Traci Park’s MAGA Messaging

Councilwoman Traci Park’s Trump-like Messaging

Traci Park’s speech is a clear example of how propaganda tactics are used to perpetuate systemic racism and class oppression. By misrepresenting data, stoking fear, and dehumanizing marginalized communities, she advances policies that reinforce the punishment bureaucracy rather than addressing the root causes of crime.

If Park truly cared about public safety or equity, she would support investments in affordable housing, mental health services, and community-based initiatives. Instead, her rhetoric reveals an allegiance to elite interests and the status quo—a reality masked by her skillful use of language to mislead and manipulate.

 

Some Key Points from Traci Parks Propaganda
at Nathan Hochman’s Swearing In

The MAGA Messaging of Traci Park: A Deconstruction of White Supremacy Dog Whistles

On December 3, 2024, Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman was sworn in, and alongside him, City Councilmember Traci Park delivered a speech that was nothing short of a propaganda masterclass. Her rhetoric, loaded with fear-mongering, misrepresentation, and racially coded language, underscores the systemic white supremacy embedded in the punitive policies she and Hochman advocate for. Let’s break down some key elements of her messaging and how it perpetuates harm against marginalized communities.

 

1. Setting the Stage with Fear

“For far too long, we watched Los Angeles slip into chaos and lawlessness.”

Park opens with a classic Appeal to Fear (a core propaganda tactic). By hyperbolically framing Los Angeles as a city in “chaos,” she primes her audience to accept her punitive policy proposals as necessary to restore order. This narrative conveniently ignores the systemic drivers of crime—economic instability, housing insecurity, and underfunded social services—all issues she fails to address in any meaningful way.

 

2. The Exaggeration of Crime

“Home robberies, retail theft, smash and grab robberies, tagging, broken windows, vandalism everywhere…”

This laundry list of alleged crises purposely conflates minor infractions like tagging with violent crimes, a clear example of Misframing and Oversimplification. By grouping graffiti and vandalism with violent offenses, Park distorts reality to justify harsh, blanket policies targeting low-level offenders.

She also refers to “train robberies,” alluding to thefts from stationary cargo containers but deliberately using language reminiscent of Old West heists to stoke fear and create a false image of escalating violence. She purposely mislabels the facts and conveniently leaves that these were actual thefts, not robberies (but fear and exaggeration are the goal, remember);  and the fact that Union Pacific had slashed its security, resulting in unprotected cars.

 

3. Demonizing Marginalized Communities

“Criminals are literally coming from all over the world to Los Angeles just to commit crimes…”

This baseless claim is a textbook example of Dog Whistle Politics. It evokes Trump-like anti-immigrant rhetoric, painting a picture of an “invasion” to appeal to biases against BIPOC and immigrant communities. Data consistently shows that most crimes are committed locally, not by international offenders. Park’s rhetoric aims to scapegoat marginalized groups while ignoring systemic issues like gentrification and economic inequality.

 

4. Misrepresenting Homelessness

“Drug dealers slinging deadly poison… keeping people sick and addicted on our streets.”

Park perpetuates the myth that drug dealers are the root cause of homelessness, ignoring well-documented research that identifies economic instability, lack of affordable housing, and mental health challenges as the primary drivers. This is a clear attempt to divert blame from systemic failures (which she fails to acknowledge or address) and generate public contempt towards already targeted communities, effectively dehumanizing them.

 

5. Blaming Progressive Policies

“For years, politicians told us criminals would just magically stop committing crimes if we released them and asked them to behave.”

Here, Park dismisses data-driven criminal justice reforms as “magical thinking.” This is an example of Strawman Fallacy, where she distorts the goals of progressive policies to make them appear naive and ineffective. In reality, decriminalization and restorative justice efforts have been shown to reduce recidivism and improve community safety by addressing root causes rather than perpetuating cycles of incarceration. Councilwoman Traci Park’s pattern is to demonize such restorative justice efforts.

 

6. Weaponizing “Accountability”

“Nathan has the character to ensure that crimes are properly charged and that victims are given the voice they deserve.”

Park’s rhetoric around “accountability” is steeped in hypocrisy. While she emphasizes holding “criminals” accountable, there is no mention of accountability for systemic failures, law enforcement abuses, or the punitive policies that exacerbate poverty and crime. Her version of accountability is selective, targeting the powerless while shielding the powerful.

 

7. The False Dichotomy of Safety

“Our families, our businesses, our neighborhoods were all test subjects in a soft-on-crime, criminals-are-the-victims, police-are-the-enemy failed social experiment.”

This statement is rife with propaganda techniques like Loaded Language and Scapegoating. By framing progressive policies as failures and equating reform efforts with an attack on police, Park aims to delegitimize the pursuit of equity and justice. Her rhetoric ignores the documented failures of “tough-on-crime” policies, including mass incarceration and systemic racism.

 

8. “Make Crime Illegal Again”

“Nathan brings the determination, the smarts, and the grit to make crime illegal again.”

This phrase is a glaring nod to MAGA rhetoric, subtly invoking Trumpian nationalism. The statement itself is absurd—crime has never been legal. This hyperbolic language is designed to evoke emotional responses rather than invite critical thought.

 


 

Traci Park’s speech is a clear example of how propaganda tactics are used to perpetuate systemic racism and class oppression. By misrepresenting data, stoking fear, and dehumanizing marginalized communities, she advances policies that reinforce the punishment bureaucracy rather than addressing the root causes of crime.

If Park truly cared about public safety or equity, she would support investments in affordable housing, mental health services, and community-based initiatives. Instead, her rhetoric reveals an allegiance to elite interests and the status quo—a reality masked by her skillful use of language to mislead and manipulate.