LA police enforce curfew as Trump vows to 'liberate' city

Saudi Gazette

a day ago

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles police say they have made "mass arrests" after a fifth day of protests over US President Donald Trump's immigration raids.
Mayor Karen Bass declared an overnight curfew within a relatively small area of the city's downtown district, saying businesses were being vandalized and looted.
Elsewhere, the immigration raids that triggered the protests last Friday have continued, with deployed National Guard troops now protecting border control agents on enforcement operations.
Trump's row with state officials ramped up after he deployed troops to LA. The president has now vowed to "liberate" the city, but has been accused by California Governor Gavin Newsom of an "assault" on democracy.
On Tuesday, Trump defended his decision to send 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines, saying it was to prevent the city being "conquered by a foreign enemy".
These troops lack the authority to make arrests, and have instead been tasked only with protecting federal property and personnel.
Newsom hit back at the president: "He again chose escalation; he chose more force." The California governor, who is seen as a potential presidential contender for the Democratic Party, warned that "other states are next".
After the LA curfew entered force at 20:00 local time on Tuesday (03:00 GMT on Wednesday), police moved through downtown areas, firing rubber bullets to try to disperse crowds.
The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) later said "multiple groups" were still congregating in the district.
Officers did not confirm in their evening update how many people had been detained. The mayor earlier said nearly 200 people had so far been arrested on Tuesday, in addition to the dozens of others in previous days.
Explaining the curfew, Bass said she wanted "to stop the vandalism, to stop the looting". She added: "We reached a tipping point."
The order affects an area of about one square mile in America's second-largest city.
Chaotic protests also sprung up on Tuesday in several other US cities:
In Atlanta, Georgia, riot police used tear gas on protesters who fired fireworks towards officers at a demonstration attended by hundreds
Police in New York told the BBC dozens were arrested for blocking vehicular traffic after several thousand marched into lower Manhattan
Texas Governor Greg Abbott sent National Guard troops to San Antonio, where immigration rallies are planned
LA's mayor said 23 businesses had been looted on Monday night, though she did not provide an estimate of financial losses to the city from the at-times violent disorder.
Elsewhere in the sprawling city, it was a normal Tuesday, as tens of thousands of children went to school, commuter traffic choked the streets and tourists strolled Hollywood Boulevard.
LA police chief Jim McDonnell said the curfew was "not about silencing voices", but was a necessary measure to save lives and safeguard property.
Bass also said Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had provoked the unrest by conducting raids on Latino areas in the city in recent days.
"If [the raids are] going to go on for 30 days, and that's what the rumour is, and, if we want to see our city peaceful again, I will call upon the administration one more time to end the raids," she said.
On Tuesday, National Guard troops, who were previously guarding federal buildings, began assisting ICE agents with their "daily enforcement operations", a spokesperson for the border agency told the BBC.
Marines were guarding federal officials and property on Tuesday, Marines Corps General Eric Smith said. They do not have arrest authority.
The military deployment to the LA area will cost $134m (£99m), the Pentagon said.
Addressing troops at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, Trump described the protests as a "full-blown assault on peace and public order".
The Republican president said he plans to use "every asset at our disposal to quell the violence".
Meanwhile, Trump's political row with state officials has intensified. The president has described the protesters as "animals" and vowed that "this anarchy will not stand".
During a speech at the Fort Bragg military base, he urged troops to boo the names of Newsom and Joe Biden, his presidential predecessor.
In televised remarks of his own on Tuesday night, California's Governor Gavin Newsom again criticised the president's rare deployment of the American military without a request from state officials. He accused Trump of a "brazen abuse of power".
"California may be first – but it clearly won't end here," he said. "Other states are next. Democracy is next. Democracy is under assault right before our eyes."
Earlier in the day a federal court denied an emergency request from California to block the use of troops sent to Los Angeles.
District Judge Charles Breyer scheduled a hearing on the motion for Thursday.
Trump has set a goal for border agents of at least 3,000 daily arrests as he seeks to ramp up mass deportations, a signature pledge of his re-election campaign.
Since assuming office, the president has drastically reduced illegal crossings at the US-Mexico border to historically low levels.
A CBS News/YouGov poll conducted in early June, before the protests kicked off, found 54% of Americans saying they approved of Trump's deportation policy, and 50% approved of how he was handling immigration.
That compares with smaller numbers of 42% who gave approval to his economic policy and 39% for his policy on tackling inflation. — BBC