Latest news with #JimMcDonnell
Arab News
an hour ago
- Politics
- Arab News
Los Angeles mayor imposes curfew on downtown following increased nighttime violence
LOS ANGELES: Mayor Karen Bass issued a curfew for downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday 'to stop the vandalism, to stop the looting.' She said in a news conference that she had declared a local emergency and that the curfew will run from 8 p.m. Tuesday until 6 a.m. Wednesday. 'We reached a tipping point' after 23 businesses were looted, Bass said. The curfew will be in place in a 1 square mile (2.59 square kilometer) section of downtown that includes the area where protests have occurred since Friday. The city of Los Angeles encompasses roughly 500 square miles (2,295 square kilometers). The curfew doesn't apply to residents who live in the designated area, people who are homeless, credentialed media or public safety and emergency officials, according to Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell. McDonnell said 'unlawful and dangerous behavior' had been escalating since Saturday. 'The curfew is a necessary measure to protect lives and safeguard property following several consecutive days of growing unrest throughout the city,' McDonnell said. Earlier Tuesday, National Guard troops began protecting immigration agents as they made arrests in Los Angeles on Tuesday, an expansion of their duties that had been limited to protecting federal property. Photos posted Tuesday by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement show National Guard troops standing guard around officers as they made arrests. ICE said in a statement that the troops were providing security at federal facilities and protecting federal officers 'who are out on daily enforcement operations.' The change moves troops closer to engaging in law enforcement actions like deportations as President Donald Trump has promised as part of the administration's immigration crackdown. The agency said Guard members are also providing support with transportation. The Guard has the authority to temporarily detain people who attack officers but any arrests ultimately would be made by law enforcement. National Guard troops and Marines deployed to LA California Gov. Gavin Newsom had asked a federal court to block the Trump administration from using the National Guard and Marines to assist with immigration raids in Los Angeles, saying it would only heighten tensions and promote civil unrest. Newsom filed the emergency request after Trump ordered the deployment to LA of roughly 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines following protests of the president's stepped-up enforcement of immigration laws. The federal government said Newsom was seeking an unprecedented and dangerous order that would interfere with its ability to carry out enforcement operations. A judge set a hearing for Thursday. The Marines and another 2,000 National Guard troops were sent to LA on Monday, adding to a military presence that local officials and Newsom do not want and that the police chief says makes it harder to handle the protests safely. Marine Corps Gen. Eric Smith said Tuesday that the Marines had not yet been called to respond to the protests and were there only to protect federal officials and property. The Marines were trained for crowd control but have no arrest authority, Smith told a budget hearing on Capitol Hill. Marines were not seen on the streets yet, while National guard troops so far have had limited engagement with protesters. Trump says he's open to using Insurrection Act Trump left open the possibility of invoking the Insurrection Act, which authorizes the president to deploy military forces inside the US to suppress rebellion or domestic violence or to enforce the law in certain situations. It's one of the most extreme emergency powers available to a US president. 'If there's an insurrection, I would certainly invoke it. We'll see,' he said from the Oval Office. Later the president called protesters 'animals' and 'a foreign enemy' in a speech at Fort Bragg ostensibly to recognize the 250th anniversary of the US Army. Trump has described Los Angeles in dire terms that Mayor Karen Bass and Newsom say are nowhere close to the truth. The protests began Friday after federal immigration raids arrested dozens of workers in Los Angeles. Protesters blocked a major freeway and set cars on fire over the weekend, and police responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades. The demonstrations have been mostly concentrated downtown in the city of 4 million and have been far less raucous since the weekend. Thousands of people have peacefully rallied outside City Hall and hundreds more protested outside a federal complex that includes a detention center where some immigrants are being held following workplace raids. Several businesses were broken into Monday, though authorities didn't say if the looting was tied to the protests. Nejdeh Avedian, general manager at St. Vincent Jewelry Center in the Los Angeles Jewelry District said the protesters had already left, and 'these guys were just opportunists,' though St. Vincent's had armed guards and was left alone. Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement Tuesday that protesters have hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails at law enforcement, set vehicles on fire, defaced buildings and public property and set fire to American flags. The Los Angeles Police Department said there have been more than 100 arrests. The vast majority were for failing to disperse, while a few others were for assault with a deadly weapon, looting, vandalism and attempted murder for tossing a Molotov cocktail. Seven police officers were reportedly injured, and at least two were taken to a hospital and released. On Tuesday, a few dozen protesters gathered peacefully in front of the federal complex, which was quickly declared an unlawful assembly. Police issued a dispersal order and corralled the protesters, telling members of the media to stay out to avoid getting hurt. Officers with zip ties then started making arrests. Obscene slogans directed at Trump and federal law enforcement remained scrawled across several buildings. At the Walt Disney Concert Hall, workers were busy washing away graffiti Tuesday. In nearby Santa Ana, armored Guard vehicles blocked a road leading to federal immigration and government offices. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth suggested Tuesday that the use of troops inside the US will continue to expand. 'I think we're entering another phase, especially under President Trump with his focus on the homeland, where the National Guard and Reserves become a critical component of how we secure that homeland,' he said on Capitol Hill. Los Angeles officials say police don't need help The mayor and the governor say Trump is putting public safety at risk by adding military personnel even though police say they don't need the help. Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said he was confident in the police department's ability to handle the demonstrations and that the Marines' arrival without coordinating with police would present a 'significant logistical and operational challenge.' Demonstrations have spread to other cities nationwide, including San Francisco, as well as Dallas and Austin, Texas, Chicago and New York City, where a thousand people rallied and multiple arrests were made. LA response takes stage on Capitol Hill The Pentagon said deploying the National Guard and Marines costs $134 million. Meanwhile, Democratic members of California's congressional delegation on Tuesday accused the president of creating a 'manufactured crisis.' On Monday, California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit seeking to halt the deployment. Trump said the city would have been 'completely obliterated' if he had not deployed the Guard. The deployment appeared to be the first time in decades that a state's National Guard was activated without a request from its governor, a significant escalation against those who have sought to hinder the administration's mass deportation efforts.
RNZ News
an hour ago
- Politics
- RNZ News
Curfew will go into effect in downtown Los Angeles tonight, Marines arrive
LA Mayor Karen Bass Photo: PATRICK T. FALLON A curfew for certain parts of downtown Los Angeles will be enacted tonight following days of protests that have, at times, turned violent. At a news conference, LA Mayor Karen Bass said she was seeking guidance on how long the curfew should be in place but said it will likely be in effect for a few days. "I will consult with elected leaders and law enforcement officials tomorrow on the continuation of the curfew but we certainly expect for it to last for several days," Bass said. The area of downtown Los Angeles where the curfew will take place is 1 square mile. The total area of the city is 502 square miles, she noted. The curfew will be in effect from 8 pm Tuesday to 6 am Wednesday. Anyone not deemed exempt who is within the designated curfew area will be "subject to arrest," according to LA Police Department Chief Jim McDonnell. "The curfew is a necessary measure to protect lives and safeguard property following several consecutive days of growing unrest throughout the city," McDonnell said. Who is exempt from the curfew? Protest arrests significantly increased over the course of a few days, McDonnell said. On Saturday, 27 people were arrested. Forty were arrested on Sunday and 114 people were arrested Monday. Authorities took 197 people into custody on Tuesday. "Following several consecutive days of growing unrest throughout the city since Saturday, we've seen a concerning escalation and unlawful and dangerous behavior," McDonnell said. He broke down Tuesday arrests by location, indicating that 67 people were taken into custody after "unlawfully occupying" the 101 Freeway. "Let me be clear that this behavior, blocking freeways, city streets and on ramps, refusing to comply with lawful dispersal orders and interfering with public safety operations, is dangerous, unlawful and won't be tolerated," McDonnell said. - CNN
Sky News
2 hours ago
- Sky News
Los Angeles protests: Mayor imposes curfew 'to stop the looting' as police make 197 arrests
The mayor of Los Angeles has announced that a curfew will be in force overnight, as officials attempt to "stop the vandalism and stop the looting". Karen Bass says the restrictions will be in force in downtown areas of the city from 8pm to 6am local time (4am to 2pm UK time) - and will likely be repeated in the coming days. She confirmed that a local emergency has been declared, with 23 businesses looted on Monday night. Ms Bass said "graffiti is everywhere", with "significant damage" to properties as a result of the protests. Jim McDonnell, the chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, described the curfew as a "necessary measure to protect lives". On Tuesday alone, 197 arrests were made by the force - and he warned anyone violating the curfew without a valid reason will be detained.
