LOS ANGELES (Fwrd Axis) — Protests in Los Angeles escalated on Sunday as demonstrators blocked a major highway and set several cars on fire.
The demonstrators were originally speaking up about the ICE raids being conducted in the city but Sunday also saw them reacting to President Donald Trump’s deployment of the National Guard.
As the sky became dark, the majority of protesters left when police declared an unlawful assembly. The ones that remained got violent as they threw rocks, electric scooters and fireworks at California Highway Patrol officers.
Both California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass blamed the violence on Trump’s move to call the National Guard, saying it was designed to escalate the matter.
“What we’re seeing in Los Angeles is chaos that is provoked by the administration,” Bass said. “This is about another agenda, this isn’t about public safety.”
Meanwhile, in an interview with MSNBC, Newsom unloaded on Trump and called him a “stone cold liar.”
“I hope he’s watching, he might learn something— rescind this order— it’s illegal. You’re creating the conditions you claim you’re solving and you’re not helping,” Newsom said.
“He’s a stone cold liar,” Newsom said of the President.
The White House released a statement, condemning Newsom’s statement.
“It’s a bald-faced lie for Newsom to claim there was no problem in Los Angeles before President Trump got involved,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said.
Around 60 people were arrested on Sunday. The San Francisco Police Department said the protesters became “violent and began to commit crimes ranging from assault to felony vandalism and causing property damage”.
Two officers suffered non-life threatening injuries and one was transported to a local hospital.
Trump, who appeared to want thing to escalate, posted on Truth Social to “bring in” the troops.
“Looking really bad in LA. BRING IN THE TROOPS,” he wrote.
