Latest news with #anti-Ice
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
British photojournalist hit by non-lethal rounds during Los Angeles protests
Nick Stern, a British news photographer based in Los Angeles, is set to undergo emergency surgery for a wound sustained during the standoff between police and anti-Ice protesters in Los Angeles on Saturday. Stern told the Guardian he had been covering the protest near a branch of Home Depot in Paramount, where immigrants workers are typically hired for day work, when he felt a sharp pain in his leg. 'I'm walking around taking photos and was untouched until around 9pm. I was walking across the road when I felt a mighty pain in my leg. I put my hand down and felt a lump kind of sticking out the back of my leg,' he said. Stern believes he was probably hit by a non-lethal round that deputies were using along with flash-bang stun grenades for crowd control. 'People came over to help and got me on the curb. A medic was called, who cut off my clothes. In my leg was what felt like a five-centimeter hole with muscle hanging out of it and blood all down my leg. The medic put a tourniquet on it, and a journalist I was with took me to ER.' 'It hurt so much that I thought they might be firing live rounds,' he said. 'I've been with non-lethal rounds before. They hurt like hell but generally don't break the skin. But the blood made me think it was a live round.' Stern is currently at the trauma center at Long Beach Memorial awaiting surgery. A doctor who looked at his X-rays said the dimensions of his wound indicated he had been struck by a non-lethal round. The LA county sheriff's department deployed more than 100 deputies in response to the protest. Sheriff Robert Luna estimated that the crowd grew to about 350 to 400 people and said it had become violent, with some of the protesters throwing objects at federal agents and law enforcement officers. During the protest police deployed teargas and other munitions. 'Anybody has the right to peacefully assemble, and exercise their first amendment rights, but when that crosses the line to where you are attacking other people, utilizing violence, or any destruction of property, that's where we as a department has to step in, warn people, and people may get arrested,' said Luna. 'Deputies will be defending themselves. I don't think anybody expects our deputy sheriffs to take rocks and bottles without defending themselves.' Stern said protesters appeared to be 'very angry' and chanting slogans including 'Ice out of LA!' 'There's a lot of large Hispanic population in Paramount,' Stern said. 'They gave the impression from what they were chanting that it was their town and they didn't want Ice there.'
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
National guard deploys in downtown LA amid eerie calm after two days of unrest
On a foggy, unseasonably cold morning in Los Angeles, the national guardsmen suddenly pressed into service by Donald Trump to quell what he called a 'rebellion' against his government were nothing if not ready for their close-up. Outside a federal complex in downtown Los Angeles that includes a courthouse, a veterans' medical centre, and a jail, two dozen guardsmen in camouflage uniforms were arrayed in front of their military vehicles with semi-automatic weapons slung over their shoulders for the benefit of television and news photographers clustered on the sidewalk. They stood with the visors of their helmets up so the reporters could see their faces. Most wore shades, despite the gloomy weather, giving them the eerie appearance of extras from a Hollywood action movie more than shock troops for the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. After two days of unrest in response to heavy-handed raids by Trump's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) in downtown Los Angeles and in the heavily Latino suburb of Paramount, the day started off in an atmosphere of uneasy, almost surreal calm. Related: Trump uses LA protests to redirect dissent from policy failures to the 'enemy within' The skyscrapers and government offices of downtown Los Angeles were ringed by vehicles from multiple law enforcement agencies – Los Angeles police and parking enforcement, county sheriffs, highway patrol and private security guards. Most, though, were deployed for an entirely different event – a festival and two-mile walk organized by the non-profit group the March of Dimes to raise money for maternal and infant health. The streets around Grand Park, across from City Hall, were closed to traffic, but the police seemed less interested in sniffing out anti-Ice protesters than they were in posing for pictures next to a bubble machine with March of Dimes volunteers dressed as Darth Vader and other Star Wars characters. 'We had the LAPD's community engagement Hummer come by earlier and they told us we had nothing to worry about,' event organizer Tanya Adolph said. 