George Floyd protests: National Guard deployed in L.A.

National Guard troops deployed onto the streets of Los Angeles early Sunday morning as looting, vandalism and violence intensified and the police department struggled to restore order after two days of discord.

At dawn, five military Humvees were parked at 3rd and Hill streets downtown. City Hall loomed in the background.

Guardsmen dressed in full combat gear stood guard at shattered storefronts as the morning light revealed the damage from the days before: broken windows, trash-strewn streets and graffiti-tagged buildings.

By 7 a.m., scores of Guardsmen toting M-4 rifles marched on patrol along Broadway between 7th and 8th streets.

Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in the city and county of Los Angeles shortly before midnight and activated the National Guard to assist police after two days of violent demonstrations sparked by the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who was pinned down by the neck by a white police officer in Minneapolis.

Los Angeles County officials also proclaimed a countywide state of emergency to deal with the unrest.

“This emergency comes as we are in the midst of battling another emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic,” County Supervisor Kathryn Barger said Sunday in a statement. “This taxes our resources, but not our resolve.”

The proclamation will help authorities coordinate an emergency response and mutual aid and speed up the procurement of supplies, officials said. It also provides for future state and federal reimbursement of costs the county incurs.

“We will do everything in our power to keep our communities safe and protect lives and property,” Barger said. “I continue to call on our residents to maintain calm and seek solutions productively, not destructively.”

The dramatic move came after a day of deteriorating conditions. Demonstrators burned Los Angeles Police Department cruisers, threw objects at officers and looted retail businesses, including the Apple Store and Nordstrom at The Grove shopping mall. Some protesters even made it to Beverly Hills’ famed Rodeo Drive, where they were met by a line of officers.

Since the protests started, Mayor Eric Garcetti and other city leaders had encouraged peaceful expression and voiced support for the marches. But on Saturday, the mayor said the conditions on the streets were getting worse by the hour. First, he ordered a night curfew for downtown L.A. Then, about an hour later, he extended it to the entire city. Less than an hour after that, he requested the National Guard.

Another overnight curfew is expected to be put in place for the city of Los Angeles from Sunday night into Monday, L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva told KTLA.

The decision to call in the National Guard was criticized by City Councilman Marqueece Harris-Dawson, who represents a portion of South L.A.

“It’s clear that our fear is real that additional law enforcement will only further violence against people of color,” Harris-Dawson said in a statement. “Anarchists are taking advantage of our pain with looting and violence — this is not Black Lives Matter or members of our community who have suffered from systematic racism and oppression — these are domestic terrorists.”

The last time the National Guard patrolled the streets of L.A. was during the 1992 riots, which erupted after the police officers who beat black motorist Rodney King were found not guilty.

Compared with those riots, the events in Los Angeles on Saturday were significantly less widespread and dangerous. The protests and looting were limited Friday night and Saturday morning largely to downtown Los Angeles and on Saturday afternoon and evening to the Fairfax District.

Several police officers were hurt when protesters threw objects at them. But there have been no fatalities. The 1992 riots swept across large swaths of Southern California and left more than 60 people dead.

From Friday afternoon to early Saturday, police clashed with protesters across downtown, pushing them away from the 110 Freeway and getting into physical altercations. When the sun rose Saturday, scores of businesses had been looted, and merchants were adding to the losses they already had experienced because of the coronavirus shutdown.

Despite a citywide curfew imposed by Garcetti that lasted until 5:30 a.m. Sunday, groups of people — mostly men — wandered the streets of downtown Los Angeles late Saturday night, smashing windows and spray-painting anti-police graffiti on plywood boards that business and property owners had hastily affixed to their buildings earlier in the day.

As the sun rose over downtown Sunday morning, crews went to work sweeping up a sea of shattered glass and covering up graffiti with paint rollers.

National Guard soldiers patrolled between skid row and Bunker Hill, while Humvees rumbled through the financial district. The soldiers on foot patrol carried automatic rifles and wore full combat gear, with gas masks strapped to their thighs. Some looked self-conscious as passersby stopped to photograph them, while others nodded and said, “Good morning.”

