LA crisis

 NY Times - Los Angeles Mayor Imposes Curfew in Downtown - The restriction was announced as the authorities tried to quell protests over deportations. Mayor Karen Bass said she expected the curfew to last several days.

The New Republic- Last week, people arriving at their mandatory ICE check-ins at a federal building were instead quickly locked up in a makeshift detention center, where as many as 200 people were being held in basement rooms. (“No food. No water. Locked in holding rooms for over 12 to 24 hours,” said Democratic Representative Jimmy Gomez, who represents parts of Los Angeles.) Dozens of people were arrested at a Home Depot on Friday by masked agents in tactical gear. Multiple federal agencies assisted ICE. One witness described unidentified agents descending on food vendors nearby: “They were just grabbing people. They don’t ask questions. They didn’t know if any of us were in any kind of immigration process.” Another witness said that he was in his car when ICE agents stopped traffic, “in all their military gear.” People in the traffic jam could see ICE putting people into vans. “We weren’t there to protest,” the man told KCAL-TV, but when people got out of their cars and began to record with their phones, they were tear-gassed. As ICE agents raided a business in the Fashion District, footage of some community members challenging them indicates, LAPD was apparently stationed outside. And as the news of the raids spread, and more people came out to witness and protest, LAPD was there to push back, to control, to demobilize. 

Guardian - Los Angeles police have announced they are making mass arrests in the city’s downtown area, as people gathered in defiance of an overnight curfew imposed after days of protests against Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown and military deployment.  Late on Tuesday night local time, the LAPD wrote on X that “multiple groups” continued to congregate within the designated downtown curfew area. “Those groups are being addressed and mass arrests are being initiated,” it said.

The mayor, Karen Bass, had announced a 10-hour curfew for the area of downtown, where demonstrations against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) have continued. The curfew was to run from 8pm to 6am, Bass said.The LAPD said it had carried out more than 300 arrests of protesters in the last two days.