The LAPD arrested 54 people, including a reporter, after declaring an unlawful assembly in response to two protests on election night. All of the arrests were made on suspicion of failure to disperse, with 30 of those resulting in citations.
The arrests were made south of the Staples Center, on the 600 block of W. 18th St. and at the Grand/LATTC Metro Rail Station. Both unlawful assembly orders were made in response to groups of protestors blocking traffic, groups that broke off from a larger demonstration in front of the Staples Center that had been broken up by law enforcement earlier in the night.
After the LAPD made several arrests at the Staples Center, a group of around 50 protestors, led by a contingent dressed in all black and wearing helmets reading ANTIFA or ACAB, entered the southbound lane of Figueroa St. They marched to the intersection with Washington Blvd and occupied the intersection for about 15 minutes.
A dozen LAPD motorcycles were seen tracking the protestors as they marched through the streets. There were no law enforcement present when the demonstrators entered the intersection.
After 15 minutes, one of the black-clad protestors announced over a bullhorn that they could not safely hold the intersection and they asked everyone to leave the intersection. Once they had dispersed, police dressed in riot gear arrived at the intersection and began to follow the protestors as they tried to leave the scene.
Some of the protestors went into the 600 block of W. 18th. Well over a hundred riot police advanced from the east and west ends of the street, trapping protestors between them. This aggressive tactic is known as kettling, and its use in recent protests has been controversial.
Police gave conflicting messages to those caught between them, with each line of officers telling them to leave the area while providing no route for them to leave. The LAPD arrested over a dozen people, citing them with failure to disperse and releasing them half an hour later.
One of those arrested, Eduardo, was a resident of that street and was not involved in the protest.
While this group was being detained, many of those who had left the initial march into the intersection had come back and were confronting the police blocking the east end of 18th St. By the time the LAPD had released the last detainee, the crowd had swelled to nearly 80 people and moved into the intersection, once again blocking the flow of traffic.
Riot police entered the street and pushed demonstrators to the intersection of Flower St. and Washington Blvd. and issued a declaration of an unlawful assembly. Police gave those in the street 5 minutes to exit going west down Washington Blvd.
After 5 minutes there were still people in the intersection, so the police rushed the protestors and drove them down W. Washington. At this point, riot police had blocked off the exit route they established, so many people climbed onto the Grand / LATTC Metro Rail Station.
Over the next hour LAPD officers arrested a group of 40 protestors, according to a department statement, charged with blocking the train tracks as they climbed onto the platform.
The LAPD was put on tactical alert Tuesday night in response to any unrest that might have cropped up.