Demonstrators in support of the two-month long police protest movement in Portland, Oregon, today smashed windows and sprayed slogans at the Metropolitan Detention Center and threw objects at police during a demonstration in downtown Los Angeles.
The confrontation resulted in a citywide tactical alert holding over all officers past the end of their shifts because many were sent to the downtown protest.
Two demonstrations were scheduled to start in front of City Hall, one organized by the group Refuse Fascism and the other by the Youth Liberation Front.
The crowd estimated at a few hundred marched to the Los Angeles Police Department headquarters building at First and Main streets, then to the Metropolitan Detention Center at 535 Alameda St., where a witness reported three glass door panels were smashed and the words Building the new world today" with an "A'' surrounded by a circle -- an anarchy symbol -- on a window and a tweeted photo showed "Destroy DHS & ICE'' painted on a building sign before the protesters marched away.
Protesters marched onto the Hollywood (101) Freeway and then to the United States Courthouse at 350 W. First St., where protesters threw objects at officers, who fired back with nonlethal rounds. A reporter at the scene said officers were aiming directly at protestors, rather than at the ground in front of them, as per department regulations.
Three arrestees suffered minor injuries and were taken to hospitals for treatment, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department's Margaret Stewart.
