LOS ANGELES — Mayor Karen Bass announced a curfew will be in effect Tuesday night for one square mile of downtown Los Angeles following four nights of sporadically chaotic protests during which the LA police department arrested more than 150 people.
The curfew will extend from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. LA time. It will apply to the area of downtown from the 5 freeway to the 110 freeway and from the 10 freeway to where the 110 freeway and the 5 freeway merge, Bass said.
The mayor made the announcement Tuesday evening. She had suggested earlier in the day that she would consider a curfew if violence broke out again. She said the curfew would not be necessary citywide, as the protests have been largely centered in the downtown area.
“I wanted to let the city know that I have declared a local emergency and issued a curfew for downtown Los Angeles to stop the vandalism, to stop the looting,” said Bass at an evening news conference.
Bass said she expected the curfew to last for several days. The decision on when to end it will be made in consultation with law enforcement and elected leaders, she said.
The curfew does not apply to individuals living within the designated area, individuals experiencing homelessness, credentialed media or public safety and emergency personnel, said Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell.
The curfew comes as arrests have increased every night since protests began in response to a federal government immigration crackdown in Southern California.
No one was arrested by Los Angeles police on Friday night, but 27 were arrested Saturday, 40 were arrested Sunday and 114 were arrested Monday, according to McDonnell.
Bass and other elected officials in Los Angeles have repeatedly asked protesters to remain nonviolent and refrain from spray-painting graffiti or otherwise vandalizing or burglarizing businesses. But each morning, new, often explicit, graffiti has adorned buildings across downtown.
Protests were growing again on Tuesday afternoon, with people spilling onto the 101 freeway downtown, temporarily blocking traffic in both directions on the busy roadway. People squeezed through holes in fences that were blocking the freeway on-ramp near Commercial Street.
The crowd was met with lines of California Highway Patrol officers who used batons to push them back. Some protesters lobbed water bottles. At least one protester was detained by CHP.
Protesters previously shut down the 101 freeway for several hours on Sunday, during which time CHP made 19 arrests, according to agency spokesperson Officer Alec Pereyda.
By 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, freeway traffic appeared to be moving freely in the northbound lanes and slowly in the southbound lanes.