captured

Impressive imagery showing military aircraft punching out flares is, by now, fairly familiar, but no less worth looking at. Much rarer, however, is to see a civilian airliner design doing the same thing. In this case, the Boeing 737 jetliner is in Polish Air Force service, but the captures are certainly highly unusual and bring attention to a lesser-known aspect of this aircraft, and other governmental and privately owned jets that are similarly outfitted with self-protection systems.

The photos in this story were shared with TWZ by Bartek Bera, whose work we have profiled before. Bartek photographed the 737 on August 28, when it was on its way to the rehearsal for the Radom Air Show, in east-central Poland. The aircraft is a 737-800 Boeing Business Jet 2 (BBJ2), with the tactical number 0112 and the name Ignacy Jan Paderewski, which was delivered to the Polish Air Force in 2021.

After joining a formation with the photo ship, the 737 began pumping out infrared decoys, part of its relatively extensive self-protection suite. It’s worth noting that flares are by no means an uncommon feature of Polish military air displays. In the past, we have looked at the use of photo-flash flares by the now-retired Polish Air Force Su-22 Fitter swing-wing ground-attack aircraft, and C-130 transports have also previously lit up Radom with pyrotechnic displays.

A Polish Air Force Su-22 Fitter drops photo-flash flares during the Radom Airshow in 2023:

While we asked the Polish Air Force for more details about the decoys, they were not willing to provide any information. However, based on open sources, the Polish Air Force 737s were outfitted with countermeasures dispensers prior to delivery.

As we’ve explored in the past, infrared countermeasures encompass a range of different flares with varying degrees of capability and complexity that cover different spectral regimes. At their most simple, these kinds of flares provide a heat source, which can be enough to defeat the infrared seeker head of a simpler missile. To defeat a more advanced threat, a countermeasure needs to be more closely paired to the host aircraft’s signature.

The self-protection equipment of at least one of the Polish Air Force 737s also includes a directed infrared countermeasures (DIRCM) system, in a canoe-shaped DIRCM fairing below the rear fuselage, while other examples of the aircraft display the mounting area for the same canoe. Reportedly, the DIRCM is the Israeli-made Elbit Systems J-MUSIC. This provides an additional degree of protection, using a turreted laser to blind and confuse the seeker on infrared-homing missiles.

Self-protection is enabled by the 737’s missile approach warning system (MAWS), sensors for which can be seen located around the fuselage in the photos here. The system senses the signature of the incoming missile and can facilitate automatic, semi-automatic, or a manual responsive course of action on how to defend against it, be it by flares or the DIRCM laser system, if equipped.

Overall, Polish Air Force 737s are notably well-equipped. These aircraft are also provided with a secure datalink, SATCOM, and UHF/VHF/HF radios for communications. Military-standard avionics include a TACAN navigation system, Mod 5 identification friend or foe (IFF), and GPS receivers with selective availability anti-spoofing modules (SAASM). The flight deck is fitted with head-up displays (HUD) and an enhanced flight vision system (EFVS), which provides the pilots with an improved view outside the cockpit. The 737s are equipped with specialized medical equipment for medical evacuation missions.

As for the Polish Air Force’s 737s, three of which are operated, their story is part of the service’s efforts to replace its fleet of Soviet-era aircraft with new Western equipment.

Previously, the Polish Air Force VIP fleet included a pair of Tupolev Tu-154M Careless trijets for transporting heads of state, as well as more than a dozen Yakovlev Yak-40 Codling regional jets for short-haul VIP work.

The retirement of both those Soviet-made types was expedited following the loss of a Tu-154M during a landing accident in 2010. This disaster, the causes of which remain controversial, resulted in the deaths of all 96 persons on board, including Polish President Lech Kaczynski. The remaining Tu-154M was retired in 2011, and the last Yak-40 was withdrawn in 2012.

The long-term successors for these aircraft are the Gulfstream G550 and the 737. Both types serve with the 1st Air Base Air Transport Squadron at in Warsaw. Ordered in 2017, the three Boeings comprise a single 737-800 built but never delivered to a Chinese regional airline, and a pair of new 737-800 BBJ2s, including the example seen here. The 737s are mainly used for transporting heads of state and high-ranking officials, hence their robust self-protection capabilities and overall high standard of equipment.

