Los Angeles, 2025.
The city’s burning. The media’s lying. And your politicians? Still playing dress-up in front of a teleprompter.
In this episode of Stay in the Gray Podcast, Ryan breaks down the chaos in LA—where ICE raids collide with open riots, protesters scream for justice, and the military hits the streets. From Karen Bass’ excuses to Gavin Newsom’s vanishing act, to Trump stepping in with force, this episode pulls zero punches.
🔥 Inside:
ICE protests turn violent in downtown LA
Military presence confirmed: National Guard & Marines on the ground
Trump vs. Newsom – the standoff over federal intervention
Media spin dissected: AP, CNN, BBC, KCAL, Fox, Channel 4
Real talk on immigration, enforcement, and political cowardice
If this looks familiar, it’s because history’s not repeating—it’s escalating. And no one in charge seems interested in stopping it.
🎯 This isn’t “mostly peaceful.” This is collapse—with a press release.
📲 Follow us @StayInTheGrayPodcast and tap in. America’s losing its mind, and someone needs to say it.
Our LinkTree for all Episodes and Socials: https://linktr.ee/StayintheGrayPodcast
Time Codes ⏱️/ Topics: 00:00 Welcome to Los Angeles, 202500:54 Law and Order in Chaos03:35 ICE Raids and Riots06:55 Political Reactions and Media Spin14:35 The Human Side of Illegal Immigration20:30 Final Thoughts and Call to Action
00:00:00
Welcome to Los Angeles 2025, where the streets are lawless,
00:00:04
the flags are flammable and the politicians have the spine of a
00:00:09
wet napkin. Here's the thing.
00:00:19
Emotion doesn't erase law. You can feel bad for someone.
00:00:23
You can even empathize with their situation.
00:00:26
I do, but that doesn't rewrite federal code.
00:00:31
Crossing illegally is still illegal.
00:00:34
And if we start picking and choosing based on who gives us
00:00:37
the most feels, then law becomes a suggestion, not a structure.
00:00:42
America doesn't need softer hearts, it needs stronger
00:00:46
spines. We've tried emotional
00:00:49
dictatorship and it got us bricks, fires, and apologies for
00:00:53
criminals. Hey everyone, what the hell is
00:00:57
going on in our country? Have you ever seen a guy punch a
00:01:03
cop, spit on the American flag, set a car on fire, and then
00:01:08
scream about how he deserves rights?
00:01:11
I just welcome to Los Angeles 2025, where the streets are
00:01:16
lawless, the flags are flammable, and the politicians
00:01:21
have the spine of a wet napkin. ICE carried out raids.
00:01:33
Over 100 illegals detained. 113 of those illegal aliens had
00:01:39
prior criminal convictions. Downtown LA fashion district,
00:01:44
Home Depot jobs gone within hours.
00:01:48
Boom activists blocking detention centers.
00:01:53
Concrete chunks flying at police highways turned into war zones.
00:01:58
Now here comes Maxine Waters, Queen of denial, professional
00:02:02
agitator, grabbing a mic to claim there's no violence.
00:02:06
Protest, and even those who were out of step with what we are
00:02:11
advocating. Peaceful protest did not create
00:02:14
any violence. Nobody was shot, nobody was
00:02:17
killed. Get it in your head.
00:02:18
Don't believe what you're seeing, lady.
00:02:21
Your city looks like Call of Duty, the civilian edition in
00:02:26
Europe. They're gaslighting the entire
00:02:27
country like it's open mic night for delusional geriatrics.
00:02:32
Then there's Governor Gavin Newsom, hair slicked back, Botox
00:02:37
tight, standing in front of the burning city, suing the one guy
00:02:43
trying to stop Trump sends the National Guard.
00:02:47
Gavin files a lawsuit. It's like a lifeguard suing the
00:02:51
guy who jumped in to save the drowning kid because he didn't
00:02:55
ask permission first. Meanwhile, real families, the
00:02:59
ones who followed the rules, waited in line, did it the right
00:03:03
way. They're sitting at home watching
00:03:05
illegal immigrants life flags on fire and wondering why the hell
00:03:08
they even tried. This episode we're torching the
00:03:12
lies, the policies, the politics, and the cowardice that
00:03:16
turned LA into a riot playground.
00:03:19
And yes, we'll talk about the tiny Gray area, which is what I
00:03:23
try and do. The ones caught in the middle of
00:03:25
all this don't get comfortable. It's not that long of a segment.
00:03:29
So this is stay in the great podcast.