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Lack of coordination over military deployment poses 'significant' challenge as immigration protests continue
Hundreds of Marines are expected to stand guard in Los Angeles on Tuesday following another night of unrest in downtown Los Angeles that resulted in arrests and a handful of businesses being burglarized. The deployment of 700 active-duty U.S. Marines comes despite California officials' insistence that federal help isn't necessary and is actually escalating tensions between authorities and protesters. L.A. Police Chief Jim McDonnell said the deployment poses a "significant" challenge to law enforcement's efforts to protect the city. McDonnell said Monday afternoon that his department had not received any formal notification that the Marines would be arriving in L.A. 'The possible arrival of federal military forces in Los Angeles — absent clear coordination — presents a significant logistical and operational challenge for those of us tasked with safeguarding this city,' he said. 'The Los Angeles Police Department, alongside our mutual aid partners, have decades of experience managing public demonstrations, and we remain confident in our ability to do so effectively and professionally.' L.A. Mayor Karen Bass also decried the deployment during a news conference on Tuesday emphasizing that city officials have not been given information about federal actions including immigration raids or what the military would do given that the National Guard is already in place outside of federal buildings. "This is just absolutely unnecessary," Bass said. "People have asked me, 'What are the Marines going to do when they get here?' That's a good question. I have no idea." "I feel like we've all been in Los Angeles a part of a grand experiment to see what happens when the federal government decides they want to roll up on a state or roll up on a city and take over," she added. There have been intense but isolated clashes between protesters and law enforcement for several days as immigration arrests continue across Southern California. The fear from the raids has been felt across the city with people wondering whether they should send their children to school or go to work, Bass said. It is not clear how long the federal government's immigration enforcement could continue in Los Angeles. "The bottom line is we don't know, and that is consistent with ICE raids. Of course, we never know when, we never know how long, but that very notion creates such a terrible sense of fear in our city, and it's just not right to do that to a population who's trying to survive," Bass said, adding that Los Angeles is a "city of immigrants." Monday's protests were largely calmer than Sunday's melees, which left a trail of foam bullets around the city's center, buildings vandalized, Waymos set ablaze and many protesters injured from the munitions. Assemblymember Mark González, who represents downtown, said the violence and destruction in Little Tokyo and parts of downtown is "completely unacceptable." "Tagging historic landmarks, launching fireworks at officers and terrorizing residents is not protest — it's destruction," he said. "If you're out here chasing clout while our neighbors are scared and storefronts are boarded up — you're not helping, you're harming. You're playing right into Trump's hands and undermining the very movement you claim to support." The Marines are expected to join the roughly 1,700 California National Guard soldiers in Los Angeles to help protect federal agents and buildings. On Monday evening, a military convoy was seen traveling from Twentynine Palms toward Los Angeles. As midnight approached in downtown, officers used less-lethal munitions and tear gas as they clashed with a few dozen people who remained in downtown Los Angeles. Earlier in the day, a crowd of several hundred rallied in front of the federal building. Officers moved in the late afternoon to push the throng away from the buildings that had been the focus of Sunday's protests and steadily pushed them into Little Tokyo, with the crowd thinning with each push. A few dozen protesters remained scattered around Little Tokyo around 10 p.m. Officers were shooting flash-bangs and less-lethal munitions, while the protesters tried to erect a barrier with recycling bins. At least one car window was shattered, sending glass shards shooting into the crowd. Law enforcement sources told The Times that authorities are analyzing dozens of videos of people throwing bricks, scooters and other heavy objects toward officers during protests. They're working with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to identify several young men who recently smashed windows at LAPD headquarters and tossed incendiary devices inside. On Tuesday morning, Kazumi Tsuji, who owns a business in Little Tokyo, walked around her shop and the surrounding buildings with a handful of burning sage. She passed by a scrawl of fresh graffiti spray-painted overnight. "It's to keep away the evil spirits," she said of the sage. "I'm OK with protests, but setting fires, destroying businesses, all of that seems like people who just want to start chaos." While her shop was not damaged, around the corner, what appeared to be masked teenagers smashed a glass door with a skateboard near Shoe Palace. Property manager Frank Chavez showed a Times reporter footage of the individuals bashing a security camera around 10:30 p.m. Despite the damage, nothing was missing from the building, he said. "We just cleaned Little Tokyo about two weeks ago," he said. "The whole community came together and now here we are." Nearby, a small bean bag projectile lay on the floor near a shattered store window at Cafe Dulce. A security guard, who declined to give his name, said that the bean bag was fired at protesters by police and shattered the window. Foot traffic was sparse on South Broadway in downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday morning after days of demonstrations. A T-Mobile store that was burglarized during the demonstrations was boarded up with wood planks. Several other storefronts remained closed. The El Pollo Loco on Broadway and 3rd Street has been closed for the past two days and reopened Tuesday at 9 a.m., said Britney Abila, who has been working as a cashier at the location for the past year. 