Boarded up, vandalised and under curfew, LA is hardly the city of angels
Los Angeles: So much for the city of angels. As night fell on Tuesday, the inner core of America's second-largest metropolitan district looked more like a war zone readying for an air raid, with shopfronts all boarded up, traffic sparse, and the streets empty.
Just a couple of hours earlier, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass called an emergency curfew beginning at 8pm – the first night of what was likely to be several, she said.
After days of protests against President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown, opportunistic troublemakers have begun descending on this beleaguered city to smash windows, graffiti walls and loot. The Apple Store was hit, as was an Adidas shop just a few metres from my hotel. Bus shelters, storefronts, public steps – few surfaces have been spared.
Closer to the federal government buildings that have been the centre of the protests, most available walls have been spray-painted with graffiti. 'F--- ICE' is the most common refrain, referring to the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency that has begun raiding workplaces looking for illegal immigrants here in this city that is proudly built on migrants from Mexico and Central America.
'F--- Trump' is everywhere, too, as is 'ICE out of LA'. One downtown fence was tagged in giant capital letters: 'America steals ppl since 1619.'
Other American cities sometimes like to distance themselves from the union, too. New Yorkers – at least the Manhattan elite – have long styled themselves as something different to the country to which they belong.
Los Angeles, home to both the glamour of Hollywood and the grime of its maligned city centre, is now at war with Washington and the vision of America that Washington serves under Trump.
'LA is a resilient place, we're not afraid,' said Kevin Sarabia, who was protesting outside one of the federal government buildings and waving a half-Mexican, half-US flag. The child of Mexican migrants, he said that the symbolism was important to him.
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