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By Jordan King and Shane Croucher
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Dramatic footage, above, showed two motorbike riders trying to break through police lines during the protests in Los Angeles against immigration enforcement in the city.
Newsweek has contacted the Los Angeles Police Department, via email, for comment.
Why It Matters
Protests have rocked Los Angeles at the weekend, with demonstrators attempting to deter immigration raids and detentions by federal officials seeking to deport those in the U.S. illegally.
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While the raids are following legal directive from federal authorities, protests have erupted amid reports that detainees were being held in the basement of a federal building. ICE denied these allegations, with a spokesperson previously telling Newsweek the agency "categorically refutes the assertions made by immigration activists in Los Angeles."
Scenes have turned violent, showing with burning cars and protesters seen hurling heavy objects at police vehicles.
President Donald Trump has deployed National Guard troops to quell the unrest, despite opposition from state and local leaders, who accused him of fanning the flames.
What To Know
The first rider, draped in the national flag of Guatemala, can be seen revving his engine and driving from the crowd through the police line, though he was quickly stopped and forced off his bike.
Shortly after, a second motorbike rider tries the same, bursting through the line and colliding with an officer before falling off and also being detained.
As riot officers fired rubber bullets toward the crowd, voices can be heard yelling "stay on the line" and "hold the line."
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"Demonstrators have halted vehicles on Los Angeles North of Arcadia St and ignited the vehicles. Our partners with LAFD are attempting to enter the area to extinguish the fire," the LAPD said. "An unlawful assembly has been issued for the entire area."
Another dramatic image circulating the internet shows a protester standing on top of a wrecked car with a Mexican flag, with flames burning behind him.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) sent a one-line warning to rioters in Los Angeles, accompanied by images of individuals standing on a damaged and vandalized vehicle and waving Mexican flags.
"ORDER WILL BE RESTORED," the DHS post on X said.
California's Gov. Gavin Newsom tried to separate the violence from the peaceful protesting taking place and accused President Donald Trump of making matters worse in Los Angeles.
"These images are unacceptable. These kids on the car, folks that are taking advantage of this—these aren't peaceful protesters, a lot of these folks," Newsom told MSNBC, responding to some of the footage emerging.
"A lot of great people out there, doing the right thing. But you get these insurgent groups coming in, sort of these anarchists, that are in there to create real problems. And they're just playing right into Donald Trump's hands.
"They need to be called out. They need to be arrested. It is wrong to destroy other people's property, and it is wrong to create the conditions that only exacerbate this.
"But Donald Trump, at the end of the day, is the sponsor of these conditions."
Trump has argued that National Guard troops are necessary because Newsom and Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass "can't do their jobs."
"Then the Federal Government will step in and solve the problem, RIOTS & LOOTERS, the way it should be solved," he said on Truth Social.
What People Are Saying
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem on Face the Nation on Sunday: "If he [Newsom] was doing his job, people wouldn't have gotten hurt the last couple of days. We wouldn't have officers with a shattered wrist from bricks thrown through their vehicles, vehicles being burned, flags burned in the street and Molotov cocktails being thrown."
Border czar Tom Homan on Fox News on Saturday said: "We're already mobilizing. We're gonna bring the National Guard in tonight and we're gonna continue doing our job. This is about enforcing the law."
He added: "American people, this is about enforcing the law, and again, we're not going to apologize for doing it."
California Governor Gavin Newsom on X, formerly Twitter, following the National Guard announcement: "The federal government is moving to take over the California National Guard and deploy 2,000 soldiers. That move is purposefully inflammatory and will only escalate tensions. L.A. authorities are able to access law enforcement assistance at a moment's notice. We are in close coordination with the city and county, and there is currently no unmet need."
LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said: "The situation has become disgusting. Our officers have been targeted with Molotov cocktails."
What Happens Next
It remains to be seen who of the protesters involved in these scenes will be arrested and charged.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said that active-duty Marines at Camp Pendleton could also be mobilized. "They are on high alert," he said on X on Saturday evening.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump Jr. called for more "Rooftop Koreans" in response to the rioting in Los Angeles, in reference to the Korean-American business owners who took to the rooftops of their premises during the 1992 LA riots armed with guns to protect their property from vandalism and looting.
"Make Rooftop Koreans Great Again!" Trump Jr., the president's eldest son, posted to X alongside an image from the original LA riots.
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