20 hours ago
'No Kings' protests against Donald Trump flood streets of LA and other US cities
Tens of thousands of Americans are marching through the US's major cities in the largest protest effort against Donald Trump since his re-election in January.
The "No Kings" protests are taking place against a backdrop of intensifying fears of political violence, after two Democratic politicians and their spouses were shot in Minnesota hours before the rallies.
Marches were planned in all of America's major cities except for Washington DC, where Mr Trump will attend the largest military parade in the US in decades, coinciding with his birthday.
In downtown Los Angeles, Saturday's protest has been a loud but so far peaceful culmination of a week of demonstrations, initially triggered by raids on local businesses by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers.
Streets were filled with chants of "no ICE" early in the day, but the curfew across the downtown part of the city will kick in at 8pm, local time (1pm Sunday AEST).
Speakers warned "America has no kings" and said Los Angeles had "extinguished the fires in January, and will crush ICE in June".
For some, Mr Trump's immigration raids were their tipping point.
As the values of Trump's America clashed with those at the very heart of Los Angeles this week, locals were compelled to make signs and march for the first time.
Sixty-five-year-old Cleotide, who only wanted to use her first name, said she saw Mr Trump as "a Hitler reborn in America".
"I'm pissed off because of all the people who are suffering," she told the ABC.
"Because they deport a lot of people, there are a lot of families missing the father or the mother, even the kids. And they're crying for food, they're crying for their parents."
Cuban-born immigration lawyer Joaquin Talleva, who moved to the US when he was four, said his clients were "scared to death".
"There's the mistreatment of the Latino community in Los Angeles, which is being done in a very heartless manner, but it's the undermining of the constitution and the rule of law that has me out here today," he said.
Helicopters buzzed over the parade and most of downtown LA as law enforcement patrolled the crowds from the land and air. Businesses were closed and boarded up ahead of the event.
The No Kings protests are happening nationwide, but the spotlight has been on Los Angeles over the past week after Mr Trump deployed thousands of National Guard troops, as well as Marines, to the city despite local authorities insisting they were not required.
In Minnesota, the planned protests were cancelled after the assassination of a state politician and her husband, and the shooting of a state senator and his wife, in what were deemed politically motivated attacks.
And in Austin, Texas, a "credible threat" against local politicians sparked the evacuation of the state parliament building just hours before a No Kings rally was set to start nearby.
