Looters have targeted Los Angeles’s Jewelry District while police are preoccupied with the anti-immigration protests sweeping the city, according to reports.
A gas station, an Apple store and branches of Adidas and T-Mobile were also broken into during the chaos of the last few days, with images showing smashed glass doors and boarded-up premises. The unrest was sparked by raids from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on Friday.
The Los Angeles Police Department first reported stores being looted on 6th Street and Broadway on Sunday evening, with video footage verified by The Independent showing masked assailants breaking into a sneaker store in the neighborhood.
While authorities have acknowledged most protestors are peacefully demonstrating, a California Highway Patrol officer told NewsNation looters have taken advantage of the city’s police funneling its resources in attempts to quell unrest.
Multiple people were arrested in connection with jewelry store break-ins on Monday evening, though it is not yet clear if the suspects are demonstrators or opportunists unconnected to the protests.
With display boxes left littered on the sidewalk, a clean-up operation began Tuesday morning outside the Apple Tower Theatre on West 8th Street and Broadway after an overnight break-in, according to KTLA.
Multiple iPhones, Apple Watches and MacBooks had been taken with “No ICE,” a nod to the Donald Trump administration’s immigration enforcement activities in the city, spray-painted across smashed windows.
A few blocks away, police apprehended suspects on West 8th and Main Street after a Shoe Palace was burglarized. A CVS pharmacy and a marijuana dispensary were also looted Monday.
One shop owner witnessed police make four arrests in the Jewelry District alone. Monty, the owner of Bargain2Perfumes on West 7th Street, looked on as someone broke into his store.
“I saw somebody’s [sic] break into my store,” he said. “They break into the Apple store. They break into the Adidas store. This is not… protest.”
Another man told CBS News Los Angeles that they saw suspects using saws and other tools to break into storefronts. “They came prepared,” he said.
On Saturday, in advance of the looting, the LAPD urged business owners to photograph any damage done by looters and send them to authorities.
LA Mayor Karen Bass blamed the unrest on the Trump administration Monday evening for what she suggested was an indiscriminate targeting of migrants, rather than apprehending “violent criminals.”
Further reports of looting came as Trump faced fresh controversy after he pledged to deploy 2,000 more National Guard troops, adding to the 2,000 he mobilized on Sunday.
He also called for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to deploy a battalion of up to 700 Marines.
Trump has defended his decision to order nearly 5,000 military personnel to LA on Tuesday, claiming the city “would be burning to the ground right now” if he failed to act.
The president also escalated his war of words against Californian officials, rebuking Governor Gavin Newsom and Bass as “incompetent” and a “total mess.”
