Curfew Extended Tuesday In Santa Monica

SANTA MONICA, CA — An emergency curfew was extended Tuesday from 2 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. Wednesday in Santa Monica as the city announced that hundreds of businesses in Santa Monica were damaged during Sunday's unrest and looting.

Volunteers arrived early Monday to clean the city, showing up with brooms, garbage bags and cleaning supplies. City officials estimate that hundreds volunteered to clean downtown and across Santa Monica.

The Santa Monica Police and Fire Departments, along with the National Guard and other police agencies, continued working under the city's emergency operations center together, the city said.

"The City of Santa Monica thanks every Santa Monica resident, business, and community member for following the Citywide curfew the last two days," the city announced in a news release. "Yesterday morning’s turnout for the grassroots community cleanup was extraordinary. City leaders were joined by hundreds of people who love and have great pride for this city at storefronts and on streets to clean up with personal brooms and tools."

The city's public works team worked early morning hours Monday to also clean the streets, sidewalks and remove graffiti. Throughout the neighborhoods, volunteers roamed picking up debris.

“We appreciate the active engagement of our community as we move through this pandemic and state of emergency," Interim City Manager Lane Dilg said in a news release. "The city’s efforts are focused on ensuring the public’s safety. As we also move forward to our recovery, we walk hand-in-hand with our community."

There were 41 people arrested Monday and 438 arrests on Sunday, officials announced.

"The City has recorded 347 damage reports, including 84 reports of graffiti and 292 reports of damage to retail businesses, of which 155 indicated significant damage," the city said in a news release.

Santa Monica city officials urge any businesses affected by damages to get further details on estimated cost of damages and stolen property.

Business owners can report past looting and vandalism to santamonicapd.org/crimereport/. The most important question to answer is 3. All other questions can be answered with “no.”

Community members can continue to submit information related to evidence and surveillance to info@santamonica.gov.

Santa Monica Mayor Kevin McKeown described the scene Monday morning downtown.

“If you were out around our city Monday morning, as I was, you know our streets were full of residents with brooms and sweepers," he said. "Volunteers cleaned graffiti off walls. The resilient spirit of our city was evident everywhere. Even after the shocking events of Sunday, it is again great to be a Santa Monican. Thank you to all who were pitching in."

"We continue to grieve for the losses to our businesses and neighborhoods on Sunday, and we continue to be outraged over the death of George Floyd and the unacceptable persistence of institutional racism," McKeown said. "Nonetheless, on Monday we showed that we can learn from tragedy, get back up, and commit ourselves to a better city."

"So, the broken glass is swept, and we thank the 130 National Guard officers now standing with us, but we can’t pretend we’re back to normal," he said. "It shouldn’t take a citywide curfew for us to feel safe in our homes. We will make it to another bright day today, and continue to work together to put the shine back on Santa Monica. The criminals who overran downtown on Sunday can take their stolen sneakers, but they can never take from us the most valued asset we share — each other.”

See more:

• Stores Looted In Santa Monica As Looting Overtakes Protests
• Photos: George Floyd Protests Continue In Santa Monica
• Target Closes Calif. Stores As Protests Break Out Nationwide