Protests in the Age of Acceleration: Lessons from the June 2025 LA Operations

In June 2025, a series of coordinated Immigration & Customs Enforcement ICE operations across Los Angeles quickly escalated into widespread protests.

Within hours, and in some cases as little as 90 minutes, demonstrators mobilized at key locations including the Edward R. Royal Federal Building and detention centers, fueled by a flood of information some verified, much of it not.

For corporate security leaders, the activity was a wake up call. The risk landscape in 2025 demands new strategies, new tools, and a more proactive approach to intelligence.

Understanding the Challenge: Why Incidents Are Harder in 2025

Todays threat environment is defined by speed and saturation. What once unfolded over days now develops in hours. Social media enables rapid mobilization but also drives disinformation and confusion across fragmented platforms.

As Michael Rogers, Chief Security Analyst, West at International SOS, put it:

This is exactly the kind of environment where misinformation thrives. You have to resist the urge to be first and replace it with the urge to be right.

Rogers added that the pace of escalation itself has changed.

Its no longer a burgeoning crisis that you can watch over a few days. What we saw in Los Angeles ballooned within hours because of the sheer speed and connectivity of the information environment. That is fundamentally different from what risk managers were used to even a few years ago.

Adding to the complexity, synthetic media and AI generated content now circulate alongside legitimate footage, making it harder for organizations to determine ground truth. The result is increased pressure on decision makers to act quickly while avoiding missteps.

Social Media as a Double Edged Sword

The June protests illustrated how social media can accelerate every phase of an incident. Activity was tracked in real time, with protesters converging on sites in Paramount and other locations in Compton within hours.

Mutual aid groups used Telegram and WhatsApp to distribute supplies and legal support, while viral posts, both real and misleading, shaped public perception.

Rogers noted that one of the biggest challenges for analysts is spotting inauthentic behavior online.

You have to ask does this source look credible? Is the person really in location, or are they posting from somewhere else? Are they recycling old content or pushing politically charged narratives? Those tricks of the trade are more important than ever if you're going to cut through the noise.

The Strategic Intelligence Gap

Many organizations have matured in their crisis response protocols but still lag when it comes to anticipation. According to Rogers:

Were not just watching what's happening, were preparing teams to watch where it could happen next.

The June incident wasn't unpredictable. In fact, International SOS published an Insight Report in May 2025 comparing conditions to the 2020 unrest following the George Floyd killing.

The report identified political tensions, a degraded information environment, and the risk of a trigger event as key indicators to monitor.

Rogers explained that while organizations have refined their ability to respond, they remain challenged in allocating resources proactively.

They can plug their crisis response protocols into an incident, but without strategic intelligence the response wont be efficient, and it wont be as fit for purpose as if they had properly prioritized in advance.

This kind of foresight is essential. While economic conditions in 2025 were less volatile than in 2020, the information environment had worsened significantly, increasing the likelihood that a flashpoint like the enforcement operations could generate outsized operational disruption.

Cascading Impacts in Low Risk Environments

One of Rogers key warnings is that incidents dont just disrupt high risk regions.

We've seen over the past few years that major incidents have cascading impacts in places traditionally considered low risk. A protest in Los Angeles can have knock on effects in supply chains, in financial centers like New York or London, or even in unexpected locations like Boulder, Colorado. Organizations need to rethink their perception of risk in these sensitive moments.

What Intelligence Support Must Provide

The incident highlighted what security teams now require from intelligence support. Effective platforms and services must deliver:

• Verified, real time insights to cut through noise
• Human led analysis that scrutinizes live video and trusted sources
• Strategic prioritization that focuses attention on high impact locations, not just trending topics

Rogers emphasized that timeliness remains critical but not at the expense of accuracy.

Its much more valuable to put something in a clients hands that is verified and corroborated than to provide yesterdays news tomorrow. The trick is resisting that pressure to push unverified reports just to be first.

Lessons for Security Leaders

For those charged with protecting people, assets, and continuity, the LA protests underscore the need to evolve:

• Lead with strategic intelligence. Not every protest, rumor, or post needs equal attention. Focus on what matters most to your operations, using intelligence to prioritize regions, risks, and response.
• Recognize how fast misinformation can trigger action. In LA, false reports of operations at a home improvement center in Paramount circulated online and drew more than a thousand protestors within hours. Organizations need validation processes before operational disruptions occur.
• Open source tools amplify signal and noise. Accounts like "LAScanner" streamed enforcement movements and protest coordination using public safety audio and real time video.
• Filter for truth, not volume. Dont let misinformation guide your posture.
• Update your BCP lens. Impacts wont just happen in known hotspots.