LAPD Chief Contradicts Newsom, Bass, Schiff: ‘Violence Is Escalating’

The violence from protesters involved in the pro-migration, foreign-flag-waving riots in Los Angeles is “escalating,” Los Angeles Police Department Chief Jim McDonnell revealed during a press conference.

During the press conference, McDonnell revealed that the violence is “getting increasingly worse and more violent” since the riots first started over the weekend. McDonnell also added that protesters were shooting “commercial grade fireworks” at LAPD officers.

McDonnell also revealed that he respects U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, adding that they are a “fellow law enforcement agency.”

“To the people who are not happy with the fact that ICE is in the community doing what ICE does — I respect ICE for being a fellow law enforcement agency. They have their mission, they have their … what they have to do. We don’t engage in that activity, but again, we can’t preclude them from doing that. They have every right to do that,” McDonnell said.

“This 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. Tonight we had individuals out there shooting commercial grade fireworks at our officers, that can kill you,” McDonnell added. “We have adapted our tactics to have a chance to take these people into custody, and to be able to hold them accountable. We are overwhelmed as far as the number of people out there engaged in this type of activity, and the type of things that they are doing.”

When asked during the press conference what his “position” is on President Donald Trump issuing a presidential memorandum, deploying 2,000 National Guardsmen and if they were needed, McDonnell responded by explaining that normally his department “would have gone through a number of steps” before the National Guard was deployed or requested to be deployed.

“It’s an interesting question because I would have said that … we could handle this. I believe that we would have gone through a number of steps before we’d have deployed the National Guard or requested deployment of the National Guard,” McDonnell said. “We would normally go to 50 percent deployment to handle radio calls and do the business of policing, and everybody else would be focused on the initial problem. Beyond that, then we would request, through the sheriff, mutual aid, and that would bring in members of the 44 other police departments in LA County, as well as the sheriff’s office.”

When asked again if the National Guard was needed, McDonnell said the riots have “gotten out of control” and noted that “looking at the violence tonight,” he thought his department may need to “make a reassessment.”

“Looking at tonight, this thing has gotten out of control,” McDonnell answered. “I think before I could answer that, I’d have to know more about what their capabilities are, what their role is intended to be, to be able to make that determination. But, we have great cops in Southern California here that work together all the time, so we have tremendous capability here. To say that we would go to that right away, I’d say we’re not. We wouldn’t have been there yet. Looking at the violence tonight, I think we got to make a reassessment.”

Breitbart News reported that the protests in Los Angeles broke out over the weekend, with over 40 people being arrested on Friday as ICE agents carried out immigration raids and search warrants.

Videos and photos posted to social media have shown demonstrators involved in the riots tearing up sidewalks and throwing rocks over an overpass at law enforcement officials, setting fire to California Highway Patrol vehicles, throwing rocks at Border Patrol vehicles, and shooting fireworks at police officers on horseback.

In response to Trump deploying thousands of National Guardsmen to quell the violence in Los Angeles, several Democrats such as former Vice President Kamala Harris, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D) have criticized the move as “a dangerous escalation” and “purposefully inflammatory.”

California Sen. Adam Schiff (D) also weighed in on Trump federalizing the National Guard, stating that it was “unprecedented.”