For their VIP role, the Polish Air Force 737s were outfitted with a special cabin, provided by Sabena Technics in Toulouse, France. This includes a cabin with seats for four passengers, two seats in a separate VIP compartment, 12 seats in business class, and 48 seats in economy class. There is also a rest compartment for the flight crew. 

Bartek’s dramatic imagery underscores the fact that VIP transports are also sprouting increasingly robust self-protection systems, including the kinds of flare dispensers that otherwise remain much better associated with frontline combat aircraft and tactical transport types.

You can check out more of Bartek’s photography here.

Contact the author: [email protected]

Conservative commentator Charlie Kirk was shot and killed during an event at Utah Valley University on Wednesday, a shocking act of political violence that brought widespread condemnation.

Hours after the shooting, the suspected gunman was taken into custody, FBI Director Kash Patel posted on X.

“The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead,” President Trump said on Truth Social. “No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie. He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us.”

Videos shared on social media show Kirk sitting under a white canopy, speaking to hundreds of people through a microphone, when a loud pop is heard; he suddenly falls back, blood gushing from his neck.

Before he was shot in the neck, he was asked about mass shootings.

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“Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America over the last 10 years?” an audience member asks.

“Counting or not counting gang violence?” Kirk responds.

Almost immediately, Kirk is shot in the neck. One video shows blood pouring from the wound. As the crowd realizes what has taken place, people are heard screaming and running away.

A source familiar with the investigation told The Times that a bullet struck Kirk’s carotid artery.

Charlie Kirk speaks before his fatal shooting Wednesday at Utah Valley University.

(Tess Crowley / Deseret News / AP)

Utah Valley University police said in an alert that “a single shot was fired on campus toward a visiting speaker” and that it was investigating the shooting.

Law enforcement sources said Kirk was fatally wounded from a considerable distance, perhaps 200 yards away, by a sniper-style shot.

Videos shared on X, show an older man in handcuffs on the ground whom witnesses claimed was the gunman. The man is heard saying, “I have the right to remain silent.” In another video, police escort the man while the crowd jeers him. One woman is heard screaming, “How dare you!”

Earlier Wednesday afternoon, Trump posted a message about the incident on Truth Social.

“We must all pray for Charlie Kirk, who has been shot. A great guy from top to bottom. GOD BLESS HIM!” he said.

Mike Lee, a Utah senator, posted on X shortly after videos circulated online that he was “tracking the situation at Utah Valley University closely.”

“Please join me in praying for Charlie Kirk and the students gathered there,” he said.

The shooting drew immediate words of support and calls for prayers for Kirk from leading conservative politicians.

“Say a prayer for Charlie Kirk, a genuinely good guy and a young father,” Vice President JD Vance posted on X.

Crowd members react after Charlie Kirk’s shooting at Utah Valley University.

(Tess Crowley / Deseret News / AP)

Leading Democrats also moved swiftly to condemn the attack.

“The attack on Charlie Kirk is disgusting, vile, and reprehensible,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom said on X. “In the United States of America, we must reject political violence in EVERY form.”

Gabrielle Giffords, a former Arizona congresswoman who survived a political assassination attempt in 2011 and is a gun violence prevention advocate, said on X that she was horrified to hear that Kirk was shot.

“Democratic societies will always have political disagreements, but we must never allow America to become a country that confronts those disagreements with violence,” she wrote.

Kirk, a conservative political activist, was in Utah for his American Comeback Tour, which held its first stop at Utah Valley University on Wednesday.

The tour, as with many of his events, had drawn both supporters and protesters. Kirk’s wife and children were at the university when he was shot, Oklahoma Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin posted on X.

Kirk, 31, was one of the Republican Party’s most influential power brokers.

The founder of the influential conservative youth organization Turning Point USA, Kirk had a vast online reach: 1.6 million followers on Rumble, 3.8 million subscribers on YouTube, 5.2 million followers on X and 7.3 million followers on TikTok.

During the 2024 election, he rallied his online followers to support Trump, prompting conservative podcast host Megyn Kelly to say: “It’s not an understatement to say that this man is responsible for helping the Republicans win back the White House and the U.S. Senate.”

