06 09 25 ABC News Reporter Alex Stone on the anti ICE riots happening in Los Angles

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It is Colorado's morning news. Protests in downtown LA have
prompted the President and his administration to deploy the California
National Guard under his authority and without the approval of
California Governor Gavin A. Newsome. Alex, join us, It joins
us right now in the KWA comment Spirit Health Hotline. Alex,
what is the latest? What are you seeing? What do
we know right now?

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Hey Martie, Good morning. Yeah, very long night for mainly
the LAPD. Even at two o'clock in the morning, they
were battling back crowds, throwing concrete, shooting off fireworks at them,
and all of this escalated so quickly since Friday when
federal immigration raids began and the crowd started gathering around those,
and then the crowds figured out in the city of

(00:39):
Paramount where the Feds were massing and where they were
deploying out of, and then the protests moved there, and
then overnight last night down outside of a federal building
where detainees, the ice detainees where they're being brought and
really grew there. And now the National Guard being here
on the ground, deployed by the President against the wishes

(01:00):
of local police and local leaders here adding in a
new element all of this, but it was a battle overnight.
LAPD Chief Jim McDonald saying, this short time ago, this.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
Violence that I've seen is disgusting. It's escalated now since
the beginning of this incident. What we saw the first
night was bad. What we've seen subsequent to that is
getting increasingly worse and more violent.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
Overnight. The crowd's using dumpsters and park benches as shields
as they were taking on police. But Marty, the National
Guard part of this is interesting because not since nineteen
sixty five as a president deployed the National Guard without
the governor doing it without the governor wanting it, and
that was in some Alabama, And in this case, they're

(01:43):
coming in as federal agents, essentially not communicating with the LAPD.
The LAPD says, we don't know what their role is
going to be. They've only had one conference call with
them to say, I guess you guys do this. It
is a brigade combat team coming in, not military police
they would normally order for like wildfires and things to

(02:03):
tell about with roadblocks, and the chief saying that it's
not that he's against the National Guard being here that
he may have gotten to that point, but there are
steps that they take, typically mutual aid, and then they
would let the National Guard know, here's what we want,
here's what we want you to do, Here's how we'll communicate.
None of that is going on right now, and I
mean this point, the National Guard was out numbered last
night and the LAPD had to come in and take over.

Speaker 1 (02:26):
This is interesting because I was going to ask how
law enforcement feels about a National Guard presence. Obviously, Gavin
Newsom is fit to be tied and frustrated. I think
Mayor Bass has also had similar sentiments. I've also understand
we've had protester audio and obviously you're there, Alex. I
think many of the postresters feel like it's a tough situation,
but the National Guard exacerbates the situation. Do you get

(02:46):
that sense that's the feeling of the protesters and people there.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
You know, in a way, it does seem like that
just the image of what look like troops with long
guns across their chests and gas masks on and helmets,
that that is causing people to come out and want
to battle them. And you know, police have kind of
learned over the years that sometimes taking a step back

(03:09):
will de escalate it, and not engaging the image of
putting troops on the front lines and going up against
those who are protesting can inflame things. Now the threat
is from the President. The active duty Marines will be
sent in internally and somewhat vocally, but very much as
we've been talking to them. That is worrisome to law

(03:33):
enforcement because active duty Marines won't be communicating with them.
They're not on their police radio channels. Their rules of
engagement are totally different. They're trained in combat in Afghanistan
and in Iraq and you know elsewhere that they how
are they going to operate with local police if they're

(03:53):
doing an operation? How do they deal with crowd controlled
domestically in the US? Just you know, all bets are
off at that point. So the local police are saying
they really hope and maybe back channeling a little bit
to get the message to the White House of that
that is going to make it really difficult to deal
with command and control here on the ground. But that

(04:13):
threat is out there that the Marines could be coming in.

Speaker 1 (04:16):
Final question, he Yo, You've been up all night and
I'm so glad we got to catch up with you
before you call it day because you've been so busy.
Do you get any sense what may be happening later today,
in this evening while these protests continue, or and if
they do, are they going to be less of what
they've have in the past twenty four to forty eight hours.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
You know, it's a great question. We don't know. Every
night things kind of begin to pop off in the evening,
hopefully tonight being a week night with schools are still
in and in some areas of LA and people have
to go back to work, and it is such a
police force of so many officers who are here now
that things will begin to calm down. But we'll find

(04:51):
out tonight as the sun begins to go down, the
crowd seem to come out, and then we'll see what
goes on tonight.

Speaker 1 (04:56):
ABC's Alex Stone, thank you.