Earlier Saturday, police and protesters spent hours in a tense standoff near The Grove, with police shooting rubber bullets and striking demonstrators with batons while several police cars were set on fire and other vehicles were vandalized. Protesters also took over a Metro bus and climbed on its roof to take video of police.

Several hours later, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority suspended bus and rail service with little warning. The agency apologized Sunday morning to passengers who were left stranded across L.A. County.

The unprecedented closure of the Metro system drew immediate criticism from advocates and elected officials who said essential workers were left stranded on sidewalks, at stations and in bus shelters in the hours after the 8 p.m. curfews imposed in Los Angeles and other cities.

Metro’s chief executive Phil Washington told KNX 1070 News Radio on Saturday night that the agency chose to shut down service because he had seen “a lot of damage,” and was concerned for the safety of Metro employees.

Washington said Metro supervisors were driving around the city on Saturday night to look for people at bus stops, then calling nearby bus yards and asking them to dispatch vehicles to pick them up.

On Sunday morning, a Metro spokesperson said the agency would reimburse trips taken in a taxi, Uber or Lyft after the system shut down. Anyone seeking a refund should call Metro customer service at (323) 466-3876.

The large crowd that moved through the Fairfax District first gathered at Pan Pacific Park off Beverly Boulevard at a rally organized by Black Lives Matter and social justice group BLD PWR, where they chanted, “Defund police” and “Prosecute killer cops.” The rally’s speakers called for less public money for police departments and for schools and prisons to be overhauled.

“We’re living in the middle of an uprising,” Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors told the group. “Let’s be clear: We are in an uprising for black life.”

The scene turned more violent as the day wore on.

About a dozen destroyed or defaced LAPD cruisers sat abandoned on 3rd Street, yards from where a loud crowd of protesters faced a row of police. The odor of charred rubber wafted through the area. The cruisers’ windows were smashed, mirrors ripped out and the vehicles’ bodies scrawled with anti-police slogans.

Protesters spray-painted “Cops and Klan go hand in hand” on the side of a Citibank on Fairfax Avenue. Across the street, “Eat the Rich” was scrawled on the Writers Guild of America building.

Around 6 p.m., police arrested about 20 people, who were then loaded onto a sheriff’s bus. Dozens of protesters — many dressed in black and wearing masks — posed for photographs, each with a fist in the air, while standing atop a burned and graffitied car by Edinburgh Avenue and Beverly Boulevard.

At The Grove nearby, looters broke into the Nordstrom department store and the Apple Store and ran off with merchandise. As looters approached two security guards outside the Nike store, the guards begged them not to enter.

“We’re one of you,” one guard said.

Eventually, some set a small police kiosk at the mall on fire.

Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore was personally leading the operation in the Fairfax District and rushed to The Grove after the looting began. He said he was troubled by how things had gotten out of control. He said he understood people’s anger and frustration but that the city needed to pull together.

“This is not the solution,” he said, standing next to broken glass from the Nordstrom facade. “We haven’t given up on L.A., and L.A. shouldn’t give up on itself. We can pull around this. … Policing doesn’t fix these kinds of societal problems. I need all of L.A. to step up right now and be part of the solution.”

There appeared to be divisions among the protesters.

When one smashed the front window of a nearby Whole Foods on 3rd Street with a hammer, some screamed, “Don’t do that! Please!” while others cheered.

The protesters also began to clash among themselves. Some who urged peace created a barricade of shopping carts around the store’s entrance to protect it, but moments later, another group jumped the barrier and broke down the store’s door.

About 6:15 p.m., a crowd suddenly dispersed as police shot rubber bullets at protesters near Beverly Boulevard and Hayworth Avenue. The protesters returned a few minutes later and stood in front of a barricade of police officers. Many held their hands in the air, chanting, “George Floyd!”

Travon Walton, a 25-year-old student from Long Beach, arrived in the Fairfax area in the afternoon to join the protests. He said he saw many non-black protesters inciting the police from up close and said he worried that the black community would receive the blame.

“All the white people are in the front,” he said. “We’re going to be the ones that get the backlash.”

As the night wore on, there were more reports of looting on Fairfax and Melrose avenues, where several stores were ransacked and a Starbucks coffee shop was set ablaze.

