Thirty minutes after Hamas supporters first set up their operation outside a Los Angeles synagogue, they maced their first Jew. And the Los Angeles police did nothing.
Not until an hour into the terrorist rally outside a synagogue, did the LAPD finally step in, pushing back masked Jihad supporters in keffiyeh terror scarves from the entrance of Congregation Adas Torah (Congregation of the Bible) which they had occupied.
And then the mob, chanting calls for "intifada" and the destruction of Israel, moved outward to target two smaller synagogues attended by Persian Jewish refugees from Islamic terror in Iran.
"Billions of us will come and kill you," a heavily accented Middle Eastern man in a keffiyeh unprompted rasped at me as I walked up. Only dozens had actually shown up, but they made up for it with bullhorns, robotic chants, and assaults in the middle of a Jewish neighborhood.
The Jewish counterprotesters had come waving American and Israeli flags, while the other side was a sea of terrorist flags. A man wore an Antifa cap, another had come in ski goggles during 90-degree heat, while others toted bear spray, metal bottles, and other implements of violence.
The Jewish community members included older men and women, as well as families, while the Hamas contingent was mostly young and many were masked. A pair of rabbis led a melodic song that could hardly be heard over the harsh clatter of the hateful terror chants.
Despite knowing that a terrorist rally was planned outside a synagogue, the LAPD had allowed the terrorist supporters to take over the entire sidewalk leaving only a thin lane for synagogue attendees to walk through to get inside. The LAPD did little to interfere with the terrorist supporters, but did block Jewish counterprotesters from reaching their own synagogue. The police also did nothing as clumps of masked Hamas supporters broke away from the synagogue and began confronting, threatening, and attacking Jewish community members on the street.
LAPD officers did not stir as confrontations escalated into assaults, shoving into mace and bear spray. Jewish community members rushed to provide water bottles to the affected. Only after several such incidents did the LAPD finally bring in reinforcements and push the Hamas supporters away from the synagogue entrance (dispersing them to harass and threaten two other synagogues) while also clearing Jewish families away from the other side of the street who had been peacefully waving flags near a children's school.
The terrorist hate rally spread outside three synagogues, Congregation Adas Torah, Chabad Persian Youth, and Congregation Ateret Israel (Glory of Israel), and the confrontations in the center of the street continued. There were running battles along the large commercial street, with violent assaults outside a kosher luncheonette and running battles down a residential street in the Jewish neighborhood.
The terrorist hate rally was not an aberration, It's become the new normal.
On Thursday, Hamas supporters showed up at Congregation Shaarey Zedek (Gates of Righteousness) in the San Fernando Valley, formerly attended by Ben Shapiro, yelling abuse at parents taking their children to school. Other Jewish schools have been similarly targeted.
Beginning with the assault on the Museum of Tolerance when it was screening a documentary on the October 7 massacre, to the violence at UCLA, it has played out this way for 8 months.
The LAPD has consistently failed to secure protest zones, to separate different groups of protesters and to prevent violence, and only steps in when it escalates past a set point. That point usually comes when the Jewish counterprotesters start fighting back. And then the LAPD begins arresting both sides while politicians, including Mayor Bass, deplore the violence.
Media accounts, especially from the Los Angeles Times, CNN and the JTA, falsely characterize the violence as coming from the Jewish counterprotesters rather than the terrorist supporters.
I had previously heard first-person accounts from people who were assaulted while the police and security at UCLA did nothing, but now I saw it for myself. And after 8 months of the same thing, it's hard to believe that it's simple incompetence or that a major urban police force has no idea how to handle the same kind of protests and is incapable of figuring out how to do so.
Especially when it's been standard procedure by other urban police forces.
The LAPD is clearly aware of the potential for violence because it sends out officers in riot gear. But rather than engaging in proactive policing to prevent violence, they stand passively and wait for orders from higher up before taking any action. This is not normal policing during protests and counterprotests, when the standard doctrine is for police to set up barriers and stand between groups of protesters before they bring out the riot gear. But the LAPD brings out the riot gear, allows the radicals free rein, and waits as long as possible before taking any action.
Why is this happening? I previously reported that Mayor Karen Bass is a close political ally of BLM LA boss Melina Abdullah, who has backed the pro-terrorist campaign against Jews. When Jews were attacked at UCLA, Democrat members of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors passed a motion to fund legal support for the terrorist supporters. The resolution to use taxpayer money to fund legal defenses for antisemites was put forward by Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, who 'represents' Council District 3 where the synagogue hate riot was taking place. After all the antisemitic violence at UCLA, the only one facing serious charges is a Jewish student.
The Democrat leadership of Los Angeles does not stand with the Jewish communities being targeted by hate, but with the antisemitic mobs surrounding synagogues.
Behind the masks, keffiyehs and the terrorist flags is the new Democratic Party.
Daniel Greenfield is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. This article previously appeared at the Center's Front Page Magazine.
Terry Taylor