LOS ANGELES — The criminal mobs taking advantage of the upheaval caused by the anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles smashed their way into a popular downtown sushi joint, leaving its owner and workers terrified.
Video posted online shows one of the wooden front doors of Otoro Little Tokyo on East 2nd Street hanging bashed off its hinges and dozens of mask-wearing hoodlums trashing the inside of the restaurant and grabbing whatever they could early Monday.
“There were so many people from the outside, I was so scared, I was worried they would steal everything and destroy everything,” owner Kurt Kawai Chin told The Post on Tuesday.
Chin — who moved to the US from Japan in 1996 and is now an American citizen — said he expects his shop to be closed for at least a week — with his restaurant staff too frightened at the moment to show up.
“Everybody is scared. If the protests go longer, we may lose more. We hope the protests will be over soon, otherwise people will still be scared to come downtown,” Chin said.
Some protesters had gathered outside the restaurant during the mayhem in a vain attempt to stop the looters from pillaging yet another local shop, a day after thieves targeted businesses including a downtown Foot Locker, a T-Mobile store and a convenience store.
“Hey get the f–k out!” a protester yelled at the throngs of troublemakers streaming inside.
The man filming the footage followed a hooded man who snatched the restaurant’s cash register drawer into the street, calling after him, “Making us look bad!”
The looter turned around and flashed a gloved middle finger, at which point the photographer, presumably looking to avoid a confrontation, said, “Nah, you good.”
More video posted on Instagram shows protesters closing the door behind the looters, then appearing to stand in front of it to prevent more people from getting inside.
Chin said he expects to be out around $100,000 from the looting when everything is tabulated — including $10,000 for the broken door alone.
“The security company called us, and we looked at the camera. … We were very lucky” considering what could have happened, he said.
LA has been embroiled in chaotic and at times violent protests since Friday, following a series of raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement which resulted in the arrest of around 100 illegal immigrants.
Cops have arrested dozens of the more violent protesters and are on the lookout for others they’ve identified but have yet to capture, including Elpidio Reyna, 40, who was caught on video throwing objects at federal vehicles in the city of Paramount.
President Trump has called in 4,000 National Guard members and around 700 active-duty Marines in an attempt to bring the civil unrest under control, which lefty politicians and media outlets claim have fanned the flames of the violence.
