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Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has declared an overnight curfew in downtown Los Angeles to combat vandalism and looting amid immigration raids.
Members of the California National Guard stand guard, as a demonstration against federal immigration sweeps takes place in Los Angeles (Photo: Reuters)
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass on Tuesday declared an overnight curfew in the downtown area of the United States’ second-largest city, after several nights of unrest and vandalism.
“I have declared a local emergency and issued a curfew for downtown Los Angeles to stop the vandalism, to stop the looting,” she told reporters.
According to the Mayor, the curfew will remain in place from 8 pm Tuesday until 6 am Wednesday (LA local time).
She also said the curfew will be in place in a 1 square mile (2.59 square kilometre) section of downtown that includes the area where protests have occurred since Friday.
“We reached a tipping point” after 23 businesses were looted, Bass said.
On Monday, President Donald Trump ordered the deployment to LA of roughly 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines, after protests of the President’s stepped-up enforcement of immigration laws turned violent.
The Guard has the authority to temporarily detain people who attack officers, but any arrests ultimately would be made by law enforcement.
While the police arrested 197 people in a fifth day of street protests, California Governor Gavin Newsom 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.
State and local officials also called Trump’s response an extreme overreaction to mostly peaceful demonstrations.
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California’s two senators, Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla, said in a joint statement that active-duty military personnel should only be mobilised domestically “during the most extreme circumstances, and these are not them.”
Trump, who has made the immigration crackdown his signature issue, used a speech honoring soldiers on Tuesday to defend his decision, telling soldiers at the Army base in Fort Bragg, North Carolina: “Generations of Army heroes did not shed their blood on distant shores only to watch our country be destroyed by invasion and third-world lawlessness.”
Protests took place in other cities, including Chicago, where police led at least two demonstrators away in handcuffs from a combative march through downtown. Other protesters shouted “Shame! Shame!” as officers took away detained demonstrators.
Hundreds of people turned out for the evening protest, carrying signs with messages such as: “The people say ICE out” and “Immigrants made America”, Reuters reported.
ALSO READ | ‘Uncontrolled Migration Leads To Chaos, Dysfunction’: Trump Says He Will Liberate Los Angeles
Vani Mehrotra is the Deputy News Editor at News18.com. She has nearly 10 years of experience in both national and international news and has previously worked on multiple desks.
Vani Mehrotra is the Deputy News Editor at News18.com. She has nearly 10 years of experience in both national and international news and has previously worked on multiple desks.
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