Curfew extended to second night in LA, as mayors criticize National Guard presence

The second night of a downtown Los Angeles curfew will start at 8 p.m. Wednesday as the city starts to calm down after nearly a week of riots and peaceful protests.

The curfew will last until 6 a.m. Thursday. The mayor’s office said the nightly curfew will continue until announced otherwise.

Another demonstration took place Wednesday afternoon as protesters marched east on 1st Street at Spring Street, near Los Angeles City Hall. As it did during Tuesday's scattered protests, the Los Angeles Police Department closed nearby freeway on- and off-ramps during the demonstration.

The LAPD said on X that it made 203 arrests for failure to disperse after a 10-hour curfew started at 8 p.m. Tuesday. Police said officers quickly responded to large crowds still in the downtown area near Temple and Los Angeles streets. Most of the crowd ended up leaving the area.

Other arrests Tuesday included 17 for curfew violations, three for possession of a firearm, one for assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer and one arrest for discharging a laser at an LAPD airship, police reported. Two police officers were injured and treated.

Law enforcement said it managed crowds with less-lethal munitions.

For the most part, arrests weren’t made Tuesday night for looting or vandalism, Mayor Karen Bass said during a televised news conference Wednesday. Standing with her were more than 30 Southern California mayors, who, like Bass, called for the end to raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. They blame the raids for provoking protests and riots.

“Things began to be difficult on Friday when the raids took place,” Bass told reporters.

Before the addition of curfews, violence and looting took place at night in downtown Los Angeles, which also experienced vandalism and widespread graffiti. A Center Square walk around downtown Tuesday afternoon found many public buildings and businesses on many streets were covered with graffiti, most of it directed with anger and profanity at ICE and President Donald Trump. Protesters volunteered to remove graffiti off the Japanese American National Museum, Glendale-based ABC 7 Eyewitness News reported.

The federal building on Los Angeles Street was entirely covered with graffiti on the exterior of its ground floor facing Los Angeles Street and the large concrete cube that serves as its sign.

Workers this week cleaned graffiti on the exterior of Los Angeles City Hall.

Mayors on Wednesday criticized Trump for his deployment of the California National Guard and Marines from Twentynine Palms, saying those actions are not solutions and have only escalated matters.

Bass, meanwhile, accused Trump of going beyond his original target of deporting illegal immigrants who are convicted felons or drug dealers.

“When you raid Home Depots and workplaces, when you tear parents and children apart, and when you run armored caravans through our streets, you’re not trying to keep anyone safe,” Bass said. “You’re trying to cause fear and panic.

“And when you start deploying federalized troops on the heels of these raids, it is a drastic and chaotic escalation and completely unnecessary,” Bass said. “These aren’t the criminals the administration is allegedly targeting. These are mothers and fathers, restaurant workers, seamstresses, home care workers, everyday Angelinos trying to make a living.”

Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin defended the raids Wednesday.

“Murderers, pedophiles, and drug traffickers. These are the types of criminal illegal aliens that rioters are fighting to protect," McLaughlin told The Center Square in an email. "How much longer will Governor Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass continue to prioritize these criminal illegal aliens over their own citizens? Secretary [Kristi] Noem has a message to the LA rioters: You will not stop us or slow us down. ICE will continue to enforce the law and arrest criminal illegal aliens.”

An immigration raid took place Wednesday at churches and businesses in Downey, leaders of the nearby city said.

After Bass spoke, other mayors came to the microphone.

Peggy Lemons, mayor of Paramount, a city south of Los Angeles, said residents there have been afraid to leave their homes. “Some are avoiding going to work.”

She said the city is creating a special fund to help immigrant families. “The city council and staff are working tirelessly to develop other means of support.”

Arturo Flores, mayor of nearby Huntington Park and a Marine combat veteran, called the deployment of Marines on U.S. soil “an alarming escalation that undermines the values of our democracy.”

As seen by The Center Square Tuesday, a dozen or so National Guard members were quietly standing behind shields in front of a federal building on Los Angeles Street. They didn’t react when two protesters, one angry and the other peaceful but passionate, shouted at them.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called the Los Angeles riots "mob rule" during a press briefing Wednesday.