Calm returns to city after hundreds arrested

A worried calm went down to Los Angeles after the first night of a curfew raised on Wednesday, while the cities of the US Brace for more demonstrations.

In Los Angeles, nearly 400 people have so far been arrested, including 330 undocumented migrants and 157 people arrested for assault and obstruction, one of them for the attempted murder of a police officer.

Federal prosecutors have so far charged two men for launching Molotov cocktails to the police in two distinct incidents.

In total, 4,000 troops of the National Guard and 700 navies were deployed to help repress the troubles. Some of these national guard troops are now authorized to hold people until the police can arrest them.

Speaking alongside 30 regional mayors at a press conference on Wednesday, the mayor of Los Angeles Karen Bass blamed the protests to the immigration raids of the American president Donald Trump, which declared “provoked” residents by provoking “fear” and “panic”.

“A week ago, everything was peaceful,” she said. “Things started to be difficult on Friday when raids took place.”

Bass suggested that Los Angeles was “part of a national experience to determine how far the federal government can take the power of a local government, a local jurisdiction”.

She has already called on the administration to end the raids.

On Tuesday night, Los Angeles police said they had made “mass arrests” after a fifth day of protests concerning immigration action.

In a series of declarations, the city’s police service said that detained persons included 203 people arrested for dispersion failure, 17 for a curfew violations, three for possession of a firearm and one for a deadly weapon on a police officer.

Two officers were injured in the skirmishes, added the press release.

On Tuesday, Bass said a night curfew in a relatively small area in the city center of the city, saying that companies were vandalized and looted.

Once the Los Angeles curfew in force at 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday (03:00 GMT on Wednesday), the police crossed the city center, pulling rubber bullets to try to disperse the crowds.

Explaining the curfew on Tuesday, Bass said that she wanted to “stop vandalism, stop looting”, saying that the city had reached a “tilting point”.

The order of the curfew affects an area of ​​approximately a square mile in the second largest city in the United States.

The police chief Jim McDonnell said: “Part of the imagery of demonstrations and violence give appearance as if it were a crisis on the city level, and this is not the case.”

Wednesday, Pam Bondi, the American prosecutor general, told the White House journalists that the curfew “had helped a little”.

Elsewhere, the immigration raids continued, alongside the troops of the National Guard.

The National Guard and the marine forces deployed in Los Angeles do not have the power to arrest, only to hold demonstrators.

“They are strictly used for the protection of federal staff as they carry out their operations and to protect them to allow them to do their federal mission,” said Major Scott Sherman on Wednesday, who directs deployment.

Some 500 troops of the National Guard have already been trained to accompany agents on immigration raids and certain troops have already temporarily owned people during demonstrations, Sherman told American media.

These troops are authorized to hold people until the police can arrest them, he said.

The row of Trump with state officials accelerated after deploying troops in Los Angeles. The president has now sworn to “release” the city, but he was accused by Californian governor Gavin Newsom of “assault” against democracy.

Trump earlier this week defended his decision to send troops, saying that it was to prevent the city from being “conquered by a foreign enemy”.

Newsom retaliated with the president: “He again chose climbing; he chose more strength.”

The Governor of California, who is considered a pretender to the potential presidential election for the Democratic Party, warned that “the other states are the next”.

On Wednesday, the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth on Wednesday, supported Trump’s decision, telling an hearing to the Senate that the sending of the troops to Los Angeles was “legal and constitutional”.

Chaotic protests have also emerged Tuesday in several other American cities:

• In AtlantaGeorgia, anti-riot police used tear gas on demonstrators who sparked fireworks to the police during a demonstration at which hundreds
• The police in new York The BBC said dozens have been arrested for blocked vehicle traffic after several thousands walked in the Lower Manhattan
• The Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, sent troops from the National Guard San Antoniowhere immigration rallies are planned

The military deployment of the Los Angeles region will cost $ 134 million (99 million pounds sterling), said the Pentagon.

Trump described demonstrations as a “full -fledged assault against peace and public order” while addressing the troops at the Fort Bragg military base in North Carolina.

The Republican President said he was planning to use “each asset at our disposal to suppress violence”.

Meanwhile, Trump’s political row with state representatives has intensified. The president described the demonstrators as “animals” and judged that “this anarchy will not be held”.

He urged the troops to huer the names of Newsom and Joe Biden, his presidential predecessor, during his speech as Fort Bragg.

In television remarks on Tuesday evening, Newsom again criticized the rare deployment by the President of the US army without the request of state representatives. He accused Trump of an “cheeky abuse”.

“California is perhaps the first-but it will not end clearly here,” he said. “Other states are the next. Democracy is the next one. Democracy is being assaulted just before our eyes.”

Earlier in the day, a federal court rejected an emergency request from California to block the use of troops sent to Los Angeles.

District judge Charles Breyer has provided a hearing on the request for Thursday.

Trump set an objective for border agents of at least 3,000 daily arrests while he seeks to increase mass deportations, a commitment to sign his re -election campaign.

Since he assumed his functions, the president has considerably reduced illegal passages to the American-Mexican border at historically low levels.

A CBS News / Yougov survey conducted in early June, before the demonstrations did not start, revealed that 54% of Americans said they had approved Trump’s expulsion policy, and 50% approved how he managed immigration.

This is compared to a lower number of 42% which has given the approval of its economic policy and 39% for its policy on the fight against inflation.