A loud, loud, largely peaceful sea of protesters was caught up around city hall and federal courthouse on the northeast corner of downtown Los Angeles. They cast shaming on Trump and the immigration enforcement team for making mass arrests of undocumented immigrants in the area on Friday, the Guardian reported.
They gathered at the Metropolitan Detention Center, a federal lockup where many protesters have been arrested in the past 48 hours, and an adjacent loading dock where around 50 national security guards use as staging sites with combat equipment equipped with riot shields and semi-automatic weapons.
The protesters were not averse to the heavily armed men. “We’re not afraid of you!” exclaimed John Parker, an organizer with a bullhorn. One of the many banners on display is the National Guard LOL. All the buildings and walls nearby were covered in profanity graffiti. The most common are “fuck ice”, “LAPD can smoke it”, “kill all the cops”.
Just after noon, the guards were caught between armed police officers with the Department of Homeland Security insignia and fired tear gas at the growing crowd so that the DHS and the border patrol car caravan could move on. People temporarily retreated and wore masks, but within a few minutes they returned to more.
That was the level of the National Guard’s involvement.
Within hours, the crowd had swollen to thousands, one in Boyle Heights east of downtown, and the other in Boyle Heights protest marching from a different direction to the federal complex, which spills widespread into the surrounding streets, shutting down traffic. Several drivers roared enthusiastically to show their support.
Initially, Los Angeles police issued an order to disband and threatened to arrest anyone who failed to comply. Dozens of police cars ripped downtown, barricaded just north of the protest, slowly pushing the crowd up in the opposite direction. LAPD Riot officials ran down the sidewalk and fired several flash bangs. They also fired rubber bullets mostly into the air.
Soon, the LAPD police cars, whether by design or by chance, were able to keep national security guards still in the staging area, so they could no longer attempt to control the crowd, even if they were.
Meanwhile, the crowd was split into two, with one group gathering so thickly along Alameda and Temple Street that police quickly gave up trying to move them even further.
Other groups sprinted off-ramps on the highway leading to 101 highways, shutting down major arterial traffic. Police fired protesters after a round of flash bangs to try and resume off-ramps.
A thick cluster of onlookers gathers on the bridge above the action, with “Shaming, shame!” police and blasphemous slogans (English and Spanish) directed at Trump and his immigration enforcement efforts.
Unlike national security guards, LAPD appears to have been reluctant to rely on tear gas. Unlike the County Sheriff’s Department, which shot a news cameraman on his leg in the so-called “non-fatal” round on Saturday, city police have stepped away from more dramatic crowd control measures.
California leaders, including Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, have accused Trump of exacerbating the problems caused by his immigration attacks by taking the unorthodox steps of demanding a state guard. By mid-afternoon, Newsom had urged the president to withdraw the order.
“It wasn’t a problem until Trump got involved,” Newsom said. “This is a serious violation of national sovereignty. It burns tension while pulling resources from where it is actually needed.”
Even though LAPD officials seemed determined not to inflam the crowd further, some of their complaints on the streets had to withstand the gust of empty plastic water bottles thrown each time they tried to control the crowd.
In isolated cases, LAPD riot officers dealt with and arrested protesters who threw fists and beat police cars. At one point, it was reported that a black police cruiser traveled through the crowd at high speed, causing the bike to be injured when it was knocked to the ground.
There was an isolated episode of vandalism. Doodles were sprayed on buildings and vehicles, and protesters who damaged the side mirrors of parked cars passed by. The line of the spray-painted Waymo driverless car had broken windshields and was later burning.
However, the majority of the protesters seemed determined to vent their anger through only slogans and placards.
“People experiencing oppression are expressing their First Amendment rights,” said the protest organizers who wanted to be identified solely as Angelica R, for fear of government retaliation.
“This is not the formation of a dictatorship,” she said of Trump’s crackdown on immigration. “This is an explanation of the dictatorship.”
It was not clear what plans the National Guard had made on Sunday. According to Newsom, about 300 security guards were deployed in the LA area. As the day began, those 20 people appeared on news crews outside the federal estate, as if they were intended to pose only for photographs.
They had helmet visors and many were wearing shades despite the cloudy day. Mayor Bass spoke to the Los Angeles Times and accused him of being “stance.” “Who are you going to shoot?” said Maxine Waters, a veteran Southern LA MP.
As the crowd became thicker, they wore riot shields and turned towards the street instead of the TV camera.
The scale of the protest seemed to surprise everyone. The LAPD squad car was torn apart towards City Hall at one point, but then turned into a circle and later returned to a complicated federal moment. One protest organizer outside the Metropolitan Detention Center cried out at one point, “This is just a distraction! You need to go to city hall!”
But as soon as people began to listen to her call they ran into a sea of thousands of protesters moving in the opposite direction.
MNA