Los Angeles Police Department and the protest that shifted from peaceful to 'unlawful'

Australia Broadcast Center

6 hours ago

The day had been peaceful. As 30,000 people marched through Los Angeles as part of the nationwide No Kings protests, the streets were busy with children, families, their pet dogs, medics and people giving out water and snacks.
But as protests across the country wound down, the one in Los Angeles changed shape.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass made the point the large morning demonstrations were "overwhelmingly peaceful".
She said the tension across the afternoon came when law enforcement was forced to move along the "stragglers".
At a federal building just a few blocks from City Hall, United States Marines and National Guard troops were in place. By mid-afternoon, a crowd had formed and the tone was very different from that of the morning demonstrations.
What played out over the following hours was a case study of the way a stand-off can spark and turn a tinderbox into a raging fire.
The protesters' anger was for Donald Trump and his immigration raids being carried out by the federal agency Immigration, Customs and Enforcement (ICE).
The federal building guarded by Donald Trump's troops has been at the centre of protests in Los Angeles. ( ABC News: Emily Clark )
The mayor said the crowds across Los Angeles were "overwhelmingly peaceful". ( ABC News: Emily Clark )
It was the commander-in-chief's decision to federalise the National Guard and deploy marines to help patrol the protests.
But it was local police units that would eventually disperse the crowd with tear gas, flashbang grenades and rubber bullets.
While onlookers screamed "peaceful protest", various units from the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD) used the "less-lethal" force available to them to move on those they called "the agitators".
In the haze of gas and smoke, it can be hard to make sense of the chaos.
This is what it looks like when a progressive city in Trump's America is forced to turn on itself.
Holding the line
From mid-afternoon, a crowd had once again gathered at the Edward R Roybal Federal Building, which was being guarded by members of the Marines and National Guard.
Troops, as well as LAPD and LASD officers, were standing in line formations across the building's entrance.
Standing shoulder-to-shoulder and, at some points, multiple layers deep, the troops and police officers were at times less than a metre from the front of the crowd.
US Marine Corps troops as well as Los Angeles law enforcement officers push back the crowd. ( ABC News: Emily Clark )
The National Guard troops were federalised by Donald Trump and deployed to Los Angeles despite opposition from state officials. ( ABC News: Emily Clark )
In that crowd was Aileen Rivera, 18, whose family was from Mexico.
"We're here to tell them to get out and that they shouldn't be holding guns here if there's peaceful protest," she said.
"I think it's a little unnecessary. They're just wanting to scare us and intimidate people from speaking out, but that's not going to happen," she said.
About the evening ahead, Ms Rivera said she was "scared, honestly".
"They tend to take things really far — protesters and police officers — and then people get hurt and people go to jail when it's unnecessary, when we just want to send out our messages peacefully."
For hours after the No Kings protests, the demonstration at the federal building slowly built, and as the crowd swelled, it pushed ever so slightly forward.
At that moment, the marines drove them back. The crowd responded — loud, disapproving and heightened.
From a high position in a nearby garden, it was possible to see the entire scene.
And zoom in on the moment the marines moved toward the anti-ICE crowd.
This is the point of tension in the protest where the two sides come together and the potential for escalation exists. At this moment, the crowd was loud and outraged.
The marines can be seen getting closer to the protesters, putting distance between them and the building's entrance.
That looks like a Trump flag, but make no mistake, it is a "F**k Trump" flag.
Right at this point in the crowd were activists who were trying to engage the people standing in military uniforms, asking them if they believed in what they were doing.
These troops are on the ground in Los Angeles because Trump believed the city would have "burned to the ground" without them.
Local officials said they were never necessary.
Los Angeles Police Department sirens were blaring across the city for hours after this moment.
But here, its officers are sprinkled throughout the troops, helping to hold the skirmish line.
The LAPD and the LASD deployed SWAT, mounted units, highway patrol and police helicopters to the event.
Looking around the scene a little more.
We can learn more about who is in the crowd and the people and groups these events attract.
The upside-down American flag, while it is a Trumpian reference too, has historically been flown as a distress signal.
The flag of Mexico and the California State flag were everywhere throughout the Los Angeles protests.
And this is the anti-fascist action flag — one sometimes flown as the flag of Antifa.
The road here becomes important because eventually, cars park across it. People stand on their roofs and hang from their windows. The crowd builds around them and eventually, the LAPD declares "the demonstration has taken the street" and a dispersal order is issued.
From there, the dynamic completely shifts and the law enforcement on the scene have authority to use "less-lethal" methods to clear the crowd.
