Smoke and Teargas Choke LA's Streets as Anti-ICE Protests Erupt
Mass protests continue in response to ICE raids and deployment of National Guard.
In the last few weeks, Department of Homeland Security personnel abducted 118 people across Los Angeles, and now people were registering their anger. I could smell the teargas as I approached the crowds on Sunday in Downtown. It was hard to breathe, and although the N95 I had on provided some protection it wasn’t enough to keep my lungs from feeling like I had just smoked a pack of cigarettes.
The march, which started at City Hall, was headed towards the federal detention facility. Thousands of people filled the streets chanting “let them go!” and “shame!” After two days of unrest, people were prepared for a showdown with law enforcement, whose ranks now included the National Guard. Gas masks, goggles, umbrellas, and Home Depot buckets to suppress the teargas canisters were in abundance.
As the march approached the detention facility, an LAPD riot line formed to block people from going any further. Guardsmen stood at the entrance of the building protesters had attempted to storm the previous day. A drone and helicopters hovered over providing aerial support. As people approached, LAPD indiscriminately shot rubber bullets the size of golf balls into the crowd at the intersection of Alameda Street and Temple Boulevard. I witnessed four people throughout the day injured by these projectile objects. The use of crowd control ammunition created panicked conditions, in which people running away could have easily crushed each other. While some yelled for people not to run, when you’ve got a rabid police force pointing guns at you it can be difficult to use caution. An unmarked SUV bulldozed through the crowd, nearly running protesters over and creating more fear and panic.
Once things began to settle there seemed to be uncertainty about what to do. Attempt to push through the police and get beaten? Hold the intersection for as long as possible, or march in the opposite direction from the detention site? Debates were hashed out real time with the majority of the people staying put. They lasted until the LAPD declared an unlawful assembly.
I eventually left the area to meet up with friends. All the while, police could be heard heckling and threatening protesters in choppers flying above us. There were surreal scenes in Little Tokyo, a community of shops and bars adjacent to the detention center. On the patio, patrons drank and ate from a buffet as a TV screen showing a Dodgers game changed to a split screen of Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’s press conference and a nearby driverless car set on fire.
Now in addition to the teargas you could smell smoke. Once it was time to go home, it was clear just how widespread these demonstrations were.
On Temple and Los Angeles St, black smoke was visible behind the LAPD riot line. Crowds of people were both on the north and south side, begging the question: who’s really kettled here? The police were extremely outnumbered but not outgunned, which allowed them to maintain a level of fear and therefore control of the situation. On the south side of the police line, a group of individuals grabbed temporary iron fencing being used to protect a building and dragged it to create a barrier between the protesters and the police. The agitated police responded by shooting more golf-ball sized rubber munitions into the crowd, as well as some sort of white smoke. But this group was not easily deterred. People danced in the streets as someone blasted La Chona by Los Tucanes De Tijuana.
On the rooftop of a city building, two LAPD officers held weapons loaded with what appeared to be live ammo. At one point while taking a photo, one of the officers directly pointed his gun at me. I left the area in another attempt to go home, this time heading up Spring Street, where I found more people and more police. As I approached Spring and Temple there were cops on horses rushing in, swinging wooden batons. There was so much chaos at the moment I didn’t realize that I had caught on video the police beating someone. The cops on horses stayed back as the riot police loaded ammunition.
While the cops were prepping, protesters created a pink barricade using tables and chairs from a public park across from City Hall. The riot police then started shooting some sort of chemical agent directly at the demonstrators, which included a small child. As the police began to rush forwarded I headed in the direction of my friend's car.
A block north from where the cops on horses were rushing the crowd, more masses assembled on the overpass and the streets above the 101 highway. LAPD were huddled under a freeway underpass as people threw watermelon-sized boulders at them and their cars. This level of engagement was one I’ve never witnessed in my 14 years of covering unrest in LA. Eight years ago, I stood in that same spot at an anti-Trump protest where a liberal protester smacked me in the head with their hand and yelled at me for saying “fuck the police.”
A lot has changed since the first time Trump was in office. We’ve had Charlottesville, the George Floyd uprising, the killing of an activist in Atlanta, and mass repression in response to the anger over Israel’s genocide of Palestinians—to name just a few things. The country’s move towards full fascism has only further solidified. The recent increase of ICE abductions and the spectacle the feds are trying to create is just one more example of this.
Now Trump is even more emboldened. The Democrats have decided they will ride this out in hopes it will help them in midterms and the next presidential race—showing that they’ve learned nothing from the past election and are still severely underestimating Trump and his movement. This has left people with no other choice but to be the opposition party to his madness.
Gavin Newsom told protesters not to take the bait after Trump deployed the National Guard. But it was Democratic Party leaders including Newsom and Bass who took the bait, by predictably allowing local police forces to attack people with impunity.
As I got closer to my friend's car there, a new wave of people began showing up. That’s the thing about violent police tactics: They are going to bring more people out into the streets.