Media ignoring the big question: Who on the left is funding the LA riots?

There are serious questions about whether hard left activist groups – some funded by American taxpayers – have had a hand in organising and whipping up the protests, writes James Morrow.

So far the most iconic images to come out of this year’s Los Angeles riots have been the ones showing mask-wearing, Mexican flag-waving protesters standing triumphantly on the frames of burnt out cars amidst a downtown Californian hellscape.

But the most important images may turn out to be far less striking, at least visually.

On Monday afternoon LA time, news reporters captured vision of protesters unloading a truckload of what local Fox anchor Elex Michaelson described as “bionic face shields”.

These are the sort of thing normally worn by people in machinist and auto body shops to protect their face, head and neck from chemicals and flying debris.

In other words, just the sort of thing that might come in handy for protesters squaring up to cops armed with tear gas and rubber bullets and other non-lethal crowd control equipment.

Retailing for as much as $50 a piece, the images of protective equipment being given to protesters not only put the lie to the claim that the protests are just a spontaneous, organic expression of outrage over Donald Trump’s deportation program.

Fireworks explode around police officers in riot gear during a protest in response to federal immigration operations in the Little Tokyo neighbourhood of downtown Los Angeles. Picture: Frederic J. Brown / AFP

They also raise serious questions about whether hard left activist groups – some of them funded by American taxpayers – have had a hand in organising and whipping up the protests.

So far, most of the media has ignored these questions.

Outlets like CNN have been happy to repeat the line they trotted out during the destructive 2020 Black Lives Matter riots about them being “mostly peaceful protests.”

Television crews in Los Angeles have captured images of face shields being distributed to protesters, suggesting that organised groups are helping to foment the unrest in California.

That network’s Brian Stelter took pains as the riots took hold to remind viewers that the “unrest” was “isolated”, though he did not offer any indication as to just how many cars or city blocks would have to burn before things might turn serious.

The local ABC affiliate claimed it was “just a bunch of people having fun watching cars burn” (tough luck for the poor people who actually own the cars and might need to get to work tomorrow).

Not to be outdone, California Democrat congresswoman Lidia Sanchez dismissed the severity of the riots, saying “it’s no different than when a team wins a national championship and people get overexcited.

Yet despite the claims that these protests came out of nowhere, internet sleuths have done some digging and found the fingerprints of a number of groups on the current unrest.

California civil rights attorney Laura Powell, who describes herself as a “former leftist, now politically homeless”, has uncovered links between a group calling itself the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, the Democrat party in California, and local labour unions.

While there is no definitive link between the group and the violence of the past few days, Powell says that it has a history of campaigning to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and alleges the group “is one of the key players in fomenting” the protests.

Among other things, she says the group leads the Los Angeles Rapid Response Network which monitors ICE raids and sends out teams of activists to meet and confront agents.

This sort of confrontation between activists and immigration agents trying to apprehend criminal migrants several days ago is what triggered the latest round of riots.

Police in riot gear are seen through a protester's sign on June 9, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. Picture: Jim Vondruska / Getty Images via AFP

The group also receives millions of dollars in government funding, meaning taxpayers are potentially funding the protests they then have to pay to police.

Other groups including the Party for Socialism and Liberation as well as the Service Employees International Union have also been tied to the protests, with their logos appearing on pre-printed signs given to demonstrators.

David Huerta, the president of the SEIU’s California chapter, was also arrested at one of last week’s protests after, officials say, deliberately obstructing federal agents who were trying to serve a warrant at a local worksite.

And while there are still more questions than answers, the evidence – including those expensive face masks being handed out to protesters – suggests that there are organised groups with money behind them who are stoking the unrest.

Yet for all the anti-Trump rhetoric the protests have generated, and the ability it has given California governor and likely future presidential candidate Gavin Newsom a chance to grandstand, it may be that this winds up being a terrific own goal by the left.

By a 54 to 46 per cent margin, a YouGov poll on the weekend found Americans approve of Trump’s deportation programs, even if there is uncertainty about how they are being carried out.

Which suggests that again Trump has found a way to take a common sense position – namely, people who shouldn’t be in the country ought to be made to leave – and force his opponents to take the side of guys who burn cars on US soil while waving foreign flags.

Originally published as Media ignoring the big question: Who on the left is funding the LA riots?