#flashbangs

Here's a clearer breakdown of the events to help you organize the full story:

🧊 1. The Trigger: Major ICE Raid

In early June 2025, ICE carried out a large-scale immigration raid in Los Angeles, reportedly detaining over 200 individuals in one sweep.

The operation focused on neighborhoods with large immigrant populations, including Boyle Heights, Koreatown, and parts of South Central LA.

This raid sparked public outrage, especially due to the timing (early morning), use of armored vehicles, and reports that some detainees were separated from their families.

Several local leaders and civil rights organizations called the raid “a provocation.”

✊ 2. Initial Protests: Peaceful and Controlled

Spontaneous demonstrations began immediately, growing into organized protests led by immigrant rights groups, LGBTQ+ organizers, and progressive coalitions.

The largest protests occurred around the Metropolitan Detention Center, LA City Hall, and near the freeway overpasses.

The LAPD publicly stated (and city officials confirmed) that they had the situation under control.

They deployed traffic control and riot-prevention units but reported no major violence or arrests during the first 36–48 hours.

Police Chief Dominic Franklin said, “We are in dialogue with organizers, and the demonstrations have been largely peaceful.”

🪖 3. Federal Intervention: National Guard & Marines

Despite LAPD’s statements, President Trump federalized California’s National Guard and sent active-duty Marines into Los Angeles, invoking Title 10 Section 12406.

This was done without Gov. Newsom’s consent, which is extremely rare and constitutionally controversial.

The stated rationale was to “restore order” and “protect federal property”—but there was no significant violence occurring at the time.

🔥 4. Escalation & Chaos

The arrival of federal troops coincided with a sharp escalation in violence and confusion:

Military vehicles patrolled downtown; checkpoints appeared near courthouses and federal buildings.

Protesters who had remained peaceful began clashing with troops, especially near ICE facilities.

LAPD appeared to have been left out of the coordination loop; officers reportedly didn't know when federal forces would arrive or what tactics they'd use.

Reports of rubber bullets, flashbangs, tear gas, and aggressive arrests emerged—especially targeting journalists and legal observers.

📉 Result

At least 20 journalists injured, over 50 protesters arrested, and multiple people hurt by crowd-control weapons.

Widespread outrage followed, not just over the tactics used, but over the federal government’s bypassing of local authority.

Grenades in general are fickle little beasts. You can have all the training in the world on them and they’ll still probably surprise you now and then. They’re more likely to dud than traditional grenades (for some reason) so there’s always that hope.The M84 flashbang or stun grenade is supposedly supposed to go off within about one and a half to two and a half seconds after deployment. When an object is falling/traveling to a location, those miliseconds can be really critical. You might have that split second or two to react or you might have no time at all. It’s really up in the air. If you’re being flashbanged outside, that’s better odds for you. If you’re being flashbanged in a closed environment, there’s very little you can do to avoid the effects completely; the best you can do is make efforts to not be permanently disabled from it. Flashbangs are considered non-lethal, but they’re most certainly not non-damaging. There’s a misconception that flashbangs are mostly harmless and are only used to distract, (thanks, CS:GO) but actually they can cause permanent hearing damage/deafness/tinnitus (ringing in the ears) eye damage, brain damage, limb loss, severe burns, and in the right circumstances they can straight up kill someone. Flashbangs caused fires during the 1980 Iranian Embassy Siege in London, and there’s been cases of people losing limbs to close contact with flashbangs.Hubby remembers flashbang training better than I do so the rest is all basically his doing. In addition to its titular “flash,” flashbangs work by releasing a wave of concussive force, basically a wave of high pressure. This is why you can’t really “avoid” a flashbang in a closed environment because there’s no defensive maneuver you can do to avoid pressure. The most important thing to remember when being flashbanged is that you open your mouth. Flashbangs go off at about 170 decibels, which is 20 decibels more than the amount needed to rupture your eardrums. The chart I saw said that a jet taking off 25 meters away at 150 decibels would rupture your eardrums; imagine 20 decibels more than a jet engine taking off five feet from your head. 

There is nothing you can do as a person to protect your ears from this. The pressure will affect your ears no matter what, so your body needs to both release the pressure and try to recover equilibrium after getting hit by the wave, because the blast will disturb the fluid in your ears (the stuff that maintains your sense of balance) and make you all wibbly-wobbly fuckity-uppity. If your mouth is closed and you cover your ears or plug your ears, your eardrums will be very wrecked and you may be brain-damaged as a result of all that concussive force having no escape route. The flash of a flashbang basically turns on all of your photoreceptors so that your eyes are just like, 100% all the light, so the flash seems more intense and blinding. Even closing and protecting your eyes, your eyes are still sensitive to pressure, so if the flash doesn’t get you it’ll still send a wave of concussive force through your face and your eyes will still be like “why.”Hubby says if we were to encounter a flashbang, we should cover our eyes, face away from the grenade, and open our mouth. Since there’s nothing we can do about our ears and plugging them would actually make the aftermath significantly worse, at least this will prevent major damage to your eyes, even though they’ll still be affected. Depending on proximity you may be deaf for a few seconds to a few minutes, although depending on eardrum damage your hearing might never fully recover. In an enclosed space you’ll probably be bleeding from the ears. Even if the flashbang goes off in another room, you might avoid the blinding effects but the concussive force would still hit you and at least disorient you/make your ears ring. Even if you took cover like behind a wall or something, you’ll still be affected, although not as severely. (fun fact: indoors the flashbang can blow out windows)Your eyesight should return within a minute but it’ll be not very good for about/up to an hour after contact. You’ll be so stunned, blind, deaf, and off-balance that you honestly might not be able to do...anything. I don’t think there’s actually anything you can do to recover quickly from a serious flashbang encounter. Equilibrium is so incredibly important and having been stripped of that you can’t walk, run, crawl, climb, possibly even hold your weapon.Obviously the actual effects depend on the proximity, the enclosed space, the soldier themselves, like...too much to count. You might be lucky enough to be up and moving again in a few minutes or you might be out for the count. Flashbangs are damn dangerous. If your character gets flashbanged and needs to be moving again quickly, either they need to be 1) Outside, several meters away, preferably behind cover2) At least a room away from where the flashbang went offI hope this is all helpful information! I’m sorry it took so long for me to answer this question.

-Kingsley