California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in Los Angeles late Saturday night, and Mayor Eric Garcetti imposed a citywide curfew from 8:00 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. as riots raged through West L.A. and elsewhere.
The Los Angeles Times reported that the National Guard had been deployed and would be on the streets of LA. by midnight.
Police had faced off against rioters throughout the day, as looters targeted high-end stores at The Grove shopping mall, a popular mall that made headlines in 2016 for barring boxer Manny Pacquiao for opposing gay marriage.
Rioters also set cars on fire in the nearby Fairfax district, where there are a large number of mom-and-pop stores. The Times noted that trendy stores on Melrose Avenue were also targeted by looters, who made away with high-end goods. CBS Los Angeles reported that stores on Rodeo Drive, in Beverly Hills, were also targeted by looters.
The riots were described as “protesters” in many news reports, linking the unrest to public outrage at the killing of an African American man, George Floyd, by police officers in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Memorial Day.
Video of the arrest, in which officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck for several minutes, went viral. Chauvin was arrested and charged with third-degree murder; President Donald Trump called for the FBI and Department of Justice to investigate.
CBS Los Angeles noted that the riot began as a peaceful demonstration by local Black Lives Matter activists.
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). His new book, RED NOVEMBER, is available for pre-order. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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