'It's been very scary for my cookers especially,' she said, adding that they were fearful about the raids and the resulting protests. In Orange County, where protesters gathered in front of federal buildings in downtown Santa Ana, police used tear gas, pepper balls and rubber bullets to clear crowds following reports of protesters throwing objects at police Monday night. 'What began as a lawful assembly around the Civic Center Plaza, has escalated into objects being thrown towards officers and other members of the public, posing a risk to public safety, property, and the well-being of our community,' the Santa Ana Police Department said in a statement on X. Immigration enforcement agents were spotted Monday at a courthouse and library in Whittier, Home Depots in Huntington Park and Santa Ana and businesses in Fountain Valley, according to officials and media reports. In an interview with Jesse Watters on Fox News on Monday, Tom Homan, Trump's top border policy advisor, said that Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids will continue in Los Angeles, in part because of so-called "sanctuary city" policies that restrict how local law enforcement can cooperate with federal immigration agents. "ICE ain't leaving," Homan said, adding that the agency had more than 100 teams working in L.A. on Monday. "We're gonna flood the zone. "And based on what L.A. is doing now, we're going to continue to flood the zone. We're gonna be there tonight, we're gonna be there tomorrow, we're going to be there every day in the next four years, arresting public safety threats and illegal aliens. We're not gonna apologize for doing it." During a news conference Tuesday morning at the U.S. Capitol, 16 House Democrats from California condemned the actions of the Trump administration in Los Angeles, saying the president is attempting to incite unrest, test the limits of executive power and distract from the failures of his own leadership. Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Los Angeles) led the news conference after arriving back in Washington from Los Angeles, where he was denied entry Saturday to the immigration detention facility inside the Roybal Federal Building. Gomez said he attempted to conduct a lawfully permitted oversight inspection after receiving reports that immigrants who were detained at workplace raids were being held in basement cells for up to 24 hours without food, water or sunlight. Gomez said that what's happening in California could happen in any state. 'The chaos is the bait and the switch is a constitutional crisis,' he said. 'President Trump created this political distraction to divide us and keep our focus away from his policies that are wreaking havoc on our economy and hurting working families. He's not keeping us safe; he's not restoring order. He's ratcheting up the tension, wishing for it to reach a boiling point — and we all knew that this day would come.' Staff writers Seema Mehta, Andrea Castilo and Laura J. Nelson contributed to this report. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
LA's top cop blames masked professional ‘anarchists' for chaos at ICE protests and vows slew of arrests
The chief of the Los Angeles Police Department is promising that the number of arrests made at the protests roiling Los Angeles will 'pale in comparison' to current numbers, as violent clashes continue to spin 'out of control.' Jim McDonnell blasted hooded 'anarchists' who, he said, intend to cause mayhem and try to 'get away with whatever they can,' at odds with the intentions of other peaceful protesters. It comes as violent clashes continue in the city, prompting President Donald Trump to mobilize 2,000 more troops, and 700 U.S. Marines to assist with law enforcement. The president's decision bypassed the authorization of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a move to federalize the state's National Guard troops, which has not happened since the civil rights protests of the mid-1960's . In a statement Monday, McDonnell said the LAPD had not received any 'formal' notice that Marines would be arriving in the city but Trump said a day later that he has ordered their deployment to LA. However, speaking at a news conference the sheriff came close to contradicting the comments of both Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass, who have said the decision to bring in national guardsmen and other reinforcements was 'inflammatory' and 'unnecessary.' 'Do we need them? Well, looking at tonight, this thing has gotten out of control,' McDonnell said of the national guard troops, adding that he needed to know more about the role of the troops before deciding if they were needed. 'When I look at the people who are out there doing the violence, that's not the people that we see here in the day who are out there legitimately exercising their First Amendment rights,' the police chief said. 'These are people who are all hooded up — they've got a hoodie on, they've got face masks on. They're people that do this all the time. They get away with whatever they can. Go out there from one civil unrest situation to another, using the same or similar tactics frequently. And they are connected.' McDonnell added that during the clashes over the weekend some protestors had thrown fireworks and pieces of cinderblock at officers. 'That can kill you,' he said. According to the Los Angeles Police Department, at least 50 people were arrested over the weekend. These included a man accused of ramming a motorbike into a line of officers and another who threw a Molotov cocktail. 'The number of arrests we made will pale in comparison to the number of arrests that will be made,' McDonnell said, adding that comprehensive examinations of body-worn cameras and other evidence would be undertaken to identify agitators. In his statement on Monday, McDonnell said that the arrival of federal military forces in LA, without 'clear coordination,' would present 'a significant logistical and operational challenge for those of us charged with safeguarding this city.' 'The Los Angeles Police Department, alongside our mutual aid partners, have decades of experience managing large-scale public demonstrations, and we remain confident in our ability to do so professionally and effectively,' he said. 'That said, our top priority is the safety of both the public and the officers on the ground. 'We are urging open and continuous lines of communication between all agencies to prevent confusion, avoid escalation, and ensure a coordinated, lawful, and orderly response during this critical time."
