LOS ANGELES _ National Guard troops have arrived in Santa Monica and were headed to Long Beach after both cities were hit by extensive looting Sunday.
It was a surreal Sunday in Southern California as demonstrators once again gathered en masse, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, to protest the death of George Floyd, a black man who died last week after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck.
National Guard troops and police officers guarded the barricaded steps of Los Angeles City Hall. Los Angeles County officials enacted a mandatory, countywide overnight curfew _ and Santa Monica enacted one that started even earlier, at 4 p.m.
In Santa Monica, looters spent hours in the city's upscale business district stealing items and setting several fires. In Long Beach, an outlet mall and some downtown shops were hit as protesters screamed at looters and begged them to stop. The California Department of Transportation closed westbound lanes of the 10 Freeway at Bundy Drive to prevent people from coming into Santa Monica. Hundreds have been arrested.
Protests in downtown Los Angeles, Huntington Beach and elsewhere were largely peaceful.
The demonstrations were triggered by the Floyd's death. Most of Sunday's protests were initially peaceful.
In Long Beach, hundreds of protesters _ many chanting and holding signs reading "no justice, no peace" and "black lives matter" _ walked from the city's downtown area through Alamitos Beach along Broadway before circling back to downtown along Ocean Boulevard around 3 p.m. Residents stood on sidewalks or on their balconies, often shouting words of support.
However, less than two hours later, hundreds of protesters began looting stores at the Pike Outlets. People in the crowd smashed windows with hammers and trash cans lids. Some protesters yelled for the looters to leave the stores alone. Others shouted "Let's hit Nike" before running toward the popular athletic store.
Several minutes later, a mob rushed back and stormed into Forever 21, slipping on clothes scattered on the floor.
At G By Guess, a man used a hammer to smash the store's door before another man intervened and asked him to stop. Suddenly, the would-be looters began punching the man. A woman screamed for them to stop.
Chandarley Lim, 28, stood in the middle of the street that runs through the outdoor mall yelling "Peaceful protest!" as a reminder that the demonstration was not supposed to be about vandalism.
"This is sad, man," she said of the looting. "This is not a good look. Don't let the bad examples ruin it for the rest of us."
Shortly after 6 p.m., Long Beach police declared an unlawful assembly in the area, signaling that arrests would soon follow. About an hour later, police and demonstrators were at a standoff on Broadway and Pine Avenue. At least one protester threw a water bottle at the officers standing along Pine, prompting them to shoot rubber projectiles into the crowd.
Looting continued into the night, and someone set fire to a men's clothing business in downtown Long Beach.
A similar scene unfolded in Santa Monica. Hundreds of people walked from the Santa Monica Pier north along Ocean Avenue, carrying signs and chanting. Some protesters were in a tense standoff with police, who were firing less-than-lethal weapons after some demonstrators threw objects toward them.
A little before 2 p.m., however, dozens of looters stormed Santa Monica Place, smashing the windows of Louis Vuitton and several other stores. They left before police arrived.
Paul Cain, who owns the Britannia Pub in Santa Monica, said he called police early in the afternoon to ask about safety in the area. They told him the protesters were peaceful and that he had nothing to worry about.
What seemed like moments later, he saw waves of crowds on the street outside of his business. He ushered his customers sitting on the patio inside, and they watched looters storm the area.
"The people were outside eating and drinking, and all of a sudden it arrived," he said. "It happened in waves."
Looters also ransacked the Vans store, stealing shoes and skateboards. People carried merchandise past the Promenade as police guarding Third Street watched them. They ran to a nearby alley, found what looked to be the back entrance to a store, and swarmed inside.
Amid sirens blaring and shouts of "police!" the group ran back out of the alley, carrying shoe boxes. Some of them were picked up by a waiting car. They rushed to stuff the merchandise inside while police on motorcycles approached.
A few blocks away, at Seventh Street and Broadway, people were seen breaking into a pharmacy, using a skateboard to shatter the window before climbing inside. Next door, people smashed the window of a jewelry store. Firefighters at a neighboring station urged residents to go indoors.
At least one sheriff's patrol car parked outside the civic center was set ablaze during the unrest. Some onlookers driving by slowed down to watch flames overtake the vehicle.
Police shut down all off-ramps into Santa Monica from the 10 Freeway and Pacific Coast Highway and told people to avoid the downtown area.
In response to the protests across the region, Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva announced a countywide curfew beginning at 6 p.m. Sunday and ending at 6 a.m. Monday. Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia also announced a curfew in Long Beach from 8 p.m. Sunday to 5 a.m. Monday.
By the evening, the looting throughout Santa Monica had not lost steam. Protesters crashed store windows with hammers and ran in, taking what they could before police arrived. Store alarms and police sirens sounded throughout the city. Bystanders and drivers all slowed to watch the destruction, many holding their phones out to document what was happening. It was a lawless scene, with few obeying approaching sirens or street lights.
