For hours, thousands of people in Los Angeles peacefully celebrated their defiance of US President Donald Trump Saturday with music, marching, bubbles and balloons — then police unexpectedly moved in, and chaos and confusion broke out.
The demonstration — part of the nationwide “No Kings” day of protests across the country — was by far the largest in more than a week of protests ignited by anger against immigration raids the Trump administration has been carrying out across the country’s second-largest city.
Like those before it, Saturday’s had been largely peaceful. A march that began in the morning had finished, with demonstrators milling about on a sunny afternoon as the scene took on the air of a street festival.
But then:
Then police unexpectedly began moving people away from the area, igniting confusion and anger among demonstrators caught off guard and unsure of where to go.
Police on horseback pushed crowds back as law enforcement fired tear gas and flash-bang grenades hours ahead of an 8:00 pm (0300 GMT) curfew.
A police spokeswoman later told local TV channel KTLA that a “small group of agitators” had begun throwing rocks, bottles and fireworks at officers, prompting the decision to order the crowd to disperse.
