Los Angeles has imposed a curfew across riot-ravaged Downtown in an effort to end pro-migrant protests which have gripped the city for five days.
From 8pm Tuesday through to 6am Wednesday, swathes of the city will be under a strict lockdown as officers fight to regain control and stamp out widespread violence and destruction.
Mayor Karen Bass announced the new orders after she was locked in tense meetings with the police chief and senior officials to weigh whether a strict curfew would help act as a circuit breaker and soothe tensions.
For five days now rioters have wreaked havoc on communities as they railed against President Donald Trump‘s efforts to rid the city of illegal migrants.
They were only further enraged when Trump gave orders to send 700 Marines and 4,100 National Guard troops in to take over policing efforts and assist the LAPD.
Rioters set fire to cars, looted buildings and attacked officers with rocks, fireworks and cement bricks in harrowing scenes of destruction which Attorney General Pam Bondi compared to a third world nation.
Bass said the curfew is expected to last several days and will emcompass a square mile radius around the epicenter of the violence in Downtown LA.
Any protester who defies the order and remains out in the area past 8pm will be arrested.
Los Angeles is considering implementing a curfew across riot-ravaged parts of Downtown in an effort to end pro-migrant protests which have gripped the city for five days
For five days now rioters have wreaked havoc on communities as they railed against President Donald Trump’s efforts to rid the city of illegal migrants
An urgent warning has been issued to residents across swathes of the city to stay on alert for new mandatory orders, which could come into effect by nightfall
She revealed at least 23 businesses have been looted during the ongoing violence and condemned some of the horrifying images which have emerged from the days of endless carnage.
But Bass said the curfew was contained to where the violence was most apparent, noting: ‘Some of the imagery of the protests and the violence gives the appearance as though this is a city wide crisis and is not.’
She hopes that by imposing a curfew and declaring a local emergency, she can ‘stop the vandalism, stop the looting.’
‘A curfew has been in consideration for several days, but clearly after the violence that took place last night and just the extensive widespread nature of the vandalism, we reached a tipping point.’
While Bass refrained from locking down the entire Downtown, the LAPD has this week repeatedly issued alerts listing Downtown Los Angeles as ‘unlawful assembly’ zones in an effort to rid the area of any and all protesters.
‘If you do not live or work in downtown LA avoid the area. Law enforcement will arrest individuals who break the curfew, and you will be prosecuted,’ Bass said.
The regions impacted by the lockdown span from the five freeway to the 110 freeway, and from the 10 freeway to the point where the 110 and the five merge.
The development comes as Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to stop the LA rioters, which authorizes the president to deploy military forces inside the United States to suppress rebellion or domestic violence or to enforce the law in certain situations.
Mayor Karen Bass is locked in tense meetings with the police chief and senior officials to weigh whether a strict curfew would help authorities as they seek to regain control of the city
Protesters are now being arrested en masse across Downtown LA
Rioters set fire to cars as part of their destructive protests
‘If there’s an insurrection, I would certainly invoke it. We’ll see. But I can tell you, last night was terrible. The night before that was terrible,’ Trump said.
He repeatedly referred to ‘bad, sick people’ and ‘agitators’ he said were paid to wreak havoc.
‘There are certainly areas of Los Angeles you could have called It an insurrection,’ Trump said. It was terrible.’
A curfew is the natural next step in efforts toward regaining control of the city, as the LAPD ramps up arrests and cracks down on protesters breaching unlawful assembly orders.
Hordes of protesters were zip-tied and forced onto LAPD buses en masse as authorities sought to bring an end to days of chaos and destruction.
LAPD chief Jim McDonnell said protests had grown more violent as the week progressed.
There were just 27 arrests on Sunday, with 40 on Sunday, 114 on Monday and nearly 200 by 6pm on Tuesday.
He said public safety personnel, journalists and homeless people would be exempt from the order.
The National Guard and 700 Marines rolled into town late Monday following Trump’s orders to regain control
Pictured: A protester kicks a scooter into a fire amid ongoing protests
Governor Gavin Newsom argued that the arrival of the National Guard had made the situation worse
The arrival of Trump’s military reinforcements brought its own set of challenges on Tuesday, with furious Governor Gavin Newsom filing an emergency motion for a temporary restraining order.
‘I just filed an emergency motion to block Trump’s illegal deployment of Marines and National Guard in Los Angeles,’ he said on X.
‘Trump is turning the U.S. military against American citizens. The courts must immediately block these illegal actions.’
The state said the order would ‘prevent the use of federalized National Guard and active duty Marines for law enforcement purposes on the streets of a civilian city.’
‘Federal antagonization, through the presence of soldiers in the streets, has already caused real and irreparable damage to the City of Los Angeles, the people who live there, and the State of California,’ the filing stated. ‘They must be stopped, immediately.’
A judge denied the motion and instead granted the Trump administration an extension of time to respond to Newsom’s filing.
The federal government now has until 2pm on Wednesday to file its response. Newsom will then have an opportunity to file its opposition ahead of a hearing at 1.30pm Thursday.
Police are clashing with protesters amid ongoing violence
Protesters clashed with authorities in Downtown LA during the protests
LAPD issued repeated alerts listing Downtown Los Angeles as ‘unlawful assembly’ zones in an effort to rid the area of any and all protesters over the past three days
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told lawmakers the deployment of National Guard troops and Marines to Los Angeles will cost at least $134 million and last 60 days.
‘We stated very publicly that it’s 60 days because we want to ensure that those rioters, looters and thugs on the other side assaulting our police officers know that we’re not going anywhere,’ he said.
‘Thankfully, unlike the previous administration, we’ve got a 13 percent increase in our defense budget, and we will have the capability to cover down on contingencies, which is something the National Guard and the Marines plan for.
‘So we have the funding to cover down on contingencies, especially ones as important as maintaining law and order in a major American city. As far as training, all of the units on the ground have been fully trained in their capabilities of what they’re executing on the ground.’
