(The Center Square) – Los Angeles leaders are scrambling to address the ongoing violence and property damage caused by rioters in the downtown area as the city endures a fifth day of rioting.
Anti-U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement rioters looted several businesses, including an Apple store and an Adidas shop, and graffitied buildings on Monday night after L.A. Police Department officers tried to push them away from the Robert Young Federal Building.
“The violence and the damage is unacceptable,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said Tuesday. “It is not going to be tolerated and individuals will be arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
The LAPD arrested 14 people for looting and one person for vandalism on Monday night, according to a Tuesday LAPD news release. The LAPD reported additional arrests: 96 for failure to disperse, one for assault with a deadly weapon, and one for resisting arrest.
The LAPD Central Division, which oversees the city’s downtown area, said when rioters were being dispersed, some “looted businesses and vandalized property,” i according to post on Monday post on X. In the same post, the LAPD Central Division asked businesses and members of the public to share any photos or videos of property damage done by rioters.
The Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, an organization dedicated to fostering area businesses and supporting the local economy, commented on the riots saying it did not agree with the Trump administration’s recent immigration enforcement actions, while also calling for rioters to stop engaging in violence.
“We also call upon our fellow Angelenos to express their views on these raids in productive and peaceful ways, so as not to compound the damage already felt by families, community members, and small businesses throughout the region,” the LA Area Chamber said in a Monday news release.
When asked what cautions – if any– the city been taking to protect Americans and their property, Bass said there is only so much she and the city can do in terms of preventing riots.
“In terms of what the city can do to protect public properties, you know we have no idea where they [rioters] are going,” Bass said. “We would not have the capacity to have LAPD at every public facility.”
Bass also said there is “extensive vandalism downtown” across a number of city blocks. She called on people in the community to help beautify the city. Some city workers are already on the streets cleaning up some of the graffiti. Solving the problem, however, will require a community-wide effort, Bass added.
“I’m calling on business leaders, community leaders, faith leaders,” she said, “to come together downtown in the next few days to talk about how we are going to clean up the city.”
