The city of Los Angeles brought forward the curfew at 6 p.m., originally scheduled at 8 p.m., after organized groups began looting businesses while holding peaceful protests in the morning.
After a night of unrest that wreaked havoc in the city center and popular areas like Beverly Hills, several protesters gathered peacefully in the coastal area of Santa Monica, where violent groups soon began to force their way in. to shops.
Aerial images broadcast on television showed organized gangs moving around in cars and breaking the windows of premises to start their looting.
As Efe was able to verify, the violent acts happened while hundreds of protesters protested peacefully in nearby streets, with minutes of silence in honor of the African-American citizen George Floyd, who died last Monday in Minneapolis (Minnesota) at the hands of the police.
But the authorities decided to extend the curfew, which was initially scheduled at 8:00 p.m., to start at 6:00 p.m. until 5:30 a.m.
This is the second day that this security measure is applied in the Californian city, which has been one of the most disturbed scenes due to the wave of protests in the United States against Floyd’s death.
From early in the morning, National Guard troops were deployed throughout the city and at strategic points such as the City Hall headquarters, after two nights with scenes of looting, pitched battles and barricades on the main avenues.
Other American cities such as Atlanta (Georgia), Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) and Portland (Oregon) have imposed similar measures, but in the case of Los Angeles the tense situation is reminiscent of the violent riots that in 1992 resulted in more than 50 deaths and 2,000 wounded, after another famous case of police brutality against an African American citizen.
The mayor noted that the wave of protests and the coronavirus pandemic represent “the strongest moment you have experienced as a Los Angeles resident since the 1992 riots.”
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