Just after Trump was elected for a second time to the presidency last November, Kirk frequently posted to social media from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, where he had first-hand influence over which MAGA loyalists Trump named to his Cabinet.

Kirk was known for melding his conservative politics, nationalism and evangelical faith, casting the current political climate as a state of spiritual warfare between a righteous right wing and so-called “godless” liberals.

He declared that God was on the side of American conservatives and that there was “no separation of church and state.” And in a speech to Trump supporters in Georgia last year, he said that “the Democrat Party supports everything that God hates” and that “there is a spiritual battle happening all around us.”

Kirk was also known for his memes and college campus speaking tours meant to “own the libs.” Videos of his debates with liberal college students have racked up tens of millions of views.

Matthew Boedy, a professor of rhetoric and composition at the University of North Georgia, has written a forthcoming book about Christian nationalism that prominently features Kirk and his influence. The book, “The Seven Mountains Mandate,” comes out Sept. 30.

“Today is a tragedy,” Boedy said in an interview with The Times on Wednesday. “It is a red flag for our nation.”

Boedy said the shooting — following the two assassination attempts against Trump on the campaign trail last year — was a tragic reminder of “just how divisive we have become.”

In June, a shooter posing as a police officer fatally shot Minnesota state House Democratic leader Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, at their home in an incident that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz called “a politically motivated assassination.”

Another Democratic lawmaker, state Sen. John Hoffman, and his wife, Yvette, were also injured at their residence less than 10 miles away.

In April, a shooter set fire to the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion, forcing Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro and his family to flee during the Jewish holiday of Passover.

In July 2024, Trump himself survived a hail of bullets, one of which grazed his ear, at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa. Two months later, a man with a rifle was arrested by Secret Service agents after he was spotted amid shrubs near Trump’s Mar-a-Lago golf resort.

Kirk’s presence at the Utah campus was preceded by petitions and protests. But, Boedy noted, that was typical with his appearances.

“Charlie Kirk is, I would say, the most influential person who doesn’t work in the White House,” he said.

Boedy said Kirk reached a vast array of demographics through his radio show and social media accounts and was “in conversation with President Trump a lot.”

Kirk had said his melding in recent years of faith and politics was influenced by Rob McCoy, the pastor of Godspeak Calvary Chapel in Newbury Park in Ventura County. Kirk called McCoy, who often spoke at his events, his personal pastor.

Boedy said McCoy turned Kirk toward Christian nationalism, specifically the Seven Mountains Mandate — the idea that Christians should try to influence the seven pillars of cultural influence: arts and religion, business, education, family, government, media and religion.

Boedy said Kirk “turned Turning Point USA into an arm of Christian nationalism. There’s a strategy called the Seven Mountains Mandate, and he has put his TPUSA money into each of those.”

Boedy said Kirk was a vocal 2nd Amendment supporter and that the shooting likely would further the desire among his conservative followers who tout the idea of having good guys with guns “to have more guns everywhere, which is sad.”

FBI Director Kash Patel said the agency was closely monitoring reports of the shooting.

“Our thoughts are with Charlie, his loved ones, and everyone affected,” he said on X. “Agents will be on the scene quickly and the FBI stands in full support of the ongoing response and investigation.”

Meanwhile, 345 miles to the east, at least three students were in critical condition following a shooting at a high school in Colorado.

The shooting happened earlier in the afternoon at Evergreen High School in Jefferson County. A fourth person may have been hurt as well. Among those injured was the shooter, who was described by authorities only as a juvenile. No other details were provided on the shooting.

Times staff writer Ana Ceballos contributed to this report.

June 27 (UPI) — The second-to-last of 10 escapees from a New Orleans jailbreak last month has been recaptured after six weeks on the run, authorities said Friday.

Antoine Massey, 33, was located and arrested in a house in New Orleans on Friday night, according to the Louisiana State Police. The previous two inmates were apprehended on May 26 in Huntsville, Texas.

Officers with the NOPD, State Police, Department of Homeland Security, FBI and U.S. Marshals participated in the arrest of Massey. More than 200 law enforcement personnel participated in the manhunt since the May 16 jailbreak.

Massey was taken to a secure state correctional facility at Louisiana State Penitentiary in Agola, which is 135 miles northwest of New Orleans.

The Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office received an anonymous tip from a citizen that led law enforcement to the house in the city’s Third District, according to New Orleans Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick.

“He peacefully gave up to law enforcement who had surrounded the house,” Kirkpatrick said during a news briefing.

The house was an Airbnb, according to Louisiana State Police Superintendent Col. Robert Hodges.

Authorities are investigating whether anyone helped him.

“It’s pretty obvious over the last six weeks, to remain a fugitive that long, he had assistance — he had help,” Hodges said at the briefing.

Earlier this month, Louisiana authorities found a video online that appeared to show Massey pleading to rappers and President Donald Trump to help him while he was still on the run.

Massey was incarcerated for domestic abuse battery involving strangulation, theft of a motor vehicle and a parole violation, state police said.

Authorities increased the reward for information leading to the arrest of Massey and Derric Groves to $50,000 per inmate last month.

Groves is last remaining escapee.

“Law enforcement personnel from various local, state, and federal agencies will continue to work around the clock to locate the one remaining fugitive,” Louisiana State police said in a news release.

Kilpatrick addressed Grove during the briefing: “We are going to capture you. You will be taken into custody. But you still have the option to peacefully turn yourself in, and we will make an appeal to you to do so.

“All of these captures have been able to be done peacefully and that is also the end of the game. We don’t want anyone hurt.”

Groves was convicted last year of two counts of second-degree murder in a 2018 Mardi Gras Day shooting. He faces life in prison without the possibility of parole, prosecutors said.

The inmates escaped from the Orleans Justice Center early in the morning after climbing through a hole behind a toilet. Their disappearance was unnoticed for several hours.

“We’re installing new razor wire, tightening physical barriers, upgrading locking mechanisms,” Kilpatrick said. “These all play an important role in the safety of our residents, staff and the entire community

Three inmates were apprehended in New Orleans within the first 24 hours of the jailbreak.

Alleged accomplices, including Groves’ girlfriend Darriana Burton, inmayes and jail workers, have been arrested.

Dispatches from northern China, Jia Zhangke’s movies constitute their own cinematic universe. Repeatedly returning to themes of globalization and alienation, the 55-year-old director has meticulously chronicled his country’s uneasy plunge into the 21st century as rampant industrialization risks deadening those left behind.

But his latest drama, “Caught by the Tides,” which opens at the Frida Cinema today, presents a bold, reflexive remix of his preoccupations. Drawing from nearly 25 years of footage, including images from his most acclaimed films, Jia has crafted a poignant new story with an assist from fragments of old tales. He has always been interested in how the weight of time bears down on his characters — now his actors age in front of our eyes.

When “Caught by the Tides” premiered at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, critics leaned on a handy, if somewhat inaccurate, comparison to describe Jia’s achievement: “Boyhood,” which followed a young actor over the course of 12 years, a new segment of the picture shot annually. But Richard Linklater preplanned his magnum opus. Jia, on the other hand, approached his film more accidentally, using the pandemic shutdown as an excuse to revisit his own archives.

“It struck me that the footage had no linear, cause-and-effect pattern,” Jia explained in a director’s statement. “Instead, there was a more complex relationship, not unlike something from quantum physics, in which the direction of life is influenced and ultimately determined by variable factors that are hard to pinpoint.”

The result is a story in three chapters, each one subtly building emotionally from the last. In the first, it is 2001, as Qiaoqiao (Zhao Tao) lives in Datong, where she dates Bin (Li Zhubin). Early on, Qiaoqiao gleefully sings with friends, but it will be the last time we hear her voice. It’s a testament to Zhao’s arresting performance that many viewers may not notice her silence. She’s so present even without speaking, her alert eyes taking in everything, her understated reactions expressing plenty.

Young and with her whole life ahead of her, Qiaoqiao longs to be a singer, but her future is short-circuited by Bin’s text announcing that he’s leaving to seek better financial opportunities elsewhere. He promises to send word once he’s established himself, but we suspect she may never see this restless, callous schemer again. Not long after, Bin ghosts Qiaoqiao, prompting her to journey after him.

