A 39-year-old conservative activist named Jon Mellis — pardoned by President Trump after serving four years in federal prison for January 6th — was attacked by a masked mob outside the Los Angeles Metropolitan Detention Center on Saturday. They chased him, doused him with what witnesses described as a chemical liquid, and punched him. His crime? Showing up with a camera.
But sure, tell me again how the January 6th defendants are the "domestic terrorists."
Mellis, known online as "Patriot Wild Man," was at an anti-ICE protest in downtown LA marking the one-year anniversary of the federal immigration raids. He wasn't there to start trouble. He was conducting interviews. His cameraman, Eoin Richard, described the scene to 100 Percent Fed Up: "We were there to film a protest being held for the one-year anniversary of the ICE raids."
Richard said Mellis was doing straightforward, nonpartisan journalism. "Jon was getting some interviews with protesters, very nonpartisan, just simple stuff like, 'Hey, why are you on the ground?'" Nothing inflammatory. Nothing provocative. Just questions.
Then the mob figured out who he was.
"It happened so quickly," Richard recalled. "Basically we wrapped up one interview, and then a woman with a bullhorn came and started shouting." Within seconds, a pack of masked attackers descended on Mellis — dousing him with liquid and throwing punches as he and Richard fled, with what Richard described as "literally a mob of people" sprinting behind them.
Let that sink in. A man pardoned by the President of the United States — his legal slate wiped clean — was hunted through the streets of Los Angeles by people wearing masks. The same crowd that spent five years screaming about "democracy" and "the rule of law" apparently doesn't recognize a presidential pardon when it's inconvenient.
The LAPD eventually placed Mellis in a patrol car for his own protection. A dispersal order was issued. Some arrests were reportedly made at the scene, but none have been confirmed as directly tied to the assault on Mellis.
Of course not.
This is Los Angeles, after all. Mayor Karen Bass was reportedly at an immigration forum that same day, presumably telling everyone how compassionate and tolerant her city is. Meanwhile, her constituents were throwing chemicals on a man for the sin of having been at the Capitol on January 6th — and having been forgiven for it by the highest authority in the land.
The left loves to lecture us about political violence. They hold candlelight vigils. They write op-eds. They pass resolutions. But when their side chases a pardoned man through downtown LA in broad daylight, dousing him and throwing fists — crickets.
No CNN breaking news banner. No breathless MSNBC panel. No prime-time special about the "rising tide of left-wing extremism." Just a video circulating online that the legacy media will work very hard to ignore.
Here's what's really going on: the pardon doesn't matter to these people. The legal process doesn't matter. The Constitution doesn't matter. What matters is that Jon Mellis committed the unforgivable sin of supporting Donald Trump, and in their minds, that's a life sentence no president can commute.
They wore masks to attack a man for attending a protest. Read that again slowly.
