Photo: Mario Tama / Getty Images News / Getty Images
LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A one-square-mile section of downtown Los Angeles was under curfew Wednesday after five days of protests and unrest sparked by federal immigration enforcement in Los Angeles, with police announcing "mass arrests."
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. The curfew applies to an area between the Golden State (5) Freeway and Harbor (110) Freeway, 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 expects the curfew to be in effect for "several days," and that she will consult with law enforcement officials Wednesday about extending the curfew for additional days.
Police began enforcing the curfew immediately.
"Multiple groups continue to congregate on 1st St between Spring and Alameda. Those groups are being addressed and mass arrests are being initiated," the Los Angeles Police Department's Central Division said at 9:09 p.m. Tuesday.
"Curfew is in effect."
Police said those with a valid ID were cited at the scene and released, unless they had outstanding warrants.
Assemblyman Mark González, D-Los Angeles, whose district includes the curfew area, supported the curfew.
"As a resident of Chinatown and the representative for downtown Los Angeles and surrounding communities, I fully support Mayor Bass' decision to implement a curfew," he said in a statement. "It has been deeply heartbreaking to witness the destruction in our community -- damage that does not reflect the values or voices of those engaging in peaceful protest."
Meanwhile, Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez scheduled a special 12:10 p.m. Wednesday Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown LA to "unite our communities in prayer during this time of unrest."
The Mass will be live-streamed at lacatholics.org/praying-together/.
The mayor's announcement followed yet another day of protests that led to dozens more arrests as demonstrators gathered outside the downtown Metropolitan Detention Center -- while a splinter group made its way onto the Hollywood (101) Freeway, briefly blocking both directions of traffic.
The federal detention center on Alameda and Aliso streets has been a common site of protests over the previous four days, 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 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Hundreds of people ultimately gathered outside MDC Tuesday afternoon, but National Guard troop formed a skirmish line to prevent them from entering the facility. By early afternoon, the LAPD had ordered the crowd to disperse, and many protesters made their way either north or south on Alameda Street, away from the MDC.
Several dozen protesters, however, remained near the facility, and LAPD officers in skirmish lines quickly surrounded the group and began making arrests, loading the protesters into buses to take them out of the area.
As those arrests were made, a group of several hundred protesters marched east on Temple Street then made their way north to the 101 Freeway, poured through a gap in a chain link fence and walked onto the freeway, blocking traffic on both sides.
California Highway Patrol officers, however, wasted little time and took aggressive action to push the crowd off the roadway. At least two people were seen being taken into custody as they struggled with CHP officers pushing them back.
The protesters then marched back toward the downtown area.
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 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, 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.
According to the LAPD, 96 people were arrested on suspicion of failure to disperse during Monday night's demonstrations. One person was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, another on suspicion of resisting arrest and one on suspicion of vandalism. Another 14 people were arrested on suspicion of looting.
Two officers were injured during the Monday unrest. They were treated at a hospital and released, according to the LAPD. Numerous less-lethal rounds were fired by officers from the LAPD and other partner agencies Monday night and early Tuesday morning.
Police eventually demobilized around 3 a.m. Tuesday.
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."
Bass on Monday evening and Tuesday morning again called for an end to the immigration raids to bring an end to the nightly protests.
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 over the weekend federalized 2,000 California National Guard troops and ordered them to be deployed to Los Angeles, despite protests by Bass, Gov. Gavin Newsom and other local officials who said such a move would further exacerbate tensions and lead to more intense protests.
But Trump doubled down on the move Monday, ordering an additional 2,000 Guard troops into the city, while also directing 700 U.S. Marines to move into Los Angeles and support the Guard's mission of protecting federal facilities and personnel. Pentagon officials said Tuesday the deployment is expected to cost about $134 million.
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. It was unclear when a hearing on the matter might be held.
Bass 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."
The mayor said local law enforcement -- most notably the LAPD -- was fully equipped to deal with the protests, and the deployment of Guard troops and Marines was completely unnecessary.
Bass noted that despite claims by Trump, National Guard troops played no role in quelling violence in the streets over the past four nights, since their mission is strictly to protect federal assets, such as the federal buildings in downtown Los Angeles and in Westwood.
Some of the most intense activity Monday evening took place in Little Tokyo and the Arts District, where people threw fireworks and other objects at police in riot gear, who responded with flash bangs and rubber bullets.
Video showed some demonstrators being placed on police buses with hands zip-tied behind their backs.
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 will be 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.
Rep. Mike Levin, D-San Juan Capistrano, issued a statement calling the Marine deployment "an astounding overreach of authoritarian power."
Newsom also condemned the move, saying Marines "shouldn't be deployed on American soil facing their own countrymen to fulfill the deranged fantasy of a dictatorial president. This is un-American."
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."
According to the LAPD, 29 people were arrested during Saturday night's protests for failure to disperse. On Sunday, the LAPD made 21 arrests for offenses including attempted murder with a Molotov cocktail, assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer, looting and failure to disperse.
Five LAPD officers sustained minor injuries during the Sunday unrest, and five LAPD horses suffered minor injuries.
The California Highway Patrol also made additional arrests.
On social media Tuesday, Trump again insisted that his deployment of the National Guard saved the city.
"If I didn't `send in the troops' to Los Angeles the last three nights, that once beautiful and great city would be burning to the ground right now," he wrote, referring to Newsom and Bass as "incompetent."