The city has seen days of public outrage since the Trump
administration launched a series of immigration raids on Friday,
though local officials said the demonstrations on Monday were largely peaceful.
About half of the roughly 700 Marines that Trump ordered to
Los Angeles arrived on Monday night, and the remaining troops will enter the
city on Tuesday, a US official told Reuters.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass told KABC that more than 100
people had been arrested on Monday but that the majority of protesters were
nonviolent.
The Marines will protect federal property and personnel
alongside Guard troops, US Northern Command said in a statement announcing the
move. There were approximately 1,700 Guard troops in greater Los Angeles as of
Monday, with more on the way.
Trump
has justified his decision to deploy active military troops to Los Angeles by
describing the protests as a violent occupation, a characterization that Newsom
and Bass have said is grossly exaggerated.
Newsom
accused Trump of sending troops to deliberately inflame the situation and said
the president's actions made it more difficult for local law enforcement to
respond to the demonstrations.
In a social media post on Tuesday morning, Trump said Los
Angeles would be "burning to the ground right now" if he had not
deployed troops to the city.
Since protests broke out on Friday they have been largely
peaceful, although there have been isolated clashes, with some demonstrators
throwing rocks and other objects at officers, blocking an interstate highway
and setting several cars ablaze. Several businesses were looted, including an
Apple store and a CVS pharmacy. Police have responded by firing projectiles
such as pepper balls, as well as flash-bang grenades and tear gas.
Police said they had arrested 21 people on Sunday on charges
including attempted murder with a Molotov cocktail and assaulting an officer,
and officials said they expected more arrests after reviewing video.
In a
statement on Monday, Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said the department
had not been notified that any Marines were traveling to the city and that
their arrival "presents a significant logistical and operational
challenge."
Trump's Marine deployment escalated his confrontation with
Newsom, who filed a lawsuit on Monday asserting that Trump's activation of
Guard troops without the governor's consent was illegal. The Guard deployment
was the first time in decades that a president did so without a request from a
sitting governor.
The use of active military to respond to civil disturbances
is extremely rare.
"This
isn't about public safety," Newsom wrote on X on Monday. "It's about
stroking a dangerous President's ego."
The top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee,
Senator Jack Reed, said he was "gravely troubled" by Trump's
deployment of active-duty Marines.
"Since our nation's founding, the American people have
been perfectly clear, we do not want the military conducting law enforcement on
US soil," he said.
U.S. Marines are trained for conflicts around the world -
from the Middle East to Africa - and are also used for rapid deployments in
case of emergencies, such as threats to US embassies.
In addition to combat training, which includes weapons
training, some units also learn riot and crowd control techniques.
