Downtown Protests Trigger LAPD Tactical Alert

LOS ANGELES, CA — The Los Angeles Police Department was placed on tactical alert Saturday night as demonstrators smashed windows, spray-painted walls and hurled objects at police at the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles. The demonstrators were marching in support of the two-month long police protest movement in Portland, Oregon, where the presence of federal agents inflamed tensions over the last week.

Protests have been going on for about two months in Los Angeles in response to the death of George Floyd underneath the knee of a Minneapolis police officer. In recent weeks, the protests have been peaceful and increasingly muted. According to several media outlets, protesters said Saturday's demonstration was organized in response to federal troops tear gassing and arresting peaceful protesters in Portland.

Saturday's unrest broke out during what had been largely a peaceful protest of a few hundred people in Downtown Los Angeles, according to the LAPD. The citywide tactical alert holds over all officers past the end of their shifts. Shortly before 10 p.m., most of the demonstrators had dispersed.

Three arrestees suffered minor injuries and were taken to hospitals for treatment, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department's Margaret Stewart.KTLA video captured a violent confrontation between protesters and police.

Two demonstrations were scheduled in front of City Hall, one organized by the group Refuse Fascism and the other by the Youth Liberation Front.

The crowd estimated at a few hundred marched to the Los Angeles Police Department headquarters building at First and Main streets, then to the Metropolitan Detention Center at 535 Alameda St., where a witness reported three glass door panels were smashed and the words "Building the new world today" with an "A" surrounded by a circle -- an anarchy symbol -- on a window and a tweeted photo showed "Destroy DHS & ICE" painted on a building sign before the protesters marched away.

Protesters marched onto the Hollywood (101) Freeway and then to the United States Courthouse at 350 W. First St., where protesters threw objects at officers, who fired back with nonlethal rounds. A reporter at the scene said officers were aiming directly at protestors, rather than at the ground in front of them, as per department regulations.

City News Service and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report.