00:03:31
It's June 11th, 2025. Let's roll.
00:03:35
So here's what lit the fuse on June the 6th, ICE rolls into
00:03:38
downtown LA. Again, like I said, the Fashion
00:03:41
District and there were some specific Home Depot sites,
00:03:45
immigrant heavy job zones and they detained over 100 illegals.
00:03:49
And we're not talking about rounding up families of
00:03:53
Disneyland, much to what most lefties want you to believe.
00:03:57
These were targeted raids. Law enforcement doing the job
00:04:02
that every single keyboard warrior with an abolish ICE bio
00:04:06
pretends doesn't need to be done.
00:04:08
And within hours, LA does what LA does best.
00:04:11
It loses its damn mind. Protesters rushed the
00:04:15
Metropolitan Detention Center, blocking it like it was their
00:04:18
spiritual duty. Before you could say sanctuary
00:04:22
city, people started throwing stun grenades and chunks of
00:04:25
concrete at police. Concrete at cops.
00:04:32
Let me spell it out for you. That is attempted murder.
00:04:35
It's not activism. It's not civil disobedience
00:04:38
even. It's not a cry for help.
00:04:41
It's someone trying to cave in a police officer's skull because
00:04:45
ICE dared to enforce immigration law.
00:04:48
And of course, the streets weren't enough.
00:04:51
Nope, these geniuses had to take it to the 101 freeway, setting
00:04:55
cars on fire, erecting barricades, and treating rush
00:04:59
hour like it was their own personal war film.
00:05:02
Some of those cement blocks I was talking about were heaved at
00:05:06
police cars and police officers outside of the car from high
00:05:11
above let I'll let you guess what happens if one of those
00:05:14
hits a police officer in the head.
00:05:16
And here's the twist. While all of this chaos erupts,
00:05:20
guess who's missing from it all? Anyone with a clue, a plan, or
00:05:24
the balls to say, hey, maybe lighting your own city on fire
00:05:28
isn't how we fix immigration policy.
00:05:31
Because for them, this isn't about solutions.
00:05:34
It's about performance. Rage Theater, a tantrum
00:05:37
televised for maximum virtue signal experience, One activist
00:05:43
shouted to reporters. We don't recognize these
00:05:46
borders. This land isn't even America's
00:05:48
to begin with. That stuff is so stale and it's
00:05:52
getting really old. But the welfare checks, the food
00:05:56
stamps and the free public education somehow are.
00:06:00
And by the way, yes, it it is America, borders and all.
00:06:04
It was 1 fair and square generations ago.
00:06:07
You weren't there. I wasn't there.
00:06:10
But your ancestors, yeah, they lost.
00:06:13
It's not oppression that's a scoreboard.
00:06:16
Sorry your great great great grandfather sucked at war.
00:06:20
History is brutal like that. Meanwhile you have illegals
00:06:23
waving flags from the countries that they've escaped, waving
00:06:28
them high and proud while burning the American flag like
00:06:32
it's confetti at a damn quinceanera.
00:06:34
We need to break down at that time.
00:06:42
And yet we're supposed to clap politely at this?
00:06:46
Sorry, you don't torch the flag of the United States and then
00:06:50
cry about your rights. That's not bravery, that's
00:06:53
entitlement wrapped in gasoline. While cops were dodging bricks
00:06:57
and Marines were being deployed to downtown LA, our lovely
00:07:00
leaders of California were busy doing what they do best, lying
00:07:05
on camera. Let's start with Maxine Waters.
00:07:10
I don't mean to to insult Maxine, but my God she looks
00:07:12
like a puppet. She's the queen of empty
00:07:15
district patron St. of Say something inflammatory and
00:07:18
bounce. Here's what she said as fires
00:07:21
were smoldering. I have seen no violence.
00:07:24
I've only seen people standing up for justice.
00:07:27
Ma'am. There were Molotov cocktails
00:07:30
bouncing off cruisers. Officers were hit with rebar
00:07:33
poles. 7 journalists including foreign press were injured in
00:07:39
Compton and Paramount, but Maxine's out here playing Stevie
00:07:43
Wonder to it all. Now let's talk about one of my
00:07:48
favourites, Gavin Newsom, Governor Hairgel.
00:07:51
His response to all of this was an outrage over the violence in
00:07:56
his state or sympathy for the store owners who were being
00:08:00
looted and watching their livelihoods burn.
