Curfew in LA as Trump vows to 'liberate' city

LOS ANGELES:

A nighttime curfew was declared in Los Angeles on Tuesday as local officials sought to get a handle on protests that Donald Trump claimed were an invasion by a "foreign enemy."

Looting and vandalism has scarred the heart of America's second biggest city as largely peaceful protests over immigration arrests turned ugly after dark. "I have declared a local emergency and issued a curfew for downtown Los Angeles to stop the vandalism, to stop the looting," Mayor Karen Bass told reporters.

One square mile (2.5 square kilometers) of the city's more-than-500 square mile area will be off-limits between 8pm and 6am for everyone apart from residents, journalists and emergency services, she added.

One protester told AFP the arrest of migrants in a city with large foreign-born and Latino populations was the root of the unrest.

"I think that obviously they're doing it for safety," she said of the curfew.

"But I don't think that part of the problem is the peaceful protests. It's whatever else is happening on the other side that is inciting violence."

Small-scale and largely peaceful protests — marred by eye-catching acts of violence — began Friday in Los Angeles as anger swelled over ramped up arrests by immigration authorities.

At their largest, a few thousand people have taken to the streets, but smaller mobs have used the cover of darkness to set fires, daub graffiti and smash windows.

Overnight Monday 23 businesses were looted, police said, adding that more than 500 people had been arrested over recent days.

Protests have also sprung up in cities around the country, including New York, Atlanta, Chicago and San Francisco.