Independent journalist Nick Sortor was assaulted while covering an I.C.E. protest in New Orleans, and the raw footage is damning. What the left and their media allies like to call “peaceful protesters” were captured grabbing, hitting, and trying to snatch Sortor’s phone simply for asking questions — an attack on a journalist doing his job in front of a federal building. This wasn’t a misunderstanding; it was a pack of agitators trying to silence anyone who doesn’t agree with their open-borders mob mentality.
The videos show a woman wearing a Honduran flag strike Sortor and others in yellow vests attempting to yank his equipment away, while onlookers screamed and shoved. When a police officer finally intervened, he scolded the journalist for “antagonizing” the crowd and told him to film from his vehicle instead of protecting him or arresting the attackers. That exchange makes painfully clear where the priorities lie: placating violent leftist mobs rather than defending free speech or enforcing the law.
This disturbing scene fits a pattern: conservative field reporters and influencers are increasingly harassed, roughed up, and even arrested while covering anti-enforcement rallies, then painted as the problem. In October 2025 Sortor was arrested in Portland after being attacked, only for charges to be dropped later amid conservative outcry — a familiar story of weaponized enforcement and selective policing. If police chiefs and left-leaning politicians won’t stand up to their own militants, who will stand up for ordinary Americans trying to live under the rule of law?
The political class and corporate media treat these thugs as noble protesters while branding anyone who challenges them as dangerous. That hypocrisy is toxic: we are now expected to admire chaos, excuse attacks on journalists and federal officers, and accept the erasure of basic civic norms. There’s nothing noble about mob intimidation or the deliberate targeting of reporters who expose what’s happening on our streets.
A civilized country doesn’t let a protester’s ideology excuse assault; it arrests the assailants and protects the press. Local law enforcement and federal authorities must be held accountable for failing to secure the scene and for lecturing the victim instead of the perpetrators. Elected officials who enable this behavior by refusing to condemn it are complicit, and voters should remember that when ballots are cast.
Hardworking Americans deserve leaders who value order, respect property and protect free speech — not politicians who cower before violent mobs and media elites that normalize their behavior. It’s time to demand prosecutions of the attackers, real police protection for journalists, and an end to the double standard that shields left-wing violence. If we don’t push back now, the next victim could be any one of us who dares to speak up for the rule of law.
