LOS ANGELES (CNS) – The second night of a dusk-to-dawn curfew in a one- square-mile section of downtown Los Angeles seemed to be yielding positive results Thursday morning, with less chaos and property damage overnight Wednesday than in the previous several nights of demonstrations against ongoing federal immigration raids.
Dozens more people were arrested Wednesday night after an unlawful assembly was declared around 6:30 p.m.
A driver was also arrested on suspicion of an assault with a deadly weapon later Wednesday after allegedly driving through a skirmish line of protesters and police officers near Beverly Boulevard and Western Avenue in Koreatown.
That driver led authorities on a high-speed freeway chase into the Inglewood area, where he was arrested after attempting to flee the vehicle on foot on a surface street. Three passengers were also taken into custody, KTLA5 reported.
Mayor Karen Bass announced the 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew Tuesday in an attempt to stop looting and vandalism that has beset the area since Friday. The curfew applies to an area between the Golden State (5) and Harbor (110) freeways, and from the Santa Monica (10) Freeway to where the Arroyo Seco (110) Parkway and Golden State Freeway merge, Bass said Tuesday evening.
That area includes Skid Row, Chinatown, and the Arts and Fashion districts.
“If you do not live or work in downtown L.A., avoid the area,” Bass said. “Law enforcement will arrest individuals who break the curfew, and you will be prosecuted.”
There will be “limited exceptions” to the curfew — including for residents of the area, “people traveling to and from work and credentialed media representatives,” the mayor said.
Bass said she expected the curfew to be in effect for “several days.”
Police began enforcing the curfew immediately Tuesday night and arrested several people. Those with a valid ID were cited at the scene and released, unless they had outstanding warrants. On Wednesday morning, LAPD officials said 17 people were arrested for curfew violations on Tuesday night.
Throughout the day Tuesday, the LAPD arrested 203 people for alleged failure to disperse. Three people were arrested for possession of a firearm, one for assault with a deadly weapon and one for discharging a laser at an LAPD airship, police said.
Two officers were injured during Tuesday’s unrest, according to the LAPD.
Several dozen protesters gathered again Wednesday outside the federal Metropolitan Detention Center downtown, while dozens more stood outside Los Angeles City Hall a few blocks away. Police said about 150 protesters rode bicycles through the Civic Center area Wednesday afternoon.
The federal detention center on Alameda and Aliso streets has been a common site of protests, along with the nearby federal building and federal courthouse. The MDC is believed to be the facility where immigrant detainees taken into custody in recent days are being held.
The nearby federal building on Los Angeles Street houses the local office of ICE.
Smaller, scattered protests were held Wednesday at the DoubleTree Hotel in Whittier, the Westin Hotel in Pasadena and the Embassy Suites Hotel in Downey, where demonstrators believed federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were staying.
Protests have been occurring daily in the area since Friday, when ICE agents carried out a series of immigration enforcement raids, detaining dozens of people.
The protests all generally began peacefully, but devolved into violent confrontations later in the day, with activists over the weekend damaging CHP vehicles parked on the Hollywood (101) Freeway and setting fire to multiple driver-less Waymo vehicles. There was also extensive graffiti and other vandalism throughout the Civic Center area.
On Monday, the daytime demonstrations also grew unruly starting in the evening, leading to more vandalism, violence and arrests, with some protesters throwing fireworks and other objects at law enforcement, and authorities responding with tear gas and other less-lethal munitions.
Well after nightfall Monday night, multiple stores in the downtown area were looted. A window was smashed at an Apple Store downtown during the unrest, with some items stolen and graffiti painted on the shop’s windows. An Adidas store was also hit by looters, along with a jewelry store, a pair of pharmacies, a shoe store and a marijuana dispensary. The affected stores were generally in an area on or near Broadway, near roughly Seventh and Eighth streets.
Bass condemned the looting, noting in a social media post that people who are vandalizing and burglarizing stores are unaffiliated with people legitimately protesting on behalf of immigrants.
“Let me be clear: Anyone who vandalized downtown or looted stores does not care about our immigrant communities,” Bass wrote. “You will be held accountable.”
In a round of broadcast media interviews Tuesday morning, Bass said police will take advantage of video footage to track down people who take part in looting and ensure they are “prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”
The mayor has blamed the ICE raids and the military response for the unrest in the city.
“Last Thursday, there was nothing happening in this town that called for the raids that took place Friday,” Bass told reporters at a downtown news conference Monday evening. “Nothing was happening. Nothing warranted the raids.”
She said the immigration raids being carried out should be curtailed.
“Stop the raids,” she said. “This is creating fear and chaos in our city and it is unnecessary.”
But federal officials have remained adamant, with President Donald Trump set on carrying out his campaign pledge to conduct mass deportations of people in the country illegally.
Trump has federalized 4,000 California National Guard troops and ordered them to be deployed to Los Angeles, despite protests by Bass, Gov. Gavin Newsom and other local Democrats who say it has further exacerbated tensions and led to more intense protests.
Trump also directed 700 U.S. Marines to move into Los Angeles and support the Guard’s mission of protecting federal facilities and personnel.
The state of California sued Trump on Monday to overturn the federalization of National Guard troops, and it filed an emergency motion in federal court in Northern California Tuesday seeking a restraining order to block the deployment of the National Guard and the Marines. A judge declined to immediately issue an injunction, but another hearing was scheduled for Thursday.
U.S. Northern Command confirmed Monday that about 700 Marines from the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division in Twentynine Palms east of Los Angeles were being deployed in the area to “seamlessly integrate” with federalized National Guard troops that arrived Sunday to help protect federal facilities and personnel.
The Marine deployment will ensure there are “adequate numbers of forces to provide continuous coverage of the area in support of the lead federal agency,” according to U.S. Northern Command.
The deployed Marines mustered Wednesday morning at Joint Forces Training Base Los Alamitos.
LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell, meanwhile, said his agency had been given no formal notice about Marines being deployed to the city, and he said without better coordination, their arrival could present “a significant logistical and operational challenge for those of us charged with safeguarding this city.”
Trump addressed the unrest on Wednesday night in comments at the Kennedy Center, where he and first lady Melania Trump attended the opening night performance of “Les Misérables.”
“We are going to have law and order in our country,” Trump said. “If I didn’t act quickly on that, Los Angeles would be burning to the ground right now.”
” … These are radical left lunatics that you’re dealing with, and they’re tough, they’re smart, they’re probably paid many of them, as you know, they’re professionals,” he added. “When you see them chopping up concrete because the bricks got captured, they’re chopping up concrete and they’re using that as a weapon. That’s pretty bad.”
Also Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security released a new social media campaign based on the iconic “Uncle Sam” posters from World Wars I and II.
“Help your country locate and arrest illegal aliens,” the department’s post said. “To report criminal activity, call 866-DHS-2-ICE (866- 347-2423).”
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