'The new fiery but mostly peaceful': Local KABC anchor calls LA rioters 'people having fun watching cars burn'

Amid the violent anti-ICE riots in Los Angeles over the weekend, an anchor at ABC affiliate ABC7, Jory Rand, called the rioters "just a bunch of people having fun watching cars burn."

As people were rioting in the streets of Los Angeles, with some burning cars in response to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) conducting operations in the region, Los Angeles ABC7 News anchor Jory Rand claimed that the situation would get worse if police were sent in.

"It could turn very volatile if you move law enforcement in there in the wrong way and turn what is just a bunch of people having fun watching cars burn into a massive confrontation or altercation between officers and demonstrators," Rand said.

The comments were made by Rand as there were several cars burning in downtown LA, and he later added that it was a "dangerous situation" and that the reporters on the ground had to move multiple times to avoid the crowd.

Many people online compared the comment from Rand to the infamous segment on CNN, when correspondent Omar Jimenez was reporting in front of a burning building in Kenosha, Wisconsin amid the Black Lives Matter riots of 2020, and the chyron read: “Fiery by mostly peaceful protests after police shooting.”

User "Zero Fox Given" wrote on X, "'People having fun watching cars burn' is the new 'fiery, but mostly peaceful.'"

President of the Conservative Caucus Jim Pfaff had a similar take: "A 'large group of people having fun watching cars burn' is the new 'mostly peaceful protest.'"

Speaker and writer Helen Raleigh wrote in response to the segment, "Legacy media in 2020: Yes cars were set on fires but it was 'Mostly peaceful.' Legacy media in 2025: 'Just a bunch of people having fun watching cars burn.' The legacy media apparently doesn't even try to erase its trust deficit with the public."