'They said they'd pull us if there was any risk to our safety. Our numbers are down markedly, I won't hide that, but we've still managed to raise $300,000.' Local activists have called for demonstrations against the immigration crackdown; one demonstration set for Boyle Heights east of downtown and the other outside City Hall. Many activists, though, were worried about continuing Ice raids, particularly in working-class, predominantly Latino parts of the LA area such as Paramount – and worried, too, that any national guard presence heightened the risk of violence. Governor Gavin Newsom's office reported on Sunday that about 300 of the promised 2,000 national guardsmen had deployed in the LA area. In addition to the small presence downtown, a group of them was reported to have driven through Paramount, scene of clashes between protesters and local police outside a Home Depot on Saturday. Trump congratulated the national guardsmen on a 'great job' after what he called 'two days of violence, clashes and unrest' but, as several California political leaders pointed out, the national guard had not yet deployed when city police and sheriff's deputies used tear gas and flash-bang grenades to clear the streets. Both Ice and local activists estimated that about 45 people were arrested on Friday and Saturday, and several were reported to have been injured in confrontations with the police. Nick Stern, a news photographer, said he was shot in the leg by a less-lethal police round and was in hospital awaiting surgery. David Huerta, a prominent union leader with the Service Employees International Union, was also treated in hospital before being transferred to the Metropolitan detention center, the federal lockup in downtown LA. One of many slogans spray-painted on the walls of the federal complex, within eyeshot of the national guard and the news crews, read: 'Free Huerta.' Related: British photojournalist hit by non lethal rounds during Los Angeles protests Others, daubed liberally on the walls of the complex around an entire city block, expressed rage against Ice and the Los Angeles police in equal measure. 'Fuck ICE. Kill all cops!' one graffiti message said. 'LAPD can suck it,' read another. Elsewhere in downtown Los Angeles, little seemed out of the ordinary. Homeless people slept undisturbed on a small patch of lawn on the south side of City Hall. Traffic moved unhindered past the county criminal court building and the main entrance to City Hall on Spring Street. Alejandro Ames, a Mexican American protester, who had traveled up from San Diego sat at a folding table on the west side of City Hall with a hand-scrawled sign that read: 'Republic against ICE and the police'. Ames said he was a Republican and hoped this would give extra credence to his plea for restraint by the federal authorities. 'I don't want 'em to go crazy,' he said. 'I want 'em to go home.'
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘We're not afraid of you': LA protesters, enraged by Trump, flood the streets
Thousands of Angelenos enraged by Donald Trump's decision to commandeer their state national guard swamped the downtown streets on Sunday, bringing a major freeway to a standstill. But the national guard, hemmed in by the protesters and by dozens of Los Angeles police cruisers, played almost no role in any of it. A vocal, boisterous but largely peaceful sea of protesters engulfed the north-eastern corner of downtown Los Angeles around city hall and the federal courthouse. They hurled insults at Trump and at the immigration enforcement teams who had conducted mass arrests of undocumented migrants in the area on Friday. They converged on the Metropolitan detention center, the federal lockup where many protesters arrested over the previous 48 hours were being held, and an adjacent loading dock that about 50 national guardsmen, in battle gear with riot shields and semi-automatic weapons, were using as their staging ground. The protesters did not hesitate to walk right up to the heavily armed men. 'We're not afraid of you!' one organiser with a bullhorn, John Parker, yelled. One of the many banners on display read: 'National Guard LOL.' Every building and wall in the immediate vicinity was covered in profane graffiti, the most common being 'Fuck ICE', 'LAPD can suck it' and 'Kill all cops.' Shortly after noon, the guardsmen, flanked by armed officers with Department of Homeland Security insignia, fired teargas into the growing crowd so a caravan of DHS and Border Patrol vehicles could push its way through. People backed off briefly and donned masks, only to come back in larger numbers within a few minutes. That was the extent of the national guard's involvement. Within a couple of hours, the crowd had swollen to several thousand, as marchers from earlier protests – one in Boyle Heights, east of downtown, and the other at city hall – moved