When anger goes beyond the limits of freedom and becomes arbitrary, then we all lose. Not ideologically. Humanly.
We live in difficult times. And it is completely normal for people to be outraged. To take to the streets. To shout, to protest, to demand. This is Democracy. This is its core.
But what we've been seeing lately It's not democracy. It's lawlessness.
Los Angeles
I can no longer watch in silence as this happens. Groups of protesters have taken to the streets, blocking major thoroughfares, blocking access to ICE buildings, painting threatening slogans on walls and public vehicles, throwing objects at police forces. All of this, supposedly, in the name of “freedom.”
But what freedom is that which does not respect others? What freedom allows you to loot stores, smash the windows of a family coffee shop, terrorize an employee at a local pharmacy who was crying locked in the warehouse because “the crowd” decided that they can do whatever they want?
The scenes weren't images of protest. They were images chaotic violence. Small businesses – many of them owned by immigrants who came here to build a new life – were destroyed in a matter of minutes. People who had worked their whole lives to build something saw their hard work reduced to ashes or captured in a video that would play for 24 hours on TikTok. No one asked them if they agreed or disagreed with government policy. They were punished simply for being in the “wrong square.”
It deeply saddens me. I am in favor of human rights, in favor of dialogue on immigration, in favor of peaceful mobilizations. But what we see It is not a defense of the weak — it is an exploitation of all. A minority dynamits social cohesion, destroying in its wake everything that does not symbolize its ideological truth.
And I wonder, with all the honesty of an ordinary citizen:
Who will defend the immigrant who lost his shop? Who will rehabilitate the worker who was not paid because his shop was looted in the name of a “revolution”? Who will speak up for them, when everyone is shouting about “rights,” but no one takes responsibility for the damages?
Similar images in other California cities
Unfortunately, the phenomenon is not limited to Los Angeles. In Oakland, San Diego, Sacramento — in many cities in California we see the same pattern repeated. Protests that start with slogans in favor of human rights end in scenes of tension, wear and tear and violence, with blocked roads, attacks on public services and harassment of people with opposing views.
It's as if the difference between the resistance and anarchyPublic debate has not just been sidelined — has been replaced from screams, pressures, and a mentality that says: "If you don't agree with me, then you are an enemy".
Instead of democratic dialogue, we see collective pressure through fearInstead of arguments, we see activism-show, where it is not the truth that matters but the impression. Legal procedures – the institutions, the courts, the political dialogues, the parliamentary decisions – are being trampled. Why? Because some people believe that their "indignation" gives them the moral high ground to do whatever they want.
And you know what I'm most afraid of? That this attitude it is no longer marginal. It begins and becomes “normality.” Violence is called “reaction.” Destruction is called “political statement.” Anyone who dares to react, to demand balance, to speak of law and order is targeted as “heartless,” “racist,” or “conservative.”
But it is not “conservation” to want to protect the lives of your fellow human beings. It is not “indifference” to want to say: “Enough with the chaos. We want solutions, not more theater.”
If the state didn't intervene, they would still be shouting
I do not defend any form of state intervention. The unprovoked police violence is equally reprehensible. We have seen, in countries like Greece, riot police breaking into peaceful gatherings, pushing young people holding banners, throwing chemicals in squares without any serious reason. This is another form of debauchery – from the side of power this time. And this I don't forget it.
But here, in the case of the recent incidents in Los Angeles and elsewhere, the surgery was not unprovoked. It was not arbitrary, it was not done in silent marches or sit-ins. It was done because the situation had gotten out of hand. Because there was a danger to lives, to property, to the very social balance. And when Democracy is in danger from street violence, it has the right – and the obligation – to protect itself.
And something else that infuriates me as much as the violence itself: hypocrisy.
Those who today accuse the government of intervening to "suppress protests" are the same ones who if he sat with his arms crossed, they would accuse it of “indifference” and “abandonment of citizens.” Do we ultimately want a state that is present or absent? Do we want a state that safeguards the security of all or one that passively watches the destruction?
You cannot demand protection when it concerns you, and impunity when it concerns others. You cannot shout “why don’t they intervene?” when you were robbed, but shout “repression!” when they intervene to prevent others from being robbed.
The protection of public order it is not oppression - is responsibility. Police intervention, when it is done to protect the life and property of the citizen, it is not authoritarianism - is obligation. And whoever governs, if he does not do this, then he really it will be his fault.
So, let's be honest: we can't ask for a Democracy only when it suits usIf we want to defend it, we must respect it in both easy times and difficult ones.
We are not against people – we are against lawlessness
I am not in favor of mass deportations, nor am I in favor of throwing anyone who doesn't have papers out onto the street. America is full of people without legal status, but with honest life, hard work, contribution to society. They are people who care for the elderly, raise children, work in construction, shops, farms. People who love this country more than those who were born here. And I firmly believe that we must find legal ways to integrate them, to protect them, to recognize them.
What I cannot accept is that they all fall into the same bag. One is the man who came to live and work, and another is the man who deals drugs, participates in gangs, or commits violent crimes. Society cannot tolerate this confusion. We cannot tolerate in the name of tolerance. criminality, delinquency and lawlessness.
Nor can we tolerate the political exploitation of everything. Others shout “no deportations” in general and vague terms, but avoid answering what happens to the criminals. Do we want them next to us? In our schools? In our neighborhoods? No. We must be both humane and responsible.
But we cannot talk about a solution to the immigration issue without looking at both ends of failure.
On the one hand, the complete lawlessness of the last four years, where immigration policy – under Democratic management – turned almost into a denial of control. Over 25 million irregular migrants It is estimated that they have entered the country without a procedure, without a framework, without organization. It is not the fault of those who came – it is the fault of those who they closed their eyes and refused to set limits in the name of "progress".
On the other, we cannot ignore the other extreme – the Trump administration’s current immigration policy, where every immigrant is collectively treated as a threat. Where no serious reform is promoted, but on the contrary, the criminalization of presence thousands of people. Instead of social integration, we are watching persecutions, mass raids, rhetoric of fearAnd a witch hunt that strikes without discrimination. No immigration policy is built on terrorizing vulnerable people.
The solution is not found. nor in tolerance without reason, neither in heartless cruelty.
We need a new immigration policy, with laws that protect the country but also they respect the person. With system, not chaos. With justice, not blind pursuit.
Help immigrants in a meaningful way. Not with violence. Not with destruction. Not with political games that use them as a tool to show "outrage."
True help is not given with fires and threats.
It is given with effort, with institutional initiatives, with legal claims. With pressure in the right places, with proposals, with unity.
You don't help a person when you use them as a weapon in an ideological conflict. You help them when you fight for his right to live legally, with dignity and in safety.
Change doesn't come by tearing down. It comes by building. You build correctly, with wisdom and faith in human value.