Dozens of looters ran into an Adidas store on Melrose and Edinburgh avenues at 9:45 p.m., emerging with blue boxes of shoes. Empty shoe boxes and glass littered the sidewalk outside the store. Cars honked as the looting continued.

“It’s horrible — they need any excuse just to take something,” said Mel, a 39-year-old Compton resident who would provide only his first name as he watched from across the street. Mel said he came to the area to witness history.

“It’s going to be in the news,” he said. “It’s going to be like the Watts riots. I wasn’t really alive for it, but I was alive for this one. I’ll tell my kids and family members what happened.”

By early Sunday, the chaos was replaced by an eerie quiet.

Around 1 a.m., a few stragglers remained in the Fairfax District, the center of the prior day’s protests and looting. Fire crews doused storefronts that had smoldered for hours.

Metro buses, flanked by police motorcycle escorts, carried detained people who had zip ties on their wrists. Broken glass glittered on the sidewalk and hung from window frames..

Los Angeles City Councilman Paul Koretz, who represents many of the areas that incurred damage, said business districts along Fairfax Avenue and Melrose Avenue had been “devastated” by looting, vandalism and graffiti.

“This was the weekend that the city had given permission for restaurants and retail to emerge from COVID,” he said. “And instead, business that were already hanging by a thread are now destroyed.”

By 8:30 a.m., a Los Angeles beautification team was out along Melrose Avenue, near La Brea, beginning the long task of covering up profanity and other tags left on buildings down the street.

Helicopters flew overhead as the crew worked. The crew of five had started at 7:30 a.m. that morning.

“We haven’t even moved one half block,” said crew supervisor, Ernesto Fabian, as he scrubbed graffiti off a window with steel wool.

In the window were paper signs that read “black owned.”

“They don’t respect that,” he said. “They just keep tagging.”

The crew is supposed to work their way down to La Cienega.

“I don’t think we can make it today,” Fabian said. “It’s going to take a couple of days to clean everything.”

Rodney Beckwith, who goes by his artist name Flewnt, is the manager of Resist 323 on Melrose, a pop modern store selling custom clothing and art that saw one of its windows smashed.

He spent the night inside the store, where a garage door security gate was pulled down in front to protect it.

Beckwith was inside when he heard people trying to break in through the back door Saturday night. He shoved his table saw against the security door.

“All I could do was try to get to the rooftop,” he said. “My survival mode, get high and get out the door. I’m not going to sit down there, they’re breaking through a door, they’re not knocking.”

“I know they’re black lives matter, I’m black but s—, they’re doing something crazy,” he said. “… I feel them, I’m with them, but at the same time I’m protecting a business.”

No one was able to breach the security door and get inside.

Beckwith kept a nail gun and an ax with him. He climbed up a ladder and kept a presence up there.

“It’s a black dude store, leave it alone,” protesters said as they spotted him.

“I couldn’t get any sleep until daybreak,” he said.

“It was a wild night, hopefully tonight will be a little calmer,” he said.

In Santa Ana, where protesters and police clashed, the streets were quiet by 2:30 a.m.

At the intersection of McFadden Avenue and Bristol Street, where many of Saturday’s skirmishes took place, the scent of melted plastic lingered in the air. Broken glass was scattered across the intersection.

One man standing with friends outside a nearby house described the entire episode as “dumb.”

“Do you have to loot?” he said. “You’re just making the city look bad.”

The man, who declined to provide his name, said he watched police officers fire tear gas at demonstrators, who threw rocks and other items at officers.

Workers at a Smart and Final on Edinger Avenue were cleaning up broken glass. A small cardboard sign that lay close by read: “Make lynching a federal crime.”

Nearby, Julio De La Chica said he had watched demonstrators break windows at the Smart and Final and an O’Reilly Auto Store, whose walls were scrawled with anti-police graffiti.

“I was stunned,” he said. “I’ve never really seen anything like that before.”

Times staff writers Hailey Branson-Potts, Kevin Baxter, Matthew Ormseth, Leila Miller and Emily Baumgaertner contributed to this report.