Assaults against ICE have consequences. 

About 100 alleged perpetrators — along with untold numbers who saw or read of their arrests — have learned that lesson in Southern California. 

Among the latest is Peter Escalante Hernandez, accused of assaulting a federal officer during a recent riot and brandishing a replica gun at federal agents in downtown LA.

Bill Essayli, First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, has made it clear that in Southern California, anti-ICE lawbreakers will face prosecution.

Good: Enforcing laws against violence improves peace and safety for all residents of Los Angeles and the region. 

It prevents the normalization of such criminal conduct as doxxing agents; hurling rocks, bottles and other hard objects at officers; and tossing molotov cocktails at vehicles and buildings.

Deterring violence also makes it less likely that people — be they agents, bystanders, or protesters themselves — will be hurt or killed in politicized mayhem.

As Essayli said, “The riots (in Los Angeles) ended when we started putting people in jail.”

Ready prosecution has helped prevent Minneapolis-level anti-ICE chaos in California, he added.

It should go without saying yet somehow (these days) it doesn’t: 

Demonstrators — and indeed all residents — should obey the law, stop removing the peace from “peaceful protests,” and show respect for law enforcement agents doing their jobs.

The First Amendment protects speech, not violence; discourse, not riots, and debate, not the physical attack of political opponents.

Those who dislike the enforcement aspect of law enforcement might take it up with members of Congress, who write, and can rewrite, the laws.

They would also do well to heed the teachings of civil rights icon Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

King advocated nonviolent pressure on civil authority as a means to effect systemic and cultural change.

He appealed to the common values and common soul that unite us as human beings. And he did so with clarity, purpose, and success.

If those who oppose ICE tactics, procedures or outcomes indeed have the moral high ground, let them follow King’s example.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration should continue down the path of deterrence, accountability and consequences.