Officials have shut down protests in downtown Los Angeles due to those the Los Angeles Police Department called “violent agitators.”
On social media, the LAPD said federal officials “declared an Unlawful Assembly” and used pepper balls and tear gas to disperse protesters who gathered for the “ICE Out” nationwide day of protest.
“Federal Authorities are taking debris, bottles and other objects,” police added.
Aerial footage from Sky5 showed police have set up skirmish lines to push back the protesters.
As of about 6:15 p.m., police “continue to gain compliance after the dispersal order was issued, however, protestors continue to remain and throw bottles and rocks at the officers,” they said.
A few minutes later, police clarified that “protestors are actively fighting with Officers after multiple dispersal orders were issued,” and less-than-lethal weaponry is being used “due to the violence against officers.”
By about 6:40 p.m., police said only a “a small group of agitators” had not yet dispersed.
“You have 5 minutes to disperse,” police added.
That warning was apparently not heeded, as police noted about 10 minutes later that “arrests have been made.”
In a press conference at the Getty House, the Hancock Park home of the Los Angeles mayor, Mayor Karen Bass said she knows of five arrests, all for failure to disperse.
“I think the protests are extremely important, but it is equally important for these protests to be peaceful, for vandalism not to take place,” she said. “That just hurts the city. That does not impact the [Trump] administration in any type of way that’s going to bring about change.”
