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Today so far
It is almost 10pm in Los Angeles. Protests continue on the streets after Donald Trump deployed the national guard to the city in response to demonstrations against his administration’s immigration crackdown. Here’s what we’ve seen so far:
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The Trump administration has taken the stunning step of bringing hundreds of California national guard soldiers into federal service to respond to the protests, and has said it could bring US marines to the city “if violence continues”. About 500 marines are ready to deploy to the city if directed.
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The Guard was deployed specifically to protect federal buildings, including the downtown detention center where protesters concentrated.
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California governor Gavin Newsom and the LA mayor Karen Bass have asked the administration to rescind its order to deploy troops with Newsom calling it a “a serious breach of state sovereignty.” Democratic governors across the US have described it as an “alarming abuse of power”.
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In a post on X, Newsom criticised the president further, saying “Donald Trump has manufactured a crisis and is inflaming conditions.”
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Protests have continued in large numbers. Police used teargas and “less-lethal munitions” to disperse people from a federal complex and the 101 freeway, where protesters brought traffic to a standstill in both directions. In some areas, autonomous vehicles have been set on fire.
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The Los Angeles police department said the agency has declared an “unlawful assembly” in the civic center area of downtown Los Angeles, and that officers have arrested “a number” of people. Police are patrolling areas of the downtown on horseback.
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Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said officers were “overwhelmed” by the remaining protesters. He said they included regular agitators who show up at demonstrations to cause trouble.
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McDonnell pushed back against claims by the Trump administration that the LAPD had failed to help federal authorities when protests broke out Friday after a series of immigration raids.
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Karen Bass urged protesters to remain peaceful. She said she has asked the Trump administration to remove troops from the city. “We do not need to see our city torn apart,” she said, adding that people are “terrified.”
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Many protesters dispersed as evening fell and police declared an unlawful assembly, a precursor to officers moving in and making arrests of people who don’t leave. Some of those remaining threw objects at police from behind a makeshift barrier that spanned the width of a street and others hurled chunks of concrete, rocks, electric scooters and fireworks at California Highway Patrol officers and their vehicles parked on the closed southbound 101 Freeway. Officers ran under an overpass to take cover.
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An Australian reporter, Lauren Tomasi, from Channel 9 news has been shot by a rubber bullet fired by police while covering the protests in downtown LA.
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to our rolling coverage of the protests in Los Angeles, where law enforcement officers have clashed with demonstrators as police have used teargas and “less-lethal munitions” to disperse massive crowds of people.
Demonstrators have gathered to reject Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown and his deployment of the national guard against the will of the state’s elected leaders.
On Sunday thousands of Angelenos swamped the streets around city hall, the federal courthouse and a detention center where protesters arrested in days before are being held. They also brought a major freeway to a standstill.
The crowd for large parts of the day was mostly peaceful. But tensions flared several times, with police deploying teargas to disperse protesters and firing rounds of flash-bangs in an attempt to push the protesters back up the freeway off-ramps. Several autonomous vehicles were set on fire.
Trump’s decision to deploy national guard troops into Los Angeles has sent shockwaves through America. California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, and other Democratic governors across the US have sharply criticized the move, describing it as an “alarming abuse of power”.
Newsom said the president had “manufactured a crisis” and described his reaction as akin to a “dictator, not a President”. He urged Trump to stand down and rescind the “unlawful” deployment.
Night has now fallen in LA, stay with us as we follow the developments live.
