- LOS ANGELES — Tensions in Los Angeles escalated on Sunday as
thousands of protesters took to the streets in response to President Donald
Trump's extraordinary deployment of the National Guard, blocking off a major
freeway and setting self-driving cars on fire as law enforcement used tear gas,
rubber bullets and flash bangs to control the crowd.
- Many
protesters dispersed as evening fell and police declared an unlawful assembly,
a precursor to officers moving in and making arrests of people who don't leave.
Multiple Waymo taxis burn near the Metropolitan Detention
Center of downtown Los Angeles following immigration raid protest.
- Some of
those remaining threw objects at police from behind a makeshift barrier that
spanned the width of a street and others hurled chunks of concrete, rocks,
electric scooters and fireworks at California Highway Patrol officers and their
vehicles parked on the closed southbound 101 Freeway. Officers ran under an
overpass to take cover.
- Sunday's
protests in Los Angeles, a sprawling city of 4 million people, were centred in
several blocks of downtown. It was the third and most intense day of
demonstrations against Trump's immigration crackdown in the region, as the
arrival of around 300 Guard troops spurred anger and fear among many residents.
- The
Guard was deployed specifically to protect federal buildings, including the
downtown detention centre where protesters concentrated.
Also read: Trump vows to 'crush rioters' in Los Angeles, says Governor and Mayor can’t do their jobs
- Los
Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said officers were “overwhelmed” by the
remaining protesters. He said they included regular agitators who show up at demonstrations
to cause trouble.
- Several
dozen people were arrested throughout the weekend of protest. One was detained
Sunday for throwing a Molotov cocktail at police, and another for ramming a
motorcycle into a line of officers.
- Trump
responded to McDonnell on Truth Social, telling him to arrest protesters in
face masks.
- “Looking
really bad in L.A. BRING IN THE TROOPS!!!” he wrote.
- Clashes escalate as National
Guard troops arrive
- Starting
in the morning, the troops stood shoulder to shoulder, carrying long guns and
riot shields as protesters shouted “shame” and “go home".
- After
some closely approached the guard members, another set of uniformed officers
advanced on the group, shooting smoke-filled canisters into the street.
- Minutes
later, the Los Angeles Police Department fired rounds of crowd-control
munitions to disperse the protesters, who they said were assembled unlawfully.
-
Much of the group then moved to block traffic on the 101 freeway until state
patrol officers cleared them from the roadway by late afternoon.
- Nearby,
at least four self-driving Waymo cars were set on fire, sending large plumes of
black smoke into the sky and exploding intermittently as the electric vehicles
burned.
- By
evening, police had issued an unlawful assembly order shutting down several
blocks of downtown Los Angeles.
- Flash
bangs echoed out every few seconds into the evening.
- Governor says Guard not needed
- Democratic
Gov. Gavin Newsom requested Trump remove the guard members in a letter Sunday
afternoon, calling their deployment a “serious breach of state sovereignty”. He
was in Los Angeles meeting with local law enforcement and officials.
- The
deployment appeared to be the first time in decades that a state's national
guard was activated without a request from its governor, a significant
escalation against those who have sought to hinder the administration's mass
deportation efforts.
- Newsom
and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass blamed the increasingly aggressive protests on
Trump's decision to deploy the Guard, calling it a move designed to enflame
tensions. They've both urged protesters to remain peaceful.
- “What
we're seeing in Los Angeles is chaos that is provoked by the
administration," she said in an afternoon press conference. “This is about
another agenda, this isn't about public safety.”
- But
McDonnell, the LAPD chief, said the protests were following a similar pattern
for episodes of civil unrest, with things ramping up in the second and third
days.
- He
pushed back against claims by the Trump administration that the LAPD had failed
to help federal authorities when protests broke out Friday after a series of
immigration raids. His department responded as quickly as it could, and had not
been notified in advance of the raids and therefore was not pre-positioned for
protests, he said.
- Newsom,
meanwhile, has repeatedly said that California authorities had the situation
under control. He mocked Trump for posting a congratulatory message to the
Guard on social media before troops had even arrived in Los Angeles, and said
on MSNBC that Trump never floated deploying the Guard during a Friday phone
call. He called Trump a “stone cold liar”.
- The
admonishments did not deter the administration.
- “It's a
bald-faced lie for Newsom to claim there was no problem in Los Angeles before
President Trump got involved,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in
a statement.
- Deployment follows days of
protest
- The
arrival of the National Guard followed two days of protests that began Friday
in downtown Los Angeles before spreading on Saturday to Paramount, a heavily
Latino city south of the city, and neighbouring Compton.
- Federal
agents arrested immigrants in LA's fashion district, in a Home Depot parking
lot and at several other locations on Friday. The next day, they were staging
at a Department of Homeland Security office near another Home Depot in
Paramount, which drew out protesters who suspected another raid. Federal
authorities later said there was no enforcement activity at that Home Depot.
- The
week-long tally of immigrant arrests in the LA area climbed above 100, federal
authorities said. Many more were arrested while protesting, including a
prominent union leader who was accused of impeding law enforcement.
- The
protests did not reach the size of past demonstrations that brought the
National Guard to Los Angeles, including the Watts and Rodney King riots, and
the 2020 protests against police violence, in which Newsom requested the
assistance of federal troops.
- The
last time the National Guard was activated without a governor's permission was
in 1965, when President Lyndon B. Johnson sent troops to protect a civil rights
march in Alabama, according to the Brennan Centre for Justice.
- Trump says there will be very
strong law and order
- In a
directive on Saturday, Trump invoked a legal provision allowing him to deploy
federal service members when there is ”a rebellion or danger of a rebellion
against the authority of the Government of the United States".
- He said
he had authorised the deployment of 2,000 members of the National Guard.
- Trump
told reporters as he prepared to board Air Force One in Morristown, New Jersey,
Sunday that there were “violent people” in Los Angeles “and they're not gonna
get away with it”.
- Asked
if he planned to send US troops to Los Angeles, Trump replied: “We're gonna
have troops everywhere. We're not going to let this happen to our country.” He
didn't elaborate.
- About
500 Marines stationed at Twentynine Palms, about 125 miles east of Los Angeles
were in a “prepared to deploy status” Sunday afternoon, according to the US
Northern Command.