00:08:03
No, Gavin got mad at Trump, sued him for sending in troops
00:08:09
because the real problem wasn't the riots and the violence, it
00:08:12
was the federal government's interfering with California's
00:08:15
God-given right to fall apart in peace.
00:08:18
He literally said, and I quote, this isn't about law and order,
00:08:22
this is about authoritarianism. There's that word again.
00:08:26
Ah yes, the man whose state banned gas stoves, plastic bags,
00:08:31
and straws thinks Trump's deploying troops to stop
00:08:35
attempted murder is a step too far.
00:08:39
This is their political playbook right now and you see it all
00:08:41
over the place. Ignore the violence, blame the
00:08:44
response, call it fascism, and then go back to your gated
00:08:48
community with your armed security and pretend that you
00:08:50
care in the media. Oh, they were right there
00:08:55
lighting candles for the mostly peaceful protests while standing
00:08:59
in front of a burning Walgreens like it's a damn field report
00:09:02
from Baghdad. CNN ran a Chiron that read
00:09:07
demonstrations remain calm amid unrest as flames licked the
00:09:13
background. Like hell it opened up behind
00:09:15
the correspondent. It reminds me of the Naked Gun
00:09:18
film where the wonderful Leslie Nielsen, I believe was his name,
00:09:23
was standing there trying to get everybody to calm down.
00:09:26
And he said there's nothing to see, and there are literal
00:09:28
fireworks and explosions and people flying through the air
00:09:32
behind him. It's a funny movie.
00:09:35
Not so funny when it's reality. And we have actual media
00:09:38
correspondents trying to tell us that that's not happening when
00:09:41
we can see it. This wasn't coverage.
00:09:44
It was PR for criminal behavior. When The New York Times start
00:09:49
sounding like a protester's blog, you know, we've crossed
00:09:53
the line from journalism to fan fiction.
00:09:56
Goodness, Let's talk about what the streets actually look like.
00:10:00
Because while Gavin was crying authoritarianism and Maxine was
00:10:03
hallucinating peace, the ground reality was straight up warfare.
00:10:09
Compton, Paramount, downtown LA Police did not show up with
00:10:13
water balloons and patients. They rolled in with tear gas,
00:10:17
foam rounds, beanbags and rubber bullets.
00:10:21
And they still got overrun. You know it gets bad for law
00:10:25
enforcement to deploy beanbags. It's basically saying please
00:10:29
stop lighting the freeway on fire.
00:10:31
Here's a soft bullet to your ribs and protesters hire to that
00:10:36
word. Try mask mobs hurling molotovs,
00:10:39
lighting vehicles on fire, shattering storefronts and
00:10:42
looting like it was Black Friday with no checkout counter.
00:10:46
One journalist from the Times UK described it like this.
00:10:51
We were pinned against a wall by a crowd throwing debris, police
00:10:55
fired tear gas and I watched a man throw a lit bottle into a
00:10:58
moving car. First hand account, but sure.
00:11:03
Tell me again how it's about love and justice.
00:11:07
And while it's descending into anarchy, Trump steps in and does
00:11:11
what leaders used to do and what they should do.
00:11:14
He deployed 4000 National Guard troops.
00:11:17
Trump also activated 4000 National Guard troops to quarrel
00:11:21
protests and an extra 700 Marines.
00:11:25
He didn't wait for permission. He doesn't have to.
00:11:27
He didn't wait for a poll. He said lawlessness.
00:11:31
He saw. He saw lawlessness and he sent
00:11:34
in force his words. We will not allow American
00:11:38
cities to be taken over by mobs. We will liberate Los Angeles.
00:11:43
What an ass is he And you think he just declared martial law?
00:11:47
The way they were reacting, it's not even close.
00:11:50
Stop using terms and phrases and words that you don't know the
00:11:54
meaning of. Study it, at least before you
00:11:58
try and use it. Media outlets clutched their
00:12:02
pearls, Gavin went into lawsuit mode, and Mayor Karen Bass
00:12:07
declared emergency only after half the city was already
00:12:10
smoking and finally a curfew was set.
00:12:15
Yet she's still claiming there's no violence.
00:12:18
So why the curfew, Karen, $134 million later, that's how much
00:12:24
it cost taxpayers over 60 days of deployment.
00:12:28
Congress still had the audacity to ask if it was politically
00:12:32
motivated. Politically motivated?
00:12:35
How about riot Motivated. How about we can't let domestic
00:12:38
terrorism fester in a major US city?
00:12:41
Motivated. You want a political stunt?
