Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass issued a 10-hour curfew for downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday in an attempt to stop vandalism and looting as protests over US President Donald Trump’s immigration raids continue in the city.
Bass says the curfew will run from 8 pm on Tuesday to 6 am on Wednesday local time, as she declared a local emergency. “We reached a tipping point” after 23 businesses were looted, Bass said.
The curfew will be in place in an area covering a just over 2.5 square kilometre section of downtown, including the area where protests have been raging since Friday. The city of Los Angeles encompasses roughly 2,295 square kilometres.
The curfew doesn’t apply to residents who live in the designated area, those who are homeless, credentialed media or public safety and emergency officials, according to Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell.
McDonnell said “unlawful and dangerous behaviour” has been escalating since Saturday, prompting the need to impose the curfew.
“The curfew is a necessary measure to protect lives and safeguard property following several consecutive days of growing unrest throughout the city,” said McDonnell.
Newsom accuses Trump of subverting democracy
California Governor Gavin Newsom says US President Donald Trump is “pulling a military dragnet” across Los Angeles.
The Democratic governor’s remarks come after Trump ordered the deployment of nearly 5,000 troops, including National Guard and Marines, to the nation’s second-largest city.
They were deployed to protect federal buildings but are now also protecting immigration agents as they carry out arrests.
The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said in a statement that the troops were providing security at federal facilities and protecting federal officers “who are out on daily enforcement operations.”
Newsom says Trump’s immigration crackdown has gone far beyond simply arresting criminals and that “dishwashers, gardeners, day labourers and seamstresses” are among those being detained.
He said Trump’s decision to deploy the California National Guard without his support should serve as a warning to other states as to the kind of disregard to federal laws the incumbent administration is willing to engage in.
“California may be first — but it clearly won’t end here,” warned Newsom.
Earlier on Tuesday, Newsom had asked a federal court to block the Trump administration from using the National Guard and Marines to assist in ICE raids across Los Angeles.
The California Governor argued that this would only cause tensions to soar further and trigger further civil unrest.
Newsom filed the emergency request after Trump authorised the deployment of 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines early on Tuesday.
The Trump administration said Newsom was seeking an unprecedented and dangerous order that would interfere with its ability to carry out enforcement operations. A judge set a hearing for Thursday.
Trump open to invoke Insurrection Act
Trump left open the possibility of utilising the Insurrection Act, which authorises the president to deploy military forces inside the US to suppress rebellion and domestic violence or to enforce the law in certain situations.
It’s one of the most extreme emergency powers available to a US president.
“If there’s an insurrection, I would certainly invoke it. We’ll see,” Trump told reporters at the Oval Office.
He later called protesters “animals” and “a foreign enemy” in a speech at the Fort Bragg army installation in North Carolina, where he marked the 250th anniversary of the US Army.
Trump has described the unfolding chaos in Los Angeles in dire terms that Bass and Newsom say are nowhere close to the truth. The US president has also pledged to “liberate” the city.
“We will liberate Los Angeles and make it free, clean and safe again,” Trump said.
Trump has been under fire after the Pentagon revealed that his National Guard and Marine deployment cost $134 million (€117.4 million).
Critics have slammed him for reckless government spending, after his administration had vowed to eliminate wasteful expenditure with the creation of agencies such as the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
But, the 47th US president argues that the deployment was absolutely necessary, saying that Los Angeles would have been “completely obliterated” had he not ordered the deployment.
Democratic members of California’s congressional delegation accused Trump of creating a “manufactured crisis” to advance his personal agenda.