‘CHAOTIC ESCALATION’

L.A. Mayor Announces Curfew As Newsom Warns Democracy Is at Risk

A partial curfew has been enacted in Downtown Los Angeles, which Karen Bass expects “to last for several days.”

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass enacted a partial curfew for Downtown L.A. on Tuesday evening, following five days of protests against immigration raids in the city.

“If you do not live or work in Downtown L.A., avoid the area,” Bass said during a press conference Tuesday. “Law enforcement will arrest individuals who break the curfew and you will be prosecuted. It will begin at 8 p.m. tonight and go until 6 a.m. tomorrow.”

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In a post to X, Bass said the reasoning behind the move was to “stop bad actors who are taking advantage of the president’s chaotic escalation.”

While, officially, the curfew has only been put in place for Tuesday night, Bass said she will be speaking with “elected leaders and law enforcement officials tomorrow” and that she “certainly expect[s] for it to last for several days.”

As repeatedly stressed by Bass during the conference, the curfew will only impact a small area of the city.

“Look at the map and you can see that the city of Los Angeles is a massive area, 502 square miles. The area of downtown where the curfew will take place is one square mile,” Bass said.

The mayor went on to note that there are exceptions to the curfew, including for residents, people heading to or from work, and credentialed members of the media.

White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller subsequently criticized Bass’ explanation for the curfew, writing in an X post: “‘Chaotic escalation’ = federal authorities arresting illegal aliens. The Mayor is using the rhetoric of the insurrectionist mob.”

California Governor Gavin Newsom held a presser of his own Tuesday night, where he slammed the Trump administration’s handling of the protests—namely, their decision to deploy the National Guard and Marines without his approval—and warned that although “California may be first … Democracy is next.”

“This isn’t just about protests here in Los Angeles,” said Newsom. “When Donald Trump sought blanket authority to commandeer the National Guard, he made that order apply to every state in this nation. This is about all of us. This is about you. California may be first, but it clearly will not end here. Other states are next. Democracy is next.”

Protests first erupted in L.A. on Friday after word spread that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were targeting four businesses, including a Home Depot, on the suspicion that they had unlawfully hired undocumented immigrants and fabricated employment records, according to ABC News. Activists, local residents, family members, and more showed up to the different locations and proceeded to confront law enforcement about the raids, with protests still ongoing.

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Yasmeen HamadehNight News Reporter

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