US President Donald Trump on Monday ordered active-duty Marines into Los Angeles, vowing those protesting immigration arrests would be "hit harder" than ever.
The extraordinary mobilization of 700 full-time professional military personnel -- who join hundreds of National Guard troops already there -- looked likely to stoke tensions in a city with a huge Latino population.
California Governor Gavin Newsom slammed the move as "deranged."
"US Marines have served honorably across multiple wars in defense of democracy," Newsom posted on X.
"They shouldn't be deployed on American soil facing their own countrymen to fulfill the deranged fantasy of a dictatorial President. This is un-American."
The deployment came after demonstrators took over streets in Downtown LA on Sunday, torching cars and looting stores in ugly scenes that saw law enforcement responding with tear gas and rubber bullets.
Read moreTrump says Los Angeles protesters will be 'hit harder' after clashes with National Guard
"The people are causing the problems are professional agitators and insurrectionists," Trump told reporters in Washington.
On social media, he said protesters spat at troops and if they continued to do so, "I promise you they will be hit harder than they have ever been hit before. Such disrespect will not be tolerated!"
One small business-owner whose property was graffitied was supportive of the strongarm tactics.
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"I think it's needed to stop the vandalism," she told AFP, declining to give her name.
"Everybody has the right to protest, but do it the right way. Don't vandalize or hurt your own town because you're hurting people that are trying to make a living."
Others were horrified.
"They're meant to be protecting us, but instead, they're like, being sent to attack us," Kelly Diemer, 47, told AFP. "This is not a democracy anymore."
'Go home!'
A fourth day of protest was unfolding in Los Angeles triggered by dozens of arrests of what authorities said were illegal migrants and gang members.
"Pigs go home!" demonstrators shouted at National Guardsmen outside a federal detention center. Others banged on the sides of unmarked vehicles as they passed through police containment lines.
A swelling crowd was converging on the center, where they chanted "Shame! Shame! Shame!" at federal troops.
A scuffle broke out in the otherwise peaceful crowd, with one man other protesters said was a Trump supporter being expelled.
"He was basically aggravating people trying to start a fight, which kind of worked. Then everyone started chasing him away," an 18-year-old woman told AFP, declining to give her name.
Trump's border czar Tom Homan said Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was targeting members of cartels in Mexico and Colombia.
Many locals painted a different picture.
They are "people who are here earnestly trying to improve their lives (and) deserve a chance and don't deserve to be treated as criminals," Deborah McCurdy, 64, told AFP at a rally.
Despite isolated and eye-catching acts of violence, which included the torching of several Waymo cars on Sunday, officials and local law enforcement stressed the majority of protesters over the weekend had been peaceful.
Schools across Los Angeles were operating normally on Monday, while the rhythms of life in the sprawling city appeared largely unchanged.
Mayor Karen Bass said in contrast to Trump's rhetoric, "this is isolated to a few streets. This is not citywide civil unrest."
At least 56 people were arrested over two days and five officers suffered minor injuries, Los Angeles Police Department officials said, while about 60 people were arrested in protests in San Francisco.
Trump's use of the military -- which he repeatedly threatened to do while campaigning for the White House -- marked a significant break from modern American political practice.
The National Guard has not been deployed over the head of a state governor since 1965 at the height of the civil rights movement.
US law largely prevents the use of the military as a policing force on home soil absent an insurrection.
The Pentagon said late Monday Trump had authorized an extra 2,000 Guardsmen.
There were questions over how well prepared the National Guard had been for its sudden deployment, with pictures obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle appearing to show Guardsman sleeping on the floor of what the paper said was a federal building.
"No federal funding available for food, water, fuel and lodging," the source of the photos told the paper.
"This is really the failure of the federal government. If you're going to federalize these troops, then take care of them."
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
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