Police make 'mass arrests' in LA during nighttime curfew

Los Angeles police began arresting people in the city's downtown late Tuesday, as groups gathered in violation of an overnight curfew after a fifth day of protests against Donald Trump's immigration crackdown.

Looting and vandalism in the second-biggest U.S. city have marred the largely peaceful protests over ramped-up arrests by immigration authorities.

The demonstrations, which began Friday, and isolated acts of violence prompted Trump to take the extraordinary step of sending in troops over the objection of the state governor.

The protests again turned ugly after dark Tuesday, but an hour into the overnight curfew, only a handful of protesters were left downtown, with police making several arrests as they warned stragglers to leave.

"Multiple groups continue to congregate on 1st St between Spring and Alameda" within the designated downtown curfew area, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) wrote on X late Tuesday.

"Those groups are being addressed, and mass arrests are being initiated."

Police arrested 25 people on suspicion of violating the curfew as of Tuesday evening, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing an LAPD spokesperson.

The number of arrests was likely to rise as law enforcement worked to remove the remaining protesters from the area, the newspaper said.

Earlier, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said she had issued the curfew "to stop the vandalism, to stop the looting."

One protester told AFP the arrest of migrants in a city with large immigrant and Latino populations was the root of the unrest.

"I think that, obviously, they're doing it for safety," she said of the curfew.

"But I don't think that part of the problem is the peaceful protests. It's whatever else is happening on the other side that is inciting violence."

At their largest, the protests have included a few thousand people taking to the streets, but smaller mobs have used the cover of darkness to set fires, daub graffiti, and smash windows.

Overnight, Monday, 23 businesses were looted, police said, adding that more than 500 people had been arrested over recent days.

Protests against immigration arrests by federal law enforcement have also sprung up in cities around the country, including New York, Atlanta, Chicago, San Francisco, and Austin.

AFP