00:12:45
That was Newsome filing legal action against the people who
00:12:49
are saving his city. That was Mayor Bass waiting
00:12:54
until Target was looted twice before she even imposed this
00:12:57
curfew. And let's address the photos.
00:13:01
Yes, the real ones. I admit it.
00:13:04
I'm not going to sit here and pretend that they were fake of
00:13:07
National Guard troops sleeping on the floor of a building.
00:13:10
Newsom paraded those pictures around like Trump had chained
00:13:13
the soldiers to dumpsters and lit them on fire.
00:13:16
No, that's happening outside the facility.
00:13:19
These are trained warriors just sleeping in between their
00:13:23
missions. It's called deployment.
00:13:25
They weren't asking for feather pillows and complaining.
00:13:29
Let's be honest, they wouldn't even be there if Gavin Newsom
00:13:35
hadn't let LA fall into a third world dumpster fire.
00:13:39
You don't get to cause a riot, fail to stop it, and then cry
00:13:43
about how the people saving your city are having to sleep between
00:13:47
concrete walls. That's not compassion, that's
00:13:50
cowardice wrapped in a press release.
00:13:54
And while we're at it, let's talk about troop injuries.
00:13:58
Not a hypothetical. Not a threat to democracy. 6
00:14:03
service members were injured trying to control the chaos in
00:14:07
neighborhoods where the same people throwing bricks later
00:14:11
cried on TV about tear gas being inhumane.
00:14:16
Let that sink in. I feel like that should be on an
00:14:18
episode of They really said that six troops put on American
00:14:22
uniforms, walked into an American city and came out
00:14:26
injured trying to protect it from itself.
00:14:30
But hey, Maxine says it was all peaceful.
00:14:35
All right, Well, look, even I know this isn't all black and
00:14:39
white. There's a sliver of grey.
00:14:43
This show Stay in the Grey podcast.
00:14:46
I really try and do it. There are things like this that
00:14:50
make it very difficult but it's worth saying this out loud even
00:14:55
if it won't trend on X because I'm not a bad person, I don't
00:15:00
want bad things to happen to people.
00:15:04
Not every person affected by these ICE raids was a brick
00:15:08
throwing anarchist. Some were families, real ones,
00:15:13
parents who left cartel ridden towns, tried to carve out
00:15:17
something safer for their kids. And yeah, they crossed
00:15:21
illegally. No visa, no green card, just
00:15:25
desperation and a border they decided was worth risking.
00:15:30
It doesn't make it legal, it doesn't make it right, but it
00:15:34
makes it human. And some of them in the keyword
00:15:37
being some came here with the intent to eventually get right
00:15:41
with the law. They worked, raised families,
00:15:45
stayed out of trouble. They weren't burning flags.
00:15:49
They were just trying to disappear into the noise of the
00:15:52
system and survive. Here's the thing.
00:15:56
Emotion doesn't erase law. You can feel bad for someone.
00:16:00
You can even empathize with their situation.
00:16:03
I do. But that doesn't rewrite federal
00:16:07
code. Crossing illegally is still
00:16:10
illegal. And if we start picking and
00:16:12
choosing based on who gives us the most feels, then law becomes
00:16:17
a suggestion, not a structure. And let's be honest, many of
00:16:21
these folks didn't even try to become citizens, didn't apply,
00:16:24
didn't seek asylum the right way.
00:16:27
They just crossed and hoped for the best.
00:16:29
That's not seeking a better life.
00:16:32
That's gambling on a loophole. And when that gamble doesn't
00:16:36
work out, suddenly we're the villains.
00:16:40
Sorry, wanting a better life does not grant you US
00:16:44
citizenship. If it did, we'd have a shit load
00:16:48
of people knocking on the door tomorrow morning waltzing in.
00:16:52
So yes, it's tragic. Yes, there are families who got
00:16:56
caught in the crossfire of bad policy and even worse
00:17:00
leadership. But if you choose to enter
00:17:02
illegally and skip every legal pathway, you can't act shocked
00:17:06
when the law knocks on your door.
00:17:09
You're not a victim of injustice.
00:17:11
You're a participant in illegality.
00:17:14
And the difference matters. There.
00:17:16
It does. All right, It's time to slam
00:17:19
this coffin shut with sound. We've got a governor who let the
00:17:23
city burn, who gaslit the nation, and whose first move
00:17:27
when help arrived was to sue, deny and spin, spin, spin.
00:17:31
Now, let's talk about the phone call saga, which just happened.
