WASHINGTON, June 11 — A curfew will be enforced in some parts of Los Angeles amid the ongoing protests, Mayor Karen Bass said, reported Sputnik/RIA Novosti.
“I wanted to let the city know that I have declared a local emergency and issued a curfew for downtown Los Angeles to stop the vandalism, to stop the looting,” Bass said at a news conference on Tuesday night, as quoted by The Los Angeles Times newspaper.
The curfew will extend from 8 pm to 6 am, starting Tuesday evening. It will not apply to individuals living within the designated area.
“I issued a curfew starting tonight at 8pm for Downtown Los Angeles to stop bad actors who are taking advantage of the President’s chaotic escalation. If you do not live or work in Downtown L.A., avoid the area. Law enforcement will arrest individuals who break the curfew, and you will be prosecuted,” Bass said in a post on X.
The curfew will be put into effect for one square mile of downtown Los Angeles, from the 5 Freeway to the 110 Freeway and from the 10 Freeway to where the 110 Freeway and the 5 Freeway merge, Bass said.
The mayor said she expected the curfew to last for several days. The decision on when to end the curfew is yet to be made.
A raid by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to identify illegal immigrants in downtown Los Angeles on June 7 escalated into clashes with protesters. That same day, California Governor Gavin Newsom threatened that the state could refuse to pay federal taxes in response to the Trump administration’s possible large-scale cuts in federal funding. The next day, the White House announced the deployment of 2,000 National Guards to the city.
In response to the troop deployment, Newsom officially requested the reversal of the decision, accusing the White House of provoking the riots and asserting that state and city authorities did not have any problems until the president intervened.
According to Bass, over 100 people were arrested during the ongoing protests overnight from Monday to Tuesday.
A RIA Novosti correspondent reported on Tuesday that protesters were marching peacefully in downtown Los Angeles and police did not intervene.
