LOS ANGELES, California — Hundreds of protesters gathered in Grand Park on Monday to protest the city’s new vaccine mandate, which has just gone into effect.

As the Associated Press reported (via Breitbart) on Monday:

People entering a wide variety of businesses in the city of Los Angeles had to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination starting Monday as one of the country’s strictest measures aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus took effect.

The new rule covers businesses ranging from restaurants to shopping malls and theaters to nail and hair salons.

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To guard against anything resembling the January carnage, the Los Angeles City Council voted 11-2 last month to approve the ordinance requiring people 12 and older to be fully vaccinated to enter indoor public spaces including sports arenas, museums, spas, indoor city facilities and other locations.

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While the order took effect Monday, city officials say they won’t start enforcing it until Nov. 29 to give businesses time to adjust. A first offense will bring a warning but subsequent ones could produce fines running from $1,000 to $5,000 for businesses.

A large group of demonstrators — perhaps over 1,000 — gathered in downtown Los Angeles Monday (video via ABC 7 / YouTube):

There has been significant pushback against vaccine mandates in L.A., including a requirement that all city workers, including first responders, be vaccinated or lose their jobs.

Dissidents within the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) have even formed a group, Firefighters for Freedom, to defend what they say is a constitutional right to refuse the vaccination.

Mayor Eric Garcetti tested positive for COVID last week while at the international climate change summit in Glasgow, Scotland, and isolated himself in a hotel room there. He is fully vaccinated.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.