The Los Angeles Police Department is accused of cornering and detaining peaceful protestors ahead of curfew on Wednesday to justify sweeping arrests.
Videos on TikTok show demonstrators confined between a building and a wall of LAPD officers lining the street before the citywide 8:00 p.m. curfew took effect.
“They’re saying nobody leaves,” TikTok user @jaiiymoses said in one video. “They’ve trapped us in here, they surrounded us all in here. It was a peaceful protest, no one got violent…They’re waiting until curfew to arrest us all.”
Another video captures the same scene, with over forty minutes remaining to curfew. “I’m filming this right now for my own safety,” @slumlord__ said. “They’re blocking us in, they’re everywhere.”
“I actually might get arrested,” she continued. “We can’t leave because they’re blocking all the f—ing streets. Are you serious? There’s not enough of us here to fight back and they know it.” Text overlay reads, “Yes, we all got arrested.”
A third video from @etchaskej shows several clips from the day’s protest, including multiple angles of the block where officers surrounded protestors. “They’re telling everyone to leave, but they literally blocked us in here.”
As curfew approached, he estimated 250 police were present to “cattle in” roughly 25 protestors. He noted he was only able to continue recording because he had a press pass, and press were allowed to leave before dozens of arrests were made.
Based on the allegations of unlawful detainment, legal challenges to the arrests are expected.
The LAPD has not yet commented on the allegations.
Originally published on Latin Times