And they do.
The dispersal order
"A dispersal order has been issued on Los Angeles St between Aliso and Temple. People in the crowd are throwing rocks, bricks, bottles and other objects.
"Less lethal has been approved. Less lethal may cause discomfort and pain. It is advised that all persons leave the area."
Once law enforcement had approval to disperse the crowd and authority to use less-lethal methods to do it, the intersection was flooded with different units of the LAPD and LASD.
LASD units arrived in people carriers, as mounted units arrived too. The highway patrol units that had been waiting to the side of the building and down the highway on and off ramps, now formed new skirmish lines across the central street.
Moments after a mounted unit arrived at the overpass, the first round of what those present reported as feeling like pepper spray was sprayed into a group of protesters after an apparent altercation with the horses.
That movement drove part of the crowd one block to the east of the federal building.
As some units drove protesters back, others shuffled in behind to form new skirmish lines and systematically pushed protesters out of the area.
This was happening block-by-block, in several directions, and soon the constant sound of non-lethal rounds being fired was ringing out across the downtown Los Angeles area.
In the "hot zone", the action feels like it is happening in every direction and the skirmish lines move quickly.
The mood, and the crowd, appears completely different to that from the start of the day.
LAPD officers form a skirmish line as law enforcement act on the dispersal order. ( ABC News: Emily Clark )
Multiple additional units from across LA law enforcement moved in once the dispersal order was in place. ( ABC News: Emily Clark )
The Los Angeles Sheriff's Department had units working across the downtown area, including mounted officers. ( ABC News: Emily Clark )
Aerial video from the scene shows some protesters throwing bottles at law enforcement and the ABC witnessed several protesters setting off fireworks in the area.
For several hours, the LAPD account on X posted updates saying officers in the area were requesting assistance.
LAPD chief Jim McDonnell said officers "started taking rocks, bottles" and other projectiles "from a high ground position" and at that point, "they deployed gas in order to disperse the group" and were successful.
"They used some tactical manoeuvres as well, some flanking movements and moved the group out of there."
At 5:00pm, three hours before curfew, the LAPD declared an "unlawful assembly", meaning those who failed to leave the area were subject to arrest.
We now know that at 6:15pm, LAPD officers and other agencies were dispersing a crowd in the downtown area and a 27-year-old man broke through a skirmish line.
An officer fired a single shot from a "less-lethal launcher" and the man sustained a "law enforcement-related injury" to the back of his head and was hospitalised, according to the LAPD. That use of force is now being investigated.
At curfew, which only covers a small section of the downtown area, Chief McDonnell estimated there were still 1,000 protesters on the street across the city.
He said the protest that started as US Marine Corps and National Guard units stood at the federal building had been dispersed, but as night fell, skirmish lines were popping up all over the city.
He said it then became a game of "cat and mouse".
In the "hot zone" of the Los Angeles protest, police fired less-lethal rounds into the crowd to disperse it. ( AP: Ethan Swope )
Police fired tear gas and other less-lethal rounds into crowds. Here, a protester has picked one up. ( AP: Noah Berger )
People move through tear gas during the protest. ( AP: Noah Berger )
The state of California is suing Donald Trump for deploying the National Guard, arguing it undermines its sovereignty and democracy more broadly.
At the heart of the lawsuit is the issue of whether or not federal troops are participating in domestic law enforcement — something they are prohibited from doing without the president invoking the Insurrection Act.
But here is the problem for Los Angeles.
California Governor Gavin Newsom says the federal troops are escalating the situation and are part of the reason protesters show up.
But as happened on Saturday, June 14, it is then up to local law enforcement to clean up the streets.
A hearing in this case began on Tuesday, local time, and its outcome will impact whether Donald Trump can keep his troops on the street or if they have to go home.
That is of course only part of the issue, because ICE raids are still happening across several cities in the state and across the country, with Donald Trump pledging to target the "Democratic power centre".
Los Angeles does not spend resources on enforcing immigration law. That makes it what's called a "sanctuary city" — but also a political target.
The No Kings movement and anti-ICE protesters are not the only signs of resistance across the city. Local businesses help warn customers if ICE is present, and advocates patrol the streets too, hoping to offer assistance if they encounter people being detained.
On the day of the No Kings protest, 35 people would end up being arrested by the LAPD for curfew violations, as well as several other arrests for resisting arrest and obstructing police officers.
LAPD said three officers were injured that day.
By midnight, from down town there were still sounds of sirens, fireworks and non-lethal rounds being deployed somewhere across the sprawling city of Los Angeles.