The National Guard in Los Angeles

Video of the National Guard stationed in various parts of Los Angeles after the Black Lives Matter protests turned violent and resulted in vandalism and looting.

When the BLM protests first began in Los Angeles, Mayor Eric Garcetti hoped they would remain peaceful and did not request assistance.  Protests began to happen daily and sometimes in several parts of the city at once.  Most of them turned violent with police cars being burned, some buildings burned and stores all over the city looted and vandalized.

See photos at the bottom of this post.

From reports that came in, in many cases the looting and violence may have been caused by separate groups that used the protests as a diversion.  In Santa Monica it was later reported that while protesters marched by the beaches, another group hit the Third Street Promenade and began looting all of the stores.  Police reported that people on bicycles would ride the areas around the protests to see where the police were and then radio to others the areas that were safe to loot.  There have also been reports that agitators from Antifa and other groups were sent in to escalate tensions.

On May 30th Mayor Garcetti requested Governor Newsom send in the National Guard.  The situation was quickly brought under control.  The protests continued but were peaceful from that point on.  In fact, at the time I was shooting the footage of the National Guard on the Hollywood Walk of Fame a Black Lives Matter demonstration began.  The protesters remained peaceful and the National Guard never intervened.

In the footage in the video we see the National Guard on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a the Farmer’s Market on Fairfax (an area were police cars were burned during the protests), standing watch over the boarded up and barricaded Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills and Pike Outlets in Long Beach. Though it was a shock to see National Guard troops on our streets, Angelenos welcomed them with open arms.  They were friendly, helpful and usually engaged in conversation with passers by.

Contact us if you would like to inquire about licensing any of the clips from this video for stock footage.

Most of the areas have reopened since then. We posted on the reopening of Rodeo Drive, but unfortunately a new mandate from Governor shut it down again to a large degree.

More photos after the break…

Background Music:

God Fury by Anno Domini Beats   From the YouTube Music Library

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6f69g5rtNFhix–ZY8yAFw

Produced by Mark Stout Photography

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