For once, common sense has broken through the progressive fog in California — and it came not from Sacramento, but from Los Angeles Police Department Chief Jim McDonnell. When Gov. Gavin Newsom signed his latest anti-ICE gimmick into law — a lunatic “No Secret Police Act” banning federal agents from wearing face coverings while doing their jobs — the idea was never about safety or law and order. It was another headline-grabbing virtue signal at the expense of public safety.
But McDonnell just said what every rational law-enforcement professional already knew: he will not enforce that idiotic mask ban. Citing basic tactical realities, he explained that directing his officers to cite or arrest armed federal agents over a misdemeanor statute — especially during volatile operations — would do nothing but ramp up tension and endanger both officers and the public:
LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell told Fox Los Angeles’ “Good Day LA” that his department will not enforce the directive from California Gov. Newsom.
From a tactical perspective, having officers cite federal authorities for what amounts to a misdemeanor could be unsafe, he said.
LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell says his department will NOT enforce the “mask ban” on federal agents..
Incoming liberal meltdown. ?? pic.twitter.com/6cIl8zDTYn
— American AF ?? (@iAnonPatriot) January 30, 2026
“The reality of one armed agency approaching another armed agency to create conflict over something that would be a misdemeanor at best, or an infraction. It doesn’t make any sense,” McConnell said during a presser. “It’s not a good public policy decision, and it wasn’t well thought out in my opinion.”
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He went on to explain further:
“From a practical standpoint, our role when we get to a scene is to de-escalate the situation, not to ramp it up,” McDonnell said. “Trying to enforce a misdemeanor violation on another law enforcement agency, that’s not going to end well. And that’s not going to be good.”
“From a public safety standpoint for anybody in that environment. Potentially you have a crowd that could be agitated and trying to get their point across,” he added. “And then you have the ICE agents who are doing their job. And for us to come in then and try and create an enforcement action for wearing a mask, it’s not a safe way to do business.”
That blunt refusal exposes the truth Newsom doesn’t want voters to see: his immigration stunts don’t survive contact with actual law enforcement professionals. They look good on cable news. They poll well with activists. But they fall apart the moment someone responsible for public safety has to enforce them.
This wasn’t an act of defiance for defiance’s sake. It was a professional judgment call — one that implicitly admits what Californians already know. Sacramento politicians live in a fantasy world where laws are written for applause, not consequences. Police chiefs, meanwhile, live in the real world, where bad laws get people hurt.
Newsom can posture all he wants about “secret police” and authoritarian imagery, but even his own state’s largest police department isn’t buying it. When a law is so poorly conceived that enforcement would create chaos rather than prevent it, refusal isn’t radical — it’s responsible.
The irony is rich. Democrats constantly insist that police chiefs should have “discretion” and “local control.” Until, of course, that discretion is used to ignore a progressive pet project. Then suddenly it’s a problem.
This episode should be a warning sign for Californians. When even LAPD leadership won’t enforce your laws, the issue isn’t resistance — it’s governance. And once again, Newsom’s priorities are exposed: ideology first, public safety second.
For once, a law enforcement leader chose reality over politics. California could use more of that — and far less of Gavin Newsom’s virtue-signaling nonsense.
