LOS ANGELES — Rioters called for the destruction of the US and spat on a flaming American flag while chanting “burn it down” in a sickening caught-on-video display — as the violent protests entered their fourth day in the City of Angels.
Images of the disturbing scene emerged Monday, along with footage of thugs looting businesses and raining bricks, scooters and other deadly missiles onto cops from a highway overpass.
And many Angelinos are fed up with the anti-American madness.
“What’s the point of protesting right now? It’s just harming the community more than it’s helping,” said Eddie Velazquez, who owns a kitchen knife shop near the looted stores.
The protests began Friday after Immigration and Customs Enforcement executed a series of raids around the city, rounding up more than 100 illegal immigrants. Hundreds took to the streets in opposition, waving anti-ICE signs and Mexican flags while facing off against cops and federal immigration officers.
But the demonstrations soon descended into anarchy in downtown LA and the nearby cities of Compton and Paramount on Saturday and Sunday night — as rioters burned cars, vandalized public buildings and property and even looted local businesses, much of the destruction captured on video.
An ICE source told The Post the protesters — whether they know it or not — are advocating “for the actual criminals … sex offenders and the terrorists” the agency is targeting in its raids, exhibiting a gross misunderstanding of who is guilty or innocent.
“You have criminals, gang members, terrorists, child molesters, sex offenders that are being arrested, but since people don’t know the background of the case or what’s going on, everybody’s innocent,” the source described.
“And that’s who they’re protesting for, the actual criminals that are being arrested, the sex offenders, the terrorists, all that.”
Thousands of protesters flooded the streets of downtown LA throughout the weekend — including at least one group with ties to the Democratic Party and another linked to the Chinese Communist Party.
Footage of one downtown riot on Sunday night shows a rowdy mob setting an American flag on fire in the streets, spitting on Old Glory as a man with a bullhorn spewed anti-American slogans through a megaphone to egg on the braying herd.
“This is not just a gesture, this is something we need to make real. We need to take down this empire once and for all,” the man called out to the crowd, some of whom stepped into the circle to spray the flag with lighter fluid.
On Sunday night, the havoc devolved into looting as vandals smashed their way into businesses — including a Foot Locker, a T-Mobile store and a local convenience shop — and helped themselves to anything that wasn’t nailed down.
In an act of absolute lawlessness, a gang of hoodlums rushed inside the shoe store and emerged minutes later with large stacks of Nike sneakers still in the box as onlookers cheered them on.
Footage of inside the businesses filmed through the destroyed front doors showed the stores had been virtually picked clean by the criminal thugs, who fled into the night with their plundered lucre.
Pedro Perez, who was working at a Boost Mobile store in a Compton strip mall that was hit by vandals, said the criminal behavior ran counter to the stated purpose of the protests.
“Spray painting and all this damage, that’s not helping anybody. And right here where they were spray painting, mainly all these people are all Hispanic owners,” he told The Post.
“The whole point is to be united, and you guys are damaging your own people’s businesses. I just think it’s stupid.”
Added Velazquez, the knife shop owner: “It’s really sad that people who should be protesting are looting. It’s probably not the protestors who are looting, but people are taking advantage of it.”
Maria Fabila, owner of a Mexican dress shop downtown said that customers have forfeited deposits on dresses and suits because they’re afraid to go out in the streets.
“Everything that is happening is very bad,” she said.
Most residents interviewed by The Post in this bright blue city said they blame Trump for escalating the situation — even as they acknowledged that the rioters are making everything worse.
Earlier Sunday, at least 2,000 anti-ICE protesters took over LA’s 101 Freeway, bringing traffic to a standstill as California Highway Patrol officers in riot gear responded and corralled the crowd onto an exit ramp, forcing them off the roadway.
The freeway briefly reopened, but was shut down again around 7:30 p.m. after rioters began hurling objects including bricks onto southbound lanes, damaging police cars, the LAPD said.
The simmering violence became so out of control that President Trump ordered the deployment of 2,000 members of the National Guard to Los Angeles on Saturday, and mobilized 700 active-duty Marines early Monday evening.
California’s lefty Gov. Gavin Newsom said he plans on filing a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the National Guard deployment, and dared Trump’s border czar Tom Homan to slap him in cuffs in an interview with NBC News.
“Come after me. Arrest me. Let’s just get it over with, tough guy,” he taunted.
This prompted the president to fire back that he would arrest Newsom if he was Homan.
Speaking on MSNBC Monday, Homan said the ICE raids that sparked the riots in the first place had nothing to do with rounding up migrants. They were part of an ongoing criminal investigation into money laundering, tax evasion and customs fraud.
“It was to serve of three criminal warrants at locations based on a large criminal conspiracy that ICE is investigating,’ Homan told the outlet.
However, ICE was spotted operating across Southern California again on Monday — with federal law enforcement sources saying, “We’re going harder now … we’re not backing down.”
The Justice Department said that anyone who broke the law will be found and punished.
“This Department of Justice is actively investigating several cases for prosecution and working to identify any rioter who broke federal law.”
