From Washington to LA: Homeless terrified after Trump’s DC crackdown; Will Los Angeles be next?

A community health group which provides medical services to homeless people in Los Angeles says it fears removal by the military, after U.S. President Trump said on Monday (August 11) he was deploying 800 National Guard troops to Washington and temporarily taking over the city's police department to fight crime while also vowing to remove homeless encampments, an extraordinary assertion of presidential power in the nation's capital. Trump signalled that other major U.S. cities with Democratic leadership could be next, including Chicago and Los Angeles. While treating unhoused people in Macarthur Park, Jessica Sanchez, Director of St John's medicine team, told Reuters, "It sounds like police are going to start coming out into the streets and detaining people, possibly by force, the way they've been doing with the ICE raids. So that may cause a lot of fear, commotion, and uncertainty among people."