Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles announced at a news conference on Tuesday evening that the city will begin imposing a curfew in a small section of downtown Los Angeles as part of its strategy to quell protests that were entering a fifth night.
The curfew will begin at 8 p.m. Pacific time and lift at 6 a.m. The mayor said the police will arrest anyone who defies the order. The curfew is expected to last for several days.
Protests have broken out in parts of downtown Los Angeles in the daytime and evening hours starting Friday night and continuing on Tuesday. Dozens of demonstrators have attempted to cross U.S. 101 and downtown buildings have received “significant damage” from graffiti and broken windows, Mayor Bass said.
California’s political leaders have urged the Trump administration to stop the immigration raids that have set off the demonstrations. Activists have become further inflamed by President Trump’s decision to send the National Guard and Marines to California over the objection of the state’s governor, Gavin Newsom.
“I think it is important to point this out, not to minimize the vandalism and violence that has taken place there, it has been significant,” Mayor Bass said. “But it is extremely important to know that what is happening in this one square mile is not affecting the city. Some of the imagery of the protests and the violence gives the appearance as though this is a citywide crisis and it’s not.”
Los Angeles instituted an overnight curfew when intense protests grew across the country in 2020 following the killing of George Floyd. Still, peaceful demonstrators defied those orders and continued marching.
Christina Morales is a Times reporter covering Latino communities in the United States.
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