‘Democracy is under assault’: Governor slams Trump as LA gets curfew

Los Angeles: California Governor Gavin Newsom has accused US President Donald Trump of assaulting democracy in a blistering televised address delivered hours before a curfew took effect in downtown Los Angeles amid days of unrest over federal immigration raids.

Trump has ordered the deployment of 4000 National Guard troops and 700 US Marines to Los Angeles since protests broke out on Friday over the raids, which Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass says have left many residents living in fear. Protests have since spread to other US cities, including New York, Chicago and Atlanta.

In his address on Tuesday evening (Wednesday AEST), Newsom said there were no longer any checks and balances on the president’s power and that Trump was “pulling a military dragnet” across Los Angeles, warning that other states would be hit next.

“Democracy is under assault before our eyes. This moment we have feared has arrived,” Newsom said. “It’s time for all of us to stand up.” He called on those exercising their right to free speech and assembly to do so peacefully.

Los Angeles experienced its fifth day of protests on Tuesday (Wednesday AEST), demonstrations that officials say have been largely peaceful, although there have been clashes between protesters and law enforcement, and more than 200 arrests, as well as looting and vandalism. Protesters have also blocked a freeway and set cars on fire.

Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said the people committing acts of violence and vandalism after nightfall were not the same people protesting during the day, who were legitimately exercising their right to free speech.

California Highway Patrol officers detain protesters on Tuesday in Los Angeles.Credit: AP

Mayor Bass declared a local emergency on Tuesday and imposed a nighttime curfew on downtown Los Angeles, over an area of about 2.5 square kilometres, after 23 businesses in the area were looted the night before. Police made some arrests and broke up protests soon after the curfew took effect.

“If you drive through downtown LA, the graffiti is everywhere and has caused significant damage to businesses and properties,” Bass said, when imposing the curfew.

Protesters holding Mexican flags gather in downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday.Credit: AP

“It is extremely important to know that what is happening in this one square mile is not affecting the city,” she said. “Some of the imagery of the protests and violence gives the appearance that this is a citywide crisis, and it is not.”

Newsom has filed a lawsuit in an attempt to stop what he says is Trump’s illegal deployment of the National Guard and marines. He said the situation had been winding down on Monday when Trump decided to escalate it by sending in more National Guard troops.

“This brazen abuse of power by a sitting president inflamed a combustible situation, putting our people, our officers and even our National Guard at risk,” Newsom said.

Earlier, Trump said activity in some areas of Los Angeles on Monday (Tuesday AEST) had been tantamount to an insurrection, and he was prepared to invoke the Insurrection Act if he believed circumstances warranted more drastic intervention.

“If there’s an insurrection, I would certainly invoke it – we’ll see,” he said. “There were certain areas of Los Angeles last night, you could have called it an insurrection. It was terrible.”

Such a move would represent a significant escalation and would allow military personnel to engage in active law enforcement against civilians on the streets, rather than acting to protect federal property.

He also vowed to use heavy force against anyone who protested against a military parade in Washington on Saturday, which will celebrate the army’s 250th anniversary and will coincide with Trump’s 79th birthday. Newsom said the president was acting like a dictator by hosting the parade.

“He’s ordering our American heroes, the US military, and forcing them to put on a vulgar display to celebrate his birthday, just like other failed dictators have done in the past,” he said.

National Guard troops have been protecting federal buildings in Los Angeles and were also seen protecting immigration agents on Tuesday as they made arrests, while marines have gathered south of Los Angeles but are yet to be deployed to specific locations, a US official told Reuters.

Tanks to be used in the US Army’s 250th anniversary parade prior to being unloaded from rail cars in Washington.Credit: Bloomberg

“For those people that want to protest, they’re going to be met with very big force,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “This is people that hate our country.”

Later on Tuesday, in a speech at Fort Bragg to mark the Army anniversary, Trump defended deploying the military and called the protesters “animals” and “a foreign enemy”.

“We will not allow an American city to be invaded and conquered by a foreign enemy. That’s what they are,” Trump said.

The president also called Los Angeles “a trash heap” and he said “entire neighbourhoods [were] under control” of criminals. He said the federal government would “use every asset at our disposal to quell the violence and restore law and order”.

Trump gestures on stage after his speech at Fort Bragg on Tuesday.Credit: Bloomberg

“We will liberate Los Angeles and make it free, clean and safe again,” Trump said.

Bass called on Trump to stop the immigration raids “so that we can have stability in our city”.

“I think about the families who are afraid to go to work and go to school,” she said.

“When you frighten immigrants and they don’t want to come to work, you are hitting at the heart of our local economy – the nannies that can’t show up, the gardeners that can’t show up. That impacts households in a way that I don’t think people often realise the extent.”

Senior Pentagon official Bryn MacDonnell told a congressional budget hearing in Washington that the deployment would cost about $US134 million ($206 million) over 60 days, including travel, housing and food.

With AP, Reuters

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