“Caught by the Tides” richly rewards viewers familiar with Jia’s filmography with scenes and outtakes from his earlier movies. Zhao, who in real life married Jia more than a decade ago, has been a highlight of his movies starting with his 2000 breakthrough “Platform,” and so when we see Qiaoqiao at the start of “Caught by the Tides,” we’re actually watching footage shot around that time. (Jia’s 2002 drama “Unknown Pleasures” starred Zhao as a budding singer named Qiaoqiao. Li also appeared in “Unknown Pleasures,” as well as subsequent Jia pictures.)

But the uninitiated shouldn’t feel intimidated to begin their Jia immersion here. Those new to his work will easily discern the film’s older footage, some of it captured on grainy DV cameras, while newer material boasts the elegant, widescreen compositions that have become his specialty. “Caught by the Tides” serves as a handy primer on Jia’s fascination with China’s political, cultural and economic evolution, amplifying those dependable themes with the benefit of working across a larger canvas of a quarter-century.

Still, by the time Qiaoqiao traverses the Yangtze River near the Three Gorges Dam — a controversial construction project that imperiled local small towns and provided the backdrop for Jia’s 2006 film “Still Life” — the director’s fans may feel a bittersweet sense of déjà vu. We have been here before, reminded of his earlier characters who similarly struggled to find love and purpose.

The film’s second chapter, which takes place during 2006, highlights Qiaoqiao’s romantic despair and, separately, Bin’s growing desperation to make a name for himself. (This isn’t the first Jia drama in which characters dabble in criminal activity.) By the time we arrive at the finale, set during the age of COVID anxiety, their inevitable reunion results in a moving resolution, one that suggests the ebb and flow of desire but, also, the passage of time’s inexorable erosion of individuals and nations.

Indeed, it’s not just Zhao and Li who look different by the end of “Caught by the Tides” but Shanxi Province itself — now a place of modern supermarkets, sculpted walkways and robots. Unchecked technological advancement is no longer a distant threat to China but a clear and present danger, dispassionately gobbling up communities, jobs and Qiaoqiao’s and Bin’s dreams. When these two former lovers see each other again, a lifetime having passed on screen, they don’t need words. In this beautiful summation work, Jia has said it all.

BREAKINGBREAKING,

Vance Boelter arrested after two-day manhunt in Midwestern state.

The suspect in the assassination of one lawmaker and the attempted assassination of another in the US state of Minnesota has been captured.

Vance Boelter, 57, was arrested on Sunday following a two-day manhunt in the Midwestern state, law enforcement officials said.

“The face of evil. After relentless and determined police work, the killer is now in custody,” Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office said in a social media post accompanied by a photo of Boelter being taken into custody.

“Thanks to the dedication of multiple agencies working together along with support from the community, justice is one step closer.”

Boelter is alleged to have shot two Democratic lawmakers and their spouses in a politically motivated attack on Saturday morning.

Melissa Hortman, a state representative, and her husband, Mark, were killed in the attack, while state Senator John A Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, were injured.

Boelter faces two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of attempted second-degree murder, according to a criminal complaint unsealed on Sunday night.

More to follow…

A day after federal agents forcibly restrained and handcuffed U.S. Sen Alex Padilla at a Los Angeles news conference, leaders of the country’s two political parties responded in what has become a predictable fashion — with diametrically opposed takes on the incident.

Padilla’s fellow Democrats called for an investigation and perhaps even the resignation of the senator’s nemesis, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, for what they described as the unprecedented manhandling of a U.S. senator who was merely attempting to ask a question of a fellow public official.

Noem and fellow Republicans continued to depict Padilla as a grandstander, whose unexpected appearance at Noem’s news conference seemed to her security detail to represent a threat, as she tried to speak to reporters at the Federal Building in Westwood.

Republicans continued Friday to chastise Padilla, using words like “launch,” “lunge” and “bum rush” to describe Padilla’s behavior as he began to try to pose a question to Noem at Thursday’s news conference.

The Trump administration official was just a few minutes into her meeting with reporters when Padilla moved assertively from the side of the room, pushing past a Times photographer as he moved to more directly address Noem. He did not lunge at Noem and was still paces away from her when her security detail grabbed the senator.

Padilla and his staff described how the veteran lawmaker went through security and was escorted by an FBI employee to the room where the press conference was held, saying it was absurd to suggest he presented a threat.

