Marines prepare to deploy in LA as more cities brace for protests

Time of India

a day ago

LOS ANGELES: Hundreds of US Marines were undergoing refresher training in riot and crowd control just outside of Los Angeles and will move into the city soon, a military official said, as protests over President Donald Trump's immigration raids spread from California to other parts of the country.
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Trump's decision to dispatch National Guard troops and Marines to Los Angeles over the objections of California's governor has sparked a national debate on the use of the military on US soil.
The Marines will be in Los Angeles "soon" but not on Wednesday, US army Major General Scott Sherman, who is commanding the troops, told reporters at a news briefing. Sherman said they are authorised to detain individuals temporarily.
"These soldiers do not conduct law enforcement operations like arrests or search and seizure. They are strictly used for the protection of the federal personnel as they conduct their operations and to protect them to allow them to do their federal mission," Sherman said.
The Marines are trained to use their weapons for personal protection but their rifles would not be loaded with live ammunition during the deployment, Sherman said.
The Marines are taking a two-day training course on how to handle civil disturbances, he said.
Texas governor is the first to call in the National Guard
The governor of Texas, Republican Greg Abbott, said he will deploy the National Guard on Wednesday ahead of planned protests in San Antonio and other parts of the state, making him the first governor to take that step. Police in Austin, Texas, fired tear gas and pepper balls in a standoff with demonstrators on Monday.
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Protests spread to New York, Atlanta, Chicago
Protesters marched in New York, Atlanta and Chicago on Tuesday night, chanting anti-US Immigration and Customs Enforcement slogans and at times clashing with law enforcement, while downtown Los Angeles spent its first night under a mandatory curfew after five days of demonstrations.
Some demonstrators in Chicago threw water bottles at police officers and vandalised at least two vehicles.
In New York, officers made dozens of arrests near federal buildings in Lower Manhattan, the police said. In Atlanta, they used chemical agents and physical force to drive a few dozen protesters from their foothold on a highway.
More protests were planned in several cities on Wednesday, including Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York, Minneapolis, San Antonio and Seattle.
The protests are likely to expand on Saturday, when several activist groups have planned hundreds of anti-Trump demonstrations across the country.
That day Washington, DC, hosts a military parade marking the US army's 250th anniversary and coinciding with Trump's 79th birthday.
Since protests began last Friday, hundreds of people have been arrested in several cities, including more than 330 in Los Angeles, more than 240 in San Francisco and a dozen in Austin, Texas, officials said.
It is Trump vs California
Trump says the military deployment in Los Angeles prevented the violence from raging out of control, an assertion California governor Gavin Newsom and other local officials have decried as untrue.
"This brazen abuse of power by a sitting president inflamed a combustible situation, putting our people, our officers and even our National Guard at risk. That's when the downward spiral began," Newsom said in a video address on Tuesday. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said the deployments were not necessary and that local police could manage the protests, which have been largely peaceful and limited to about five downtown streets.
But the mayor imposed a curfew over one square mile of the city's downtown starting Tuesday night after some businesses were looted. Police said multiple groups stayed on streets in some areas despite the curfew and "mass arrests" were made. agencies