When President Donald Trump announced on Saturday night that he would send the National Guard to Los Angeles to crush protests, a narrative emerged on social media that demonstrators had somehow given a gift to the authoritarian president by escalating confrontations with U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.

“Los Angeles — violence is never the answer. Assaulting law enforcement is never ok,” Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., posted on Sunday. “Indeed, doing so plays directly into the hands of those who seek to antagonize and weaponize the situation for their own gain. Don’t let them succeed.”

“It is the fight President Trump had been waiting for,” began the New York Times’s analysis on Monday morning. “Trump and his top aides leaned into the confrontation with California leaders on Sunday, portraying the demonstrations as an existential threat to the country.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders added his own unhelpful entry to the predictable chorus. “Dr. King defeated racist government officials & ended segregation through disciplined non-violent resistance,” he wrote, eliding militancy in the civil rights movement. “Violent protests are counterproductive and play right into Trump’s playbook.”

After over a decade of reporting on police brutality, fascist acceleration, and dissent, I have

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