San Francisco police arrest 60 amid violent anti-ICE protest

The San Francisco Police Department arrested 60 people Sunday evening amid a violent protest of hundreds of people against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Dozens of police officers responded to the protest after a crowd began assembling outside the ICE headquarters, Mission Local reported. 

When the police arrived, the crowd moved toward them, forming a line, and pushing toward the officers. Eggs and a glass bottle were thrown as the police formed a cordon line and a 40-minute standoff ensued, until the police department declared unlawful assembly at 7:33 p.m.

Although the crowd had largely left the ICE headquarters by 8:30 p.m., people had spread out downtown, tagging buildings, pulling trash bins into the street, and the glass storefronts at Chase Bank and Fendi were smashed in.

Police began arresting crowd members after several dozen of them were barricaded by police and threatened with arrest. An SFPD spokesperson said that the police department declared an unlawful assembly after some in the crowd “became violent” and committed crimes ranging from “assault to felony vandalism.”

A police spokesperson also said juveniles were among those arrested, a gun was recovered and that two officers received minor injuries, with one taken to a hospital.

The last protesters were loaded into vans at about 2 a.m., five hours after the arrests started.

NorCal Resist was one of the groups that called for the protest against deportation arrests. In San Francisco, at least 15 people were arrested during their check-ins with ICE over the last week.

The protest was also called in support of the Los Angeles protests. 

In response to those protests, President Trump deployed 2,000 National Guardsmen to Los Angeles despite California Gov. Gavin Newsom's (D) objection, which is the first time a president has taken such action since former President Lyndon B. Johnson sent the National Guard to Alabama to protect civil rights protesters in 1965.