Sunday Protests Pop Up in Santa Monica
(Marco Pallotti / The Corsair)
A protest sparked in Santa Monica, Calif. in response to police brutality and racial injustice on Sunday, following multiple demonstrations taking place throughout the country in the last few days. These protests started in Minneapolis on May 26, the day after the killing of George Floyd by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin on May 25. Protests have occurred in Los Angeles since May 27, taking place in downtown Los Angeles (L.A.) and Beverly Hills and turning violent in some areas.
The protests in Santa Monica began peacefully; Police officers were in place blocking off sections of Ocean Ave. Around 2 p.m., as protesters and police gathered around the pier, small groups of people started breaking into and looting stores a couple of blocks east. Footage taken by bystanders and other media outlets show groups of people smashing windows, then taking off with handfuls of merchandise. Boxes of Vans shoes, amidst other stolen goods, littered the streets and sidewalks across the city. The people looting the stores were also seen loading their stolen goods into cars, at least one with a covered license plate
At 2:25 p.m., an update was posted on Twitter by the City of Santa Monica announcing a city-wide curfew would begin at 4 p.m. due to the looting, lasting until the following morning at 5.30 a.m. The tweet also announced that all off-ramps into Santa Monica from the I-10 and Pacific Coast Highway were closed effective immediately.
As the 4:00 p.m. curfew approached, the gathering was eventually declared unlawful, and police officers on Ocean Ave. repeatedly told the crowd to move a block south. Many protesters stayed behind, at which point the police fired tear gas in an effort to make the crowd disperse. Most of the crowd started backing off toward Tongva Park, where rocks and other objects were thrown at the police. The police then responded with rubber bullets and non-lethal rounds.
As of 5 p.m., footage showed people throwing objects and trying to break windows at the Santa Monica Courthouse, as well as groups of looters breaking into stores around downtown Santa Monica.
At 5.08 p.m., large volumes of smoke could be seen coming out of a building on the corner of 4th and Santa Monica Blvd with fire trucks quick to follow to get the situation under control.
At 5.20 p.m. a citywide curfew for all of L.A. county starting at 6 p.m. was announced.
Jackie Sedley, Aleah Antonio, and Kiran Baez contributed to this report.
