Los Angeles, California - Cars were torched and security forces firing tear gas at protestors as anger at President Donald Trump's deployment of National Guard troops to Los Angeles grew.
LA protesters torched Waymos and face off with militarized police as the Trump administration's response to mass uprisings inflamed tensions. © REUTERS
Protests in Los Angeles, home to a large Latino population, , triggered by violent immigration raids that resulted in dozens of arrests.
Trump further stoking tensions with his deployment of California's National Guard, a stand-by military usually controlled by the state governor, who was bypassed for the first time since 1965 at the height of the civil rights movement.
Demonstrators told AFP the purpose of the troops did not appear to be to keep order, with one calling it an "intimidation tactic."
"You have the National Guard with loaded magazines and large guns standing around trying to intimidate Americans from exercising our First Amendment rights," protester Thomas Henning said.
California Governor Gavin Newsom called Trump's order a "serious breach of state sovereignty" and demanded the president to rescind the order and "return control to California."
Newsom said Trump was "putting fuel on this fire" and threatened to sue the federal government.
"Commandeering a state's National Guard without consulting the Governor of that state is illegal and immoral," he said on X. "California will be taking him to court."
He also urged protesters to stay peaceful, warning that those who instigate violence will be arrested.
"Don't take Trump's bait," he said on X.
President Donald Trump's decision to deploy California's National Guard – against Governor Gavin Newsom's wishes – sparked anger and outrage. © REUTERS
Authorities declared downtown Los Angeles a place of "unlawful assembly" by late Sunday evening. Local media showed a heavy police presence blanketing mostly deserted streets in various areas.
A few protesters remained scattered, with some lobbing projectiles and fireworks according to local aerial TV coverage.
Trump called the protesters "insurrectionists" in with inflammatory language.
At least three self-driving Waymo cars were torched as demonstrators thronged around downtown Los Angeles earlier on Sunday, and local law enforcement deployed tear gas and smoke grenades to disperse protesters.
An Australian reporter was shot in the leg with a rubber bullet by a police officer while on live on camera.
LAPD officers established containment lines some distance from federal buildings by Sunday afternoon, preventing contact between angry demonstrators and the scores of armed National Guardsmen from the 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team who had gathered in helmets and camouflage gear.
At least 56 people were arrested over two days and three officers suffered minor injuries, the LAPD said.
Police in San Francisco said on Sunday about 60 people had been arrested in similar protests.
Demonstrator Marshall Goldberg (78) told AFP that deploying Guardsmen made him feel "so offended."
"We hate what they've done with the undocumented workers, but this is moving it to another level of taking away the right to protest and the right to just peaceably assemble."
