Los Angeles was gearing up Tuesday for a possible fifth straight day of unrest over federal immigration enforcement, while still cleaning up from the previous night’s protests that again devolved into looting of some downtown stores.
Monday’s demonstrations featured 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. Some demonstrators remained on the streets into the early hours Tuesday.
Meanwhile, 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.
Los Angeles Police Department Officer Chris Miller told City News Service one woman was arrested at the scene of the Apple Store burglary. At least two other people were seen being taken into custody by police for looting. It was unclear exactly how many arrests were made.
Mayor Karen 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.”
Monday was the fourth consecutive day of unrest stemming from protests over immigration enforcement raids that began Friday and have continued across the area.
Bass on Monday evening called for an end to the 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. The state of California sued Trump on Monday to overturn the federalization of National Guard troops.
But Trump doubled-down on the move, 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.
Bass said the Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids and the military response to the area are 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.”
She suggested that the operations occurring in Los Angeles seemed almost to be an “experiment” by federal authorities to see if similar efforts will succeed in other series.
“If you remember at the beginning of this administration, we were told that raids would be to look for violent criminals, people who had warrants,” Bass said. “But I don’t know how you go from a drug dealer to a Home Depot to people’s workplaces where they just trying to make a living.”
The mayor said local law enforcement — most notably the Los Angeles Police Department — was fully equipped to deal with the protests, and the deployment of Guard troops and Marines is completely unnecessary.
Bass noted that despite claims by Trump, National Guard troops have 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.
Monday’s protests began peacefully, with a small group gathering in an intersection near the federal Metropolitan Detention Center at Temple and Alameda streets. The crowd grew steadily through the morning, while others gathered in front of the federal building on Los Angeles Street south of Aliso Street.
The federal building houses the offices of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
By Monday afternoon, a large crowd was gathered outside the federal building, where they were met by a line of National Guard troops positioned to keep people outside the building.
Law enforcement officers maintained a major presence in the Civic Center area, in some cases preventing protesters from marching along certain streets and setting up skirmish lines to block access to freeway on-ramps.
The LAPD declared a tactical alert, allowing it to keep officers on duty beyond their normal shifts if needed to respond to growing protests.
Early Monday evening, police declared the gathering outside the federal building an unlawful assembly and ordered the crowd to disperse. LAPD officers in a skirmish line then pushed the crowd south on Los Angeles Street, effectively clearing the street between Aliso and Temple streets. As the skirmish line pushed the crowd, some protesters hurled rocks and water bottles toward officers, and police fired what appeared to be flash-bang devices to keep the group moving.
The crowd diminished in size dramatically after nightfall, but some remained in the streets well into the night.
The skirmishes dragged on throughout the night, with a large swath of the downtown area virtually off-limits to the public as protesters and law enforcement personnel filled the streets. News video showed a parked vehicle defaced with graffiti and consumed with flames as police officers stood by about 40 yards away.
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.
The continued violence and vandalism drew a sharp rebuke from Assemblyman Mark Gonzalez, D-Los Angeles.
“What’s happening in Little Tokyo and parts of Downtown LA is absolutely unacceptable,” Gonzalez said in a statement late Monday. “Tagging historic landmarks, launching fireworks at officers, and terrorizing residents is not protest — it’s destruction. Causing chaos, damaging neighborhoods, and live-streaming for likes helps no one. Our elders, small businesses, and public spaces deserve better.
“If you’re out here chasing clout while our neighbors are scared and storefronts are boarded up — you’re not helping, you’re harming. You’re playing right into Trump’s hands and undermining the very movement you claim to support.”
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.”
Gov. Gavin 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.”
Newsom, meanwhile, announced that hundreds of state and regional law enforcement officers were being shifted into the area to support the Los Angeles Police Department and county Sheriff’s Department to quell potential unruly protests.
According to Newsom’s office, nearly 400 California Highway Patrol officers will be deployed in Los Angeles in support of the LAPD. The CHP also issued a tactical alert, moving more than 250 other officers additional officers into the area to assist with road and highway safety.
Another 240 officers will also be moving into the area from sheriff’s departments in San Bernardino, Orange, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, and from police departments within Los Angeles County.
It was unclear how many people were arrested during Monday night’s protests.
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.
National Guard troops arrived in downtown Los Angeles at 4 a.m. Sunday after Trump ordered their deployment to protect federal facilities, over the strenuous objection of local Democrats, led by Bass and Newsom, who said the deployment would escalate tensions.
Newsom said Monday the National Guard troops were deployed without any federal funding for food, housing or water. Some troops were photographed sleeping on a floor presumably inside the federal complex downtown. He said only about 300 National Guard troops had been actually deployed, despite Trump’s initial call for 2,000 troops, so he questioned the necessity of ordering an additional 2,000 personnel.
The chaos began with a series of immigration enforcement raids Friday that sparked demonstrations featuring dozens of arrests and profane and threatening graffiti left on government buildings, and continued Saturday with violent protests in Paramount during the day and in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday evening.
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.”