
World Brief with Zach McCormick
90 second breakdowns of world events from the legal perspective
World Brief with Zach McCormick
Riot Incorporated: Who's Making Money Off Riots?
“Professional agitators” definitely get paid for stirring up trouble but it’s not clear who’s actually paying THEM.
Following apparent top-level security briefings on the subject, President Trump branded the 2025 LA Anti-ICE riots as being fueled by “agitators”. While some dismissed these claims, they appear to have been corroborated by LAPD Chief of Police Jim McDonnell in a press interview where he acknowledged that there are people in the crowd “who do this all the time”. This tracks reports of mysterious ads offering to pay up to $12,500 a week for rioters and pallets of bricks showing up near the protest zones (without any apparent connection to known construction work).
While it seems clear that a certain percentage of the rioters and protestors are there based upon their own personal convictions, the fact that “professional” rioters are a thing is cause for concern. Not because protesting is inherently problematic — it’s a fundamental American right — but instead because it implicates the question of “who makes money on protesting”?
Regardless of the cause, this is a question that serves to unify the American people because we deserve to know the truth - whatever it may be.
Who do you think is funding the professional agitators?