2 days ago
Police announce ‘mass arrests' amid LA curfew
Los Angeles, US – The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) said that it was engaging in 'mass arrests' as demonstrators continue to congregate in downtown LA.
'Multiple groups continue to congregate on 1st St between Spring and Alameda. Those groups are being addressed and mass arrests are being initiated,' the LAPD said in a post on the platform X.
'Curfew is in effect,' it stressed.
The CNN broadcaster reported that 10 to 20 people were seen being detained by police in in downtown LA.
What is partial curfew in LA?
Los Angeles has been under a partial curfew since Mayor Karen Bass announced a 'local emergency' in the city late on Tuesday.
It applies to a 1-square-mile area in downtown LA.
'I have declared a local emergency and issued a curfew for downtown Los Angeles to stop the vandalism, to stop the looting,' she said.
The curfew began at 8pm local time on Tuesday (0300 UTC on Wednesday) and is set to end at 6am local time on Wednesday.
'We don't feel safe'
DW interviewed protesters who took to the streets of LA in opposition to raids by Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE).
'It's a basic human right. They are arresting people who are working, they are arresting people at graduating,' one woman told DW.
'That's sad and it's heartbreaking. We don't feel safe,' she said.
Another protester told DW that Los Angeles required immigrant labour, pointing to reconstruction efforts following wildfires that gripped the city earlier this year.
'We need immigrant workers in this city really badly,' she said.
'We've just gone through devastating fires,' she said, adding that the city had lost many thousands of structures to the fires.
DW Correspondent Benjamin Alvarez Gruber said that there was a 'heavy police presence' on the scene in Los Angeles.
'There is a lot of police movement, we see smaller groups and also several helicopters flying over the city,' he said.
He said that non-lethal ammunition, including tear gas, had been used to disperse protesters in front of the Federal Building in LA.
He said that cars were being told to turn back and not enter the city's downtown area.
Alvarez said that Marines, hundreds of which had been deployed by Trump, had not yet been spotted in downtown LA.
Anti-ICE protests
Protests against raids by ICE that began in Los Angeles last week have spread to several other US cities.
Major demonstrations have been seen in the Texas cities of Austin and Dallas, as well as Chicago in the Midwest and Atlanta in the southeast.
In the country's most populous city, New York, thousands took to the streets on Tuesday to protest the raids.
Local media reported that cities in southern Texas were to hold anti-ICE demonstrations on Wednesday and Saturday. Texas Governor Greg Abbott said the state would deploy the National Guard to 'ensure peace and order' amid the protests.
'Texas National Guard will be deployed to locations across the state to ensure peace & order,' Abbott said in a post on X.
'Peaceful protest is legal. Harming a person or property is illegal & will lead to arrest,' the governor said.
Protests against ICE arrests that first started in Los Angeles, California, began to spread to other states over the weekend.
Local media reported that anti-ICE were planned for Wednesday in the Texas' second-largest city of San Antonio.
Thirteen people were arrested on Monday in the state's capital, Austin, in a protest involving hundreds of people, according to the Texas Tribune news portal.
DW
