Tensions escalated when protesters started clashing with officers outside the federal detention center following the „ICE Out“ protest in downtown Los Angeles on Friday.
Demonstrators were seen throwing trash and debris at federal officers at the loading dock of the building.
Los Angeles police officers were called in to push the angry crowd back and restore order in the area.
The Los Angeles Police Department said late Tuesday it had begun making “mass arrests” after protest groups continued to gather in areas under curfew.
Newschopper4 was over the scene on Hill Street as the crowd confronted federal agents from the FBI and HSI.
It‘s unclear what the federal agents were doing in Chinatown.
HSI vehicles and unmarked cars were seen parked at the location. The crowd was preventing some of the vehicles from entering the parking lot.
Anti-immigration crackdown protests outside a federal detention centre turned violent in Los Angeles as protesters clashed with police. The clashes followed 44 arrests made by federal immigration authorities. The police used pepper spray and flash bangs to disperse the demonstrators.
The FBI provided the following statements on the law enforcement activity:
„As we have been asked to do, we are sending Agents to participate in these immigration enforcement efforts. That includes assisting in cities where major operations are already underway and where we have special agents embedded on operational teams with DHS. Our help may vary depending on what DHS needs, such as SWAT operators, who can support high risk arrest operations, and other resources such as intelligence analysts and technical support working from command posts.“
We get an update from the University of California, Los Angeles, where police in riot gear began dismantling a pro-Palestinian encampment early Thursday, using flashbang grenades, rubber bullets and tear gas, and arresting dozens of students. The raid came just over a day after pro-Israel counterprotesters armed with sticks, metal rods and fireworks attacked students at the encampment. The Real News Network reporter Mel Buer was on the scene during the attack. She describes seeing counterprotesters provoke students, yelling slurs and bludgeoning them with parts of the encampment’s barricade, and says the attack lasted several hours without police or security intervention. ”UCLA is complicit in violence inflicted upon protesters,” wrote the editorial board of UCLA’s campus newspaper, the Daily Bruin, the next day. Four of the paper’s student journalists were targeted and assaulted by counterprotesters while covering the protests.
Chancellor Gene Block released a statement Thursday afternoon claiming that the Palestine solidarity encampment had been shut down because it led to unsafe university conditions and interfered with UCLA’s educational mission.
Block confirmed that more than 200 people were arrested, with more than 300 leaving voluntarily Thursday morning following a police sweep of the encampment. The dispersal followed an outbreak of violence on Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning, during which counter-protesters attacked the encampment using fireworks, tear gas and by throwing projectiles.
Throughout the night and into the morning, students outside the encampment linked arms against the police and a small group of counter protesters, remaining peaceful. Around 1:20 a.m. police dressed in riot gear broke through the west barricade unexpectedly after a loud boom sounded from a flash-bang grenade. The protestors quickly formed a human chain, slowly pushing forward, and shouting “peaceful protest,” as well as phrases such as “shame on you.”
The students pushed the officers back, regaining control of the perimeter in approximately 30 minutes and rebuilding their barricades.
Police then began shooting fireworks into the air above protestors’ heads…
Gov. Gavin Newsom Wednesday criticized law enforcement‘s slow response to violent brawls that broke out between pro-Palestinian protesters and counter demonstrators on the UCLA campus Tuesday night.
“The limited and delayed campus law enforcement response at UCLA last night was unacceptable – and it demands answers,” Newsom said in a statement. “As soon as it became clear that the state assistance was needed to support a local response, our office immediately deployed CHP personnel to campus.”
This came after a source in the encampment told the Daily Bruin that at least five protestors have been injured.
But for hours, UCLA administration stood by and watched as the violence escalated. LAPD did not arrive on the scene until slightly after 1 a.m. – once Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass sent them in for assistance at Block’s request.
Daily Bruin reporters on the scene were slapped and indirectly sprayed with irritants. Despite also being students, they were offered no protection.
The world is watching.
They also accused the LAPD of issuing confusing directives and attempting to force media members into a designated observation area that would not have allowed them to see the protest or the arrests that followed.
While some detained reporters and observers were released without being arrested, others — including reporters for less-established media brands — were held for hours and then formally charged, raising additional questions about police picking and choosing which outlets to acknowledge as legitimate.
Step one by removing police officers who may carry the same “gang member mentality”
(05.06.2020)
OH YEAH
Incase ya‘ll thought this pic could be taken outta context, here‘s the reverse angle.
Protests over the death of Floyd, who was killed while in Minneapolis police custody on May 25, have led to unrest that Los Angeles has not seen since the 1992 riots sparked by the acquittal of four LAPD officers in the beating Rodney King. While businesses were looted and buildings were damaged and burned in downtown, Van Nuys and the Fairfax District, activists said protests have been largely peaceful and police have focused most of their attention on arresting demonstrators instead of looters.