Padilla spoke out after the secretary asserted that her homeland security agents had come to L.A. to “liberate the city from the socialists and the burdensome leadership that the governor and the mayor have placed on this country.”

The former South Dakota governor would have some reason to recognize Padilla, since he questioned her during her Senate confirmation hearing. A spokesperson at the Homeland Security Department did not respond to a question of whether Noem recognized Padilla when he arrived at her press conference.

As has become the norm in the nation’s political discourse, Republicans and Democrats spoke about the confrontation Friday as if they had observed two entirely separate incidents.

Sen. Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.) said Noem “should step down,” adding: “This is ridiculous. And she continues to lie about this incident. This is wrong.”

Lujan urged his Republican colleagues to support Democrats in asking for “a full investigation.”

“This is bad. This is precedent-setting,” Lujan told MSNBC. “And I certainly hope that the leadership of the Senate, my Republican leaders, my friends, that they just look within. Pray on it. That’s what I told a couple of them last night. Pray on this and do the right thing.”

Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus went to Speaker Mike Johnson’s office to protest Padilla’s treatment.

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) spoke out on X and on the floor of the Senate. He said the episode fit into “a pattern of behavior by the Trump administration. There is simply no justification for this abuse of authority …. There can be no justification of seeing a senator forced to their knees.”

Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) went on X to repeat the call for an investigation and to say that “Republican leadership is complicit in enabling the growing authoritarianism in this country.”

Speaking publicly only one Republican lawmaker sounded a note of distress about the episode.

“I’ve seen that one clip. It’s horrible,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). ”It is shocking at every level. It’s not the America I know.”

But most Republicans remained silent, or accused Padilla of being a provocateur.

“I think the senator’s actions, my view is, it was wildly inappropriate,” said Johnson, the House speaker. “You don’t charge a sitting Cabinet secretary.”

Johnson added that it was Padilla, who should face some sanction. “At a minimum … [it] rises to the level of a censure. … I think there needs to be a message sent by the body as a whole that that is not what we are going to do, that’s not how we’re going to act.”

Rep. Tom McClintock, (R-Elk Grove) zinged Padilla on X, with some “helpful tips.” “1. Don’t disrupt other people’s press conferences. Hold your own instead. 2. Don’t bum-rush a podium with no visible identification. … 3. Don’t resist or assault the Secret Service. It won’t end well.”

Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-Big Bear Lake) also sought to reinforce the notion that agents protecting Noem sensed a real threat, having no way of knowing that Padilla was who he said he was.

The congressman said on Fox Business that Padilla had obtained “the outcome that they wanted. Now they have a talking point.”

None of the officials in the room, several of whom know Padilla, intervened to prevent the action by the agents, who eventually pushed the senator, face down, onto the ground, before handcuffing him.

Noem did not back off her earlier statement that Padilla had “burst” into the room.

“Senator Padilla chose disrespectful political theatre and interrupted a live press conference without identifying himself or having his Senate security pin on as he lunged toward Secretary Noem,” Tricia McLaughlin, an assistant Homeland Security secretary, said in a statement Friday.

McLaughlin also said that Padilla “was told repeatedly to back away and did not comply with officers’ repeated commands,” though video made public by Friday did not show such warnings, in advance of Padilla’s first statement.

The senator’s staff members said he privately had received messages of concern from several Republican colleagues, including Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.)

Padilla told Tommy Vietor of the “Pod Save America” podcast that Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown is an attempt to distract from many other failures — continued instability with the economy, a lack of peace in Ukraine and Gaza and a federal budget plan that is proving unpopular with many Americans.

“He always finds a distraction,” Padilla said, “and, when all else fails, he goes back to demonizing and scapegoating immigrants. … He creates a crisis to get us all talking about something else.”

Padilla said repeatedly that Americans should be concerned about how everyday citizens will be treated, if forces working for the Trump administration are allowed to “tackle” a U.S. senator asking questions in a public building.

On Friday afternoon, he sent a mass email urging his constituents to sign up for the protests planned for Saturday, to counter the military parade Trump is holding in Washington. “PLEASE show up and speak out against what is happening,” Padilla wrote. “We cannot allow the Trump administration to intimidate us into silence.”