Residents of downtown LA, where a small portion of the area has been impacted by anti-ICE protests, have told CNN how they feel about the Marines being activated, with one word coming up frequently – excessive.
Michael Marshall said he believed it was a “waste of money,” and described President Donald Trump’s actions as “fearmongering, it’s just causing havoc.”
“Do things ethically and with everyone in mind. That’s all I’d say. Do things with everyone in mind … you’re hurting everybody you know with these actions,” he said.
Another resident, Juan Robledo, said he felt “It seems pretty excessive to deal with civilians that way.”
For Priscilla Martinez, a Mexican American, the protests “hit close to home.”
“I believe that people have the right to protest. I feel like everything that’s going on, we need to protect our people. This is beyond words,” she said.
Deploying the Marines was “Excessive – I think the police should be able to handle it and control it,” Martinez told CNN. She felt safe around the protests, but not around the military, “at the moment,” she said.
“None of the protesters have done any harm to me, I’ve passed by them and I just see them protesting. I’m around here, I walk these streets every day. The protesters in my opinion haven’t done anything to me. If anything, I just feel like there’s a lot of terror that’s happening to them.”
