Protests spread in US despite govt threats

LOS ANGELES: Protests over hardline immigration tactics ignited across the United States after days of demonstrations in Los Angeles, as California prepared yesterday for a legal showdown over President Donald Trump’s deployment of the military.

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More than 1,000 people massed Wednesday in America’s second biggest city, for a sixth day of protests, with the crowd peaceful as they marched through the streets.

A second night of curfew was in place as city leaders try to get a handle on the after-dark vandalism and looting that scarred a few city blocks in the 500-square-mile (1,300 square kilometres) metropolis.

"I would say for the most part everything is hunky dory right here at Ground Zero,” protester Lynn Sturgis, 66, a retired school teacher, told AFP.

“Our city is not at all on fire, it's not burning down, as our terrible leader is trying to tell you.”

The mostly peaceful protests ignited over a sudden escalation in efforts to apprehend migrants in the country illegally.

Pockets of violence — including the burning of self-driving taxis and hurling stones at police — were nothing the 8,500 officers of the Los Angeles Police Department had not dealt with before.

In Spokane, Washington, a night curfew was declared after police arrested more than 30 protesters and fired pepper balls to disperse crowds, police chief Kevin Hall told a news conference.