How the news can make us think we need more cops

Code Switch

NPR

Society & Culture

4.6 • 14.5K Ratings

🗓️ 11 June 2025

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As President Trump flirts with invoking the Insurrection Act on anti-ICE demonstrators in LA, we look back at the national protests of 2020, when Trump last talked about invoking the act. Back then, there was broad energy around rethinking policing, but polls show that that energy has largely vanished. In this episode, we ask: what happened? Our guest points to what he calls copaganda – or pro-police propaganda.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This message comes from the Boston Globe's chart-topping podcast, Love Letters.
0:04.4	In this season, host and advice columnist Meredith Goldstein explores a big question.
0:09.2	Can people change?
0:10.4	And if so, how?
0:11.9	Follow love letters from the Boston Globe wherever you get your podcasts.
0:16.6	Hey, everyone, you're listening to Code Switch.
0:19.4	I'm Bea Parker.
0:20.8	And I'm Gene.A. Parker.
0:39.0	And I'm Gene Demby. We've been watching, probably, like you, as the Trump administration has sent troops to Los Angeles, you know, where folks have been protesting and disrupting immigration raids by ICE agents. First, President Trump sent over 2,000 of California's National Guard troops to Los Angeles.
0:42.7	But Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, was really opposed to that.
0:43.3	He was not feeling this.
0:53.9	He said sending troops to California was unconstitutional and, quote, an unmistakable step toward authoritarianism that threatens the foundation of our republic."
0:54.6	End quote.
0:55.8	California is actually suing the Trump administration over this, and Trump responded by calling
1:01.2	for Gavin Newsom to be arrested.
1:03.2	But the president did not stop there.
1:04.9	I mean, he sent more National Guard troops to L.A.
1:07.2	And now the Marines to the city.
1:10.7	Right. The president called the protest there a quote-unquote rebellion and said Los Angeles
1:15.5	would have been completely obliterated if troops were not sent to the nation's second largest city.
1:21.4	He called the protesters in L.A. insurrectionists.
1:25.4	And on Tuesday, when Trump spoke of the Oval Office,
	...

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