00:17:36
Gavin Newsom claims that Donald Trump didn't even try to call
00:17:39
him. Their big complaint is that
00:17:42
usually a President of the United States will contact the
00:17:45
governor before deploying the National Guard.
00:17:48
So Gavin Newsom is focusing on that element versus the actual
00:17:53
troops coming in to save his city.
00:17:55
Trump said he called Gavin Newsom twice on June the 7th.
00:18:00
1st it went to voicemail. Second was a 16 minute
00:18:05
conversation where Trump allegedly told Newsom to get his
00:18:09
ass in gear. Sure, there's probably a little
00:18:11
more to it than that, and I admire that.
00:18:14
He needs to get his ass in gear. He even dropped a screenshot.
00:18:17
Donald dropped a screenshot with timestamps showing the call hit
00:18:22
at 1:23 AM Pacific Time. That's early Saturday morning in
00:18:27
California, not Sunday and not Monday.
00:18:31
Newsom blew a gasket, doubled down and said there wasn't even
00:18:35
a voicemail. Then suddenly he admits the call
00:18:38
existed, but it was brief Friday talk.
00:18:41
Never mention the National Guard.
00:18:43
So which is it, Gavin? You're either lying about a 16
00:18:47
minute call or you're lying about what was in the call.
00:18:51
One thing's certain, you're fucking lying, as usual.
00:18:55
And let's not pretend this isn't political theater.
00:18:58
This is not about protocol. It's about optics.
00:19:02
A time zone spin. A date shuffle.
00:19:05
A denial wrapped in public relations slime.
00:19:09
And here's the bigger truth. This is bigger than a phone
00:19:12
call. This is what happens when
00:19:14
emotion replaces structure, when leadership is reduced to
00:19:18
feelings 1st and facts later. California is now a case study
00:19:23
in moral collapse. A place where lighting a flag on
00:19:27
fire gets more defense than enforcing the law.
00:19:31
Where screaming trauma is treated as a get out of jail
00:19:34
free card. Where governors cry on camera
00:19:38
instead of commanding in crisis. You see it everywhere.
00:19:42
The soft language, the careful phrasing, the constant emotional
00:19:47
black pen. If you care, you'll understand.
00:19:51
If you're human, you'll excuse it.
00:19:54
If you don't agree, well then you're cruel.
00:19:58
No, law isn't cruel. Law is consistent.
00:20:03
What's cruel is feeding people this fantasy where consequences
00:20:08
don't exist and watching them implode when reality hits.
00:20:12
America doesn't need softer hearts, it needs stronger
00:20:16
spines. We've tried emotional
00:20:19
dictatorship and it got us bricks, fires, and apologies for
00:20:23
criminals. Maybe it's time we start
00:20:26
actually defending the people who follow the damn rules.
00:20:30
There's so much to uncover here about the LA riots.
00:20:34
There's so many things being said from the left.
00:20:39
I I just can't. Social media posts and stories
00:20:43
and little snippets where these celebrities, most of them B
00:20:48
list, are pleading for people to understand.
00:20:53
And it it's beyond me that the people who are actually being
00:20:58
thrown in the middle of all of this are being forgotten about.
00:21:02
The people who are going in and actually doing something about
00:21:06
it are being chastised. I just gave you a small sample
00:21:10
size. And the main characters in the
00:21:13
California saga, when it comes to their supposed leadership,
00:21:16
their governor, the LA mayor, and Maxine Waters, whatever the
00:21:20
hell she does, I don't mean to laugh.
00:21:23
It's not a laughing matter. But Maxine Waters, all you can
00:21:26
do is laugh or cry. And I'm going to go with
00:21:28
laughing. This has been say in the great
00:21:31
podcast. You don't have to agree with
00:21:33
everything that I say. You probably won't.
00:21:35
And I'll never lie to make you comfortable.
00:21:38
And I'll never call arson activism.
00:21:42
If you're sick of this noise, hit subscribe and follow.
00:21:47
Like, tell me how you feel, especially if you're in
00:21:51
California. Let me know how often am I?
00:21:55
How often are the people away from California who are viewing
00:21:58
this? Who are seeing clips?
00:22:00
If you're not bothered by this, then I'm probably not your guy.
00:22:02
Either way, I'll be here calling it like it is.
00:22:06
So stay sharp, stay watching. Tune back in because I'm
00:22:10
guarantee you that we follow up to this.
00:22:13
Stay honest, stay laughing, try at least stay in the grave.
00:22:18
Love you guys.