Inside the Britannia Pub, Cain periodically shouted and pointed out the window toward people with their arms full of merchandise from the Gap and other stores.
"Take a picture of that," he said. "He must be carrying his body weight in jeans."
Protests were also underway Sunday afternoon in downtown Los Angeles, including a march from Pershing Square to City Hall. National Guard troops established a perimeter around City Hall, joining officers from the Los Angeles Police Department.
"They told us we couldn't do it and we made it," Elevn St James, who organized the protest, said from his spot on the steps of City Hall. The crowd of several hundred broke out in cheers and applause.
"This is the opportunity for our generation to decide who we want to be as Americans," he said into a megaphone. "I can't help but think, maybe this is the dream that Dr. King died for."
At some point, he said "Peace wins" and urged the crowd not to escalate the violence.
"We can't give them any more reason to shoot and kill us," he said. "No more names."
The crowd shouted back: "No more names."
Neissa Diabate, 27, stood nearby holding a sign that read, "America would not exist without the black community."
"It's actually wild that we have to be out here in the middle of a pandemic," she said. "America has taught us that peace does not get us far."
Meanwhile, on the south side of the LAPD headquarters, a few hundred protesters shouted, "Hands up, don't shoot" at a line of officers and National Guardsmen as a police helicopter circled overhead. Cellphones rang out in the crowd with an alert about the countywide curfew.
"They changed the time. They changed the curfew ... cowards," a woman yelled, using an expletive.
Earlier Sunday, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti had imposed an overnight curfew for a second night in the wake of the worst unrest in the city in decades, warning millions of residents and would-be protesters that they could be arrested if they ventured outside after 8 p.m. County officials later amended the order to get people inside by 6 p.m.
The curfew is necessary to maintain order after two consecutive nights of looting, arson and tense clashes between police and protesters in the street, Garcetti said.
"When times demand it," the mayor said, "strong steps are required to bring peace back to our city."
Los Angeles police said 398 people were arrested Saturday on suspicion of crimes including burglary, looting, vandalism, failure to disperse, and firearms and curfew violations. Five LAPD officers were injured, with two of them hospitalized, officials said.
The most seriously injured officer was struck by a brick in the Fairfax area and suffered a fractured skull, authorities said. An officer also suffered a broken arm, and another's leg was broken during clashes with protesters.
LAPD Chief Michel Moore said the officer whose skull was fractured underwent surgery Saturday night. "I believe he will survive," he said at a Sunday news conference with Garcetti at L.A. City Hall.
Garcetti said people who engaged in "destruction and looting" were only hurting others in the community.
"They have not just caused chaos and damage," he said. "They are hijacking a moment and a movement."
The unrest _ which undercut a weekend meant to be focused on the reopening of restaurants, barbershops and hair salons that had been shuttered due to the coronavirus outbreak _ spurred cities across the region to enact overnight curfews.
The cities of Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, West Hollywood, Culver City and Torrance announced curfews for Sunday into Monday, as did the city of Santa Ana in Orange County.
"Violence, looting, and vandalism will not be tolerated in our city," Beverly Hills Mayor Lester Friedman said. "It's unfortunate that the message of the peaceful protesters has been diminished by criminal behavior."
After another night of unrest, authorities and business owners were up at dawn Sunday to survey the damage in downtown Los Angeles. Guardsmen dressed in full combat gear stood outside shattered storefronts as the morning light revealed damage from the days before: broken windows, trash-strewn streets and graffiti-tagged buildings.
By 7 a.m., scores of National Guardsmen toting M-4 rifles marched on patrol along Broadway between Seventh and Eighth streets.
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 in a jury trial.
Compared with those riots, the events in Los Angeles over the weekend were significantly less widespread and dangerous.
Rodney Beckwith, who goes by his artist name, Flewnt, is the manager of Resist 323 on Melrose Avenue, a 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 Saturday night when he heard people trying to break in through the back door. He shoved a 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 ... 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.
Eli Ventov has had his store, Reloaded L.A., along Melrose for nearly 12 years. The store had just reopened Wednesday after being closed because of the pandemic.
On Saturday, as they saw the protests start to grow, workers rushed to Home Depot and got painters paper to cover the windows so no one would break in.
No one did break in that night. But in the same building, people broke into the Dr. Martens store. Around 7 p.m., someone threw a bottle with gasoline inside the store, Ventov said.
"It went from this store, to this store, to this store," Ventov said of the resulting fire, gesturing to shoe store Tony-K and then to his store.
Ventov stood across the street and watched his clothing and jewelry store burn.
"You see all your life running across your face," he said. "I can't believe it.
"I understand where they're coming from, but did you really need to come that way?"
"He stayed the whole time. We saw him on the news across the street watching his building burn down," said Ramon Pazos, who works at the store. "There's nothing we could do but watch."
On Sunday morning Ventov stood outside the blackened store, where the roof appeared on the verge of collapse and the sky was visible through patches. He grew teary-eyed as a friend embraced him and told him it would be OK.
