Police arrest about 60 people in San Francisco after protests on ICE's raids turn violent

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - LOS ANGELES — Around 60 people, including people under the age of 18, were arrested Sunday in San Francisco after protests outside the Immigration Services building turned violent, authorities said.

Hundreds of protesters gathered outside ICE’s offices to rally against the agency’s raids and deportations across California and the US, CNN affiliate KGO reported.

The demonstration, initially peaceful, escalated into a tense standoff with San Francisco police officers in riot gear.

“We’ve been watching what’s going on in LA, and we’re like, no,” Nancy Kato, one of the protesters, told KGO.

“The whole thing about going after immigrants and people who are undocumented, the most vulnerable of our populations that is so wrong.”

The protests began near Sansome and Washington streets — close to the city’s Financial District — around 7:01 p.m., where San Francisco Police officers were monitoring the demonstration, the department said.

The gathering escalated as some protesters, according to police, vandalized property, committed assaults, and caused other damage. Authorities declared the event an “unlawful assembly,” leading many to leave, though some stayed behind.

Two officers were injured, and one was taken to the hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries, police said.

The group eventually made its way to Market and Kearny streets, where protesters damaged buildings and an SFPD patrol car. A smaller group later gathered on Montgomery Street and refused to leave after being ordered to disperse. Police moved to detain people they say didn’t comply. Police said it recovered one firearm at the scene.

“Individuals are always free to exercise their First Amendment rights in San Francisco,” the SFPD said in a statement. “But violence — especially against SFPD officers — will never be tolerated.”

The investigation remains ongoing, and authorities have not released additional details.

Police are urging businesses and residents in Downtown Los Angeles to report “any vandalism, damage or looting,” hours after police said they were investigating possible looting in the city’s Financial District.

On X, the LAPD said reporting the incidents will allow the department to officially document damage that occurs during the ongoing protests.

“Please photograph all vandalism and damage prior to clean up,” the LAPD wrote.

Meanwhile, a British news photographer is recovering from emergency surgery after being struck by a non-lethal round while covering protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Los Angeles, PA Media, the UK’s national news agency, reported on Monday.

Nick Stern was documenting a standoff on Saturday between protesters and police outside a Home Depot in Paramount, a city in Los Angeles County known as a hiring site for day laborers, when a 14mm “sponge bullet” tore into his thigh, the agency reported.

“My initial concern was, were they firing live rounds?” Stern told PA. “Some of the protesters came and helped me, and they ended up carrying me, and I noticed that there was blood pouring down my leg.”

After receiving first aid from a medic who urged him to seek hospital care, Stern says he passed out from the pain. He is now recovering at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center.

Stern, who emigrated to the United States in 2007, said he typically makes himself “as visible as possible” while working in hostile environments. “That way you’re less likely to get hit because they know you’re media.”

He says he sustained “substantial” bruising after being struck by another round during the George Floyd protests in 2020.

“An outside organization like ICE coming in and removing — whatever you want to call it, removing, kidnapping, abducting people from the community — is not going to go down well at all,” he said.

“I intend, as soon as I am well enough, to get back out there,” he said. “This is too important, and it needs documenting.” — CNN