Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has been accused of gaslighting residents whereas “defending” violent gangbangers — after the feds took down a number of members of the town’s largest gang in a daring, heavily-armed raid close to MacArthur Park on Thursday.
The embattled chief beforehand blasted a federal operation in July, which noticed immigration brokers descend on the troubled park to root out MS-13 gangbangers and open-air drug markets, calling it “outrageous” and “un-American.”
She additionally insisted on the time that MacArthur Park, which has lengthy been suffering from gang exercise, homelessness and drug addicts overdosing on fentanyl, was a beloved kids’s sanctuary.
“Minutes earlier than, there have been greater than 20 children taking part in — then, the MILITARY comes by way of,” Bass ranted on X, posting a time-lapse video of the brokers marching throughout an empty soccer discipline contained in the park.
The resurfaced feedback irked many fed-up Angelenos — after the FBI helmed a mult-agency raid that nabbed 12 members and associates of the infamous 18th Road gang on Thursday.
The gang is a significant participant within the drug epidemic gripping LA. It’s a high trafficker of methamphetamine and fentanyl, with a particular focus of their operations in MacArthur Park.
Gloria Romero, former State Senate Majority Chief and present candidate for California Lieutenant Governor, swiftly referred to as out Bass.
“Didn’t @MayorOfLA declare they have been simply picnicking? Anybody with eyes may see the entire destruction, corruption, trafficking that was happening there. Due to @billessayli perhaps we’d be capable of picnic there in the future,” she sniped on X.
“Why didn’t you care for this downside, @MayorOfLA? One other failure,” Kent Moyer, the CEO of personal safety firm The World Safety Group, additionally seethed.
“You publicly promoted MacArthur Park as a protected, family-friendly place for the neighborhood — but gangs have been controlling the realm. Angelenos deserve management that confronts actuality and protects our neighborhoods, not picture ops and empty assurances.”
One other livid LA resident referred to as out Bass’ “elite denial.”
“Karen Bass calling MacArthur Park a paradise for youths proper earlier than the largest gang bust there in years exposes the elite denial recreation… Who else is bored with leaders mendacity whereas households pay the worth?” they fumed on X.
“Why was Karen Bass defending members of the 18th Road gang at MacArthur Park?” yet one more pissed off resident chimed in.
Following the Thursday raid, the feds shared scary pictures of what seems to be an enormous narcotics seizure, that includes a semi-automatic handgun, stacks of money, and hundreds of suspected illicit drugs and powders.
“FBI brokers and companions with LAPD, HSI, IRS, DEA, and U.S. Marshals served a number of search and arrest warrants,” the FBI’s Los Angeles workplace wrote on X. “Unlawful narcotics, money, and different proof have been seized.”
The gang, often known as, Barrio 18, is a big, multi-ethnic, primarily Hispanic avenue gang originating in LA, with 30,000–50,000 members throughout the US, Mexico, and Central America.
The US State Division designated Barrio 18 a overseas terrorist group and a Specifically Designated International Terrorist entity in September 2025.
