Los Angeles Mayor imposes curfew for parts of downtown in wake of protests

  Ema Alice: Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass announced a curfew for parts of Los Angeles, after protests over immigration enforcement in California roiled the city’s downtown area. Bass said the curfew will run from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. local time, and cover roughly a square mile of downtown. She said she expects it to last several days. “The curfew is a necessary measure to protect lives and safeguard property following several consecutive days of growing unrest throughout the city,” Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said at a news briefing announcing the curfew. “Since Saturday, we’ve seen a concerning escalation and unlawful and dangerous behavior.” Meanwhile, President Trump derided the protesters in California, calling them animals and professional agitators, as he stood in front of uniformed Army soldiers, who at times cheered and applauded during the speech. The politically charged remarks on Tuesday came one day after U.S. Marines were deployed to the Los Angeles area, where days of protests over the president’s immigration-enforcement crackdown have engulfed parts of the city. About 4,000 National Guard troops have been mobilized as well. “What you’re witnessing in California is a full-blown assault on peace, on public order and on national sovereignty carried out by rioters bearing foreign flags with the aim of continuing a foreign invasion of our country,” Trump said at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. “We’re not going to let that happen.” The speech was billed as a salute to the U.S. Army as it celebrates its 250th anniversary, but the president’s remarks veered toward other subjects, including the protests. “We will not allow federal agents to be attacked and will not allow an American city to be invaded and conquered by a foreign enemy. That’s what they are,” Trump said. He added of the protesters: “These guys are professionals. These are not amateurs.” As he spoke, dozens of Army soldiers assembled behind him signaled their approval of the president’s remarks. The soldiers booed the media, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, transgender athletes and former President Joe Biden. The Defense Department has historically frowned upon such behavior by troops in its bid to keep the military apolitical. “All members of the Armed Forces should always avoid actions that could reasonably be perceived as implying DoD sponsorship, approval, or endorsement of partisan political activity,” the Pentagon advises. A Fort Bragg spokeswoman said the troops standing behind the president were told not to be demonstrative or show any political leanings during the president’s speech. The decision to deploy active-duty troops was the first time in more than three decades that Marines have been sent into a U.S. city to address civil unrest. Local elected officials have said that Trump’s response has at times caused the protests to intensify. California officials on Tuesday urged a federal judge in San Francisco to quickly intervene and block the National Guard or Marines from being used for law enforcement. “Federal antagonization, through the presence of soldiers in the streets, has already caused real and irreparable damage to the City of Los Angeles, the people who live there, and the State of California. They must be stopped, immediately,” the state said in a court filing. A hearing has been set for Thursday. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in a hearing before the House Appropriations Committee, also defended the deployment on Tuesday, describing protesters as “rioters, looters and thugs” who endangered federal agents. The mission will cost the Pentagon at least $134 million for additional troop pay, food, transportation and other logistics, according to Bryn MacDonnell, the Pentagon’s acting comptroller, who testified alongside Hegseth. The president, wearing a maroon hat in a nod to the Airborne forces, said in Tuesday’s speech he decided to deploy thousands of National Guard troops and Marines to protect law enforcement from what he described as “attacks of a vicious and violent mob, and some of the radical left.” The protesters, he said, “are animals.” “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 here at home like is happening in California,” Trump said. “As commander in chief I will not let that happen.” Earlier on Tuesday, the president warned that any protesters who show up at the military parade to celebrate the Army’s anniversary in Washington, D.C., on Saturday “will be met with very heavy force” as well. Newsom, a Democrat, has criticized the use of the Marines, writing on X on Monday that Hegseth “is illegally deploying them onto American streets so Trump can have a talking point at his parade this weekend.” The protests, which began in Los Angeles on Friday, continued over the weekend and into the week, and have spread to other cities as well. The Los Angeles Police Department said more than 100 people were arrested during protests that lasted into the early hours of Tuesday. Nearly all of those arrested were accused of failure to disperse. California National Guardsmen remained stationed in downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday afternoon. They stood with riot shields in a ring outside the Metropolitan Detention Center, where union leader David Huerta had been held until Monday. Los Angeles police declared an unlawful assembly and issued a dispersal order for a small area next to the detention center, saying projectiles had been thrown at officers. At a federal building nearby, maintenance workers cleaned graffiti such as “Kill all ICE agents” and “When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty.” Shortly after 2 p.m. local time, police surrounded a group of protesters outside the detention center. Demonstrators were lined up against the wall while they were being arrested. Juan Pantoja, 47, said his brother was caught up in the arrests while riding his scooter past the protest. “It’s good they’re protesting, but all this vandalism is out of hand,” Pantoja said. “Cops shooting people with rubber bullets is out of hand, too.” A group of protesters then wove through Little Tokyo, flying Mexican flags and flags that are half Mexican and half American. Though U.S. officials have said the role of the National Guard and Marines in Los Angeles will be limited, the broad nature of the order has spurred concerns that it could be laying the foundation for future military actions against protesters elsewhere in the U.S. “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,” Bass said at a news conference on Tuesday. [Bangla Press is a global platform for free thought. It provides impartial news, analysis, and commentary for independent-minded individuals. Our goal is to bring about positive change, which is more important today than ever before.] BP/SM