on the federal complex from different directions, spilling so broadly into the surrounding streets that it brought traffic to a standstill. Several drivers caught in the snarl-up honked enthusiastically to show their support. At first, the Los Angeles police department issued orders to disperse and threatened to arrest anyone who did not comply. Dozens of patrol cars tore through downtown, forming a barricade just north of the protest and slowly pushing the crowd in the opposite direction. LAPD riot officers sprinted down the sidewalks and fired several rounds of flash-bangs, which alarmed the crowd but did not appear to harm anyone. They also fired rubber bullets, mostly in the air. Related: Australian reporter shot with rubber bullet while covering anti-Ice protests in Los Angeles Soon, the LAPD patrol cars had – whether by design or by accident – hemmed the national guardsmen into their staging area, making it impossible for them to make their own attempt at crowd control even if they had wanted to. The crowd, meanwhile, had split into two, with one group clustered so thickly along Alameda and Temple Streets that the police soon gave up on attempting to move them further. The other group sprinted down freeway off-ramps leading to the 101 freeway, bringing traffic on the major artery to a standstill. Police fired round after round of flash-bangs in an attempt to push the protesters back up the off-ramps. Thick clusters of onlookers gathered on the bridges above the action, shouting 'shame, shame!' at the police as well as profanity-laced slogans – in English and Spanish – directed at Trump and his immigration enforcement efforts. Unlike the national guardsmen, the LAPD appeared reluctant to resort to teargas. Unlike the county sheriff's department, who shot a news photographer in the leg on Saturday with a so-called 'less lethal' round, the city police also shied away from more drastic crowd control measures. California leaders including the governor Gavin Newsom and the Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass have accused Trump of compounding the problems caused by his immigration raids by taking the unorthodox step of requisitioning the state national guard. By mid-afternoon Newsom was urging the president to rescind the order. 'We didn't have a problem until Trump got involved,' Newsom said. 'This is a serious breach of state sovereignty – inflaming tensions while pulling resources from where they're actually needed.' Some of those frustrations showed on the street, as LAPD officers – even as they appeared determined not to inflame the crowds further – had to endure loud insults and a flurry of empty plastic water bottles thrown whenever they made an attempt to take control of the crowd. In isolated incidents, LAPD riot officers manhandled or arrested protesters who threw fists at them or beat on police cars. At one point, a black police cruiser moved through the crowd at high speed and was reported to have injured a bicyclist knocked to the ground. There were isolated episodes of vandalism – graffiti sprayed on buildings and vehicles, and a protester who damaged the side mirror of a parked car he passed. A line of spray-painted Waymo driverless cars, one with a smashed windshield, were later set on fire. But the vast majority of protesters seemed determined to vent their anger through slogans and placards only. 'People experiencing oppression are expressing their first amendment rights,' said a protest organiser who wanted to be identified only as Angelica R for fear of government reprisals 'This is not the making of a dictatorship,' she said of Trump's immigration crackdowns. 'This is the description of a dictatorship.' It was not clear what plan, if any, the national guard had going into Sunday. Newsom said about 300 guardsmen had deployed to the LA area – far short of the 2,000 requisitioned by the president. As the day began, two dozen of them appeared to news crews outside the federal complex as though intent only on posing for photographs. They had the visors of their helmets up, and many wore shades, even though the day started out cloudy. Mayor Bass, speaking to the Los Angeles Times, accused them of 'posturing'. Maxine Waters, the veteran congresswoman from south LA, taunted them by asking: 'Who are you going to shoot?' It was only as the crowds grew thicker that they donned riot shields and turned to face the street, not the television cameras. The size of the protests appeared to take everyone by surprise. LAPD squad cars tore towards city hall at one point, only to spin in circles and head back to the federal complex moments later. One protest organiser outside the Metropolitan detention center yelled at one point: 'This is only a distraction! We need to go to city hall!' But as soon as people started heeding her call, they ran into a sea of several thousand protesters moving in the opposite direction.
