over the immigration policies of the Trump administration, with thousands of National Guard troops deployed to the city by Trump – to the outrage of Democrats.
On Friday (6 June) Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers carried out raids in the city in areas with large Latino communities, including Westlake and Paramount, as part of Trump’s pledge to detain thousands of illegal immigrants every day. Immigration was a key issue in his campaign for the White House.
In response to the raids, LA residents took to the streets to protest the anti-immigrant crackdowns, and what started as peaceful protests escalated as tensions between demonstrators and federal officers grew, with vehicles set alight and tear gas used on demonstrators by officers.
Dozens of people have been arrested during the course of the LA protests.
Also, five Quaker groups, a historically Christian denomination which originated in the 1640s, have filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) over an executive order that threatened to rescind guidelines which have prevented immigration officials enforcing action in “sensitive” locations.
In the lawsuit, the Quakers, who are represented by Democracy Forward, argue that, while several of the orders are unconstitutional, Trump’s immigration policy would allow Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE) officers to go into schools and places of worship, thus violating religious rights.
California’s governor Gavin Newsom has heavily criticised Trump for deploying the National Guard and said he will sue the president to force him to withdraw the troops, stating it is an “an illegal act, an immoral act, an unconstitutional act.”
Trump, however, said of Newsom to reporters: “I like Gavin Newsom, he’s a nice guy, but he’s grossly incompetent.
“The people that are causing these problems are professional agitators, they’re insurrectionists, they’re bad people. They should be in jail.”
On Monday (9 June) protests against ICE took place in other cities around the US including San Francisco, New York and Dallas.
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