Following a long day of “No Kings” protests across the country Saturday, including 15 separate demonstrations in Los Angeles alone, the city’s mayor is hopeful that, despite some trouble getting crowds to disperse, the day will be remembered as a peaceful one.
“Sometimes people who aren’t even a part of the main protest hang around, and then that’s where you can have trouble,” L.A. Mayor Karen Bass told KTLA’s Kareen Wynter shortly after the 8 p.m. curfew. “I think that is happening off and on right now, but I do think at the end of the day, this will have been a successful, peaceful day.”
The mayor said she spent about an hour traveling by helicopter over each location. “Every single one was peaceful … The Downtown one, which was a massive protest, was still overwhelmingly peaceful. I think ofenttimes when you have a crowd this large, at the end, it becomes a little more difficult.”
The Mayor was likely referring to the need for officers to deploy flashbangs and teargas at one point when the LAPD reported that some protesters were “becoming increasingly unruly” and that people were throwing rocks, bricks, bottles, and other objects.
Sky5 was over the Downtown area around 8:30 p.m., where a crowd of protesters could still be seen waving flags on a street corner well past curfew. The group appeared to be peaceful and was not blocking traffic; however, it was unclear how long law enforcement would allow them to remain in the area.
“I mean, we give them time to disperse, and if it’s clear that they are trying to leave, then there’s a level of patience. But if they are not, then it’s an unlawful assembly,” Bass said.
The mayor is concerned about the possibility of violence should law enforcement be unable to get the demonstrators to go home in a timely manner, but was hopeful that would not be the case.
“I have not heard about break-ins or massive graffiti like we saw in the last few days, and so hopefully we will be able to disperse the crowd,” Bass said. “Now it is only 40 minutes into the curfew, so I would expect for it to take a little time, but those people who want to peacefully leave will be allowed to leave, and those people that don’t want to peacefully leave, they will be subject to arrest.”