A second night of curfew in downtown Los Angeles has been lifted Thursday morning following a night of protests that became intense at moments, spreading from downtown LA to Koreatown where there was a standoff on the skirmish line between the Los Angeles Police Department and protesters.
In response to the growing protests, the Marines have been mobilized to help the National Guard. The 700 marines are working out of the naval weapons station in Seal Beach and just finished that training on Wednesday.
The training focused on de-escalation, crowd control and understanding the rules for use of force.
Together with the 4,000 national guard troops that have now been federalized by President Trump, they make up “task force 51.”
The commander of the task force said that besides protecting federal buildings, the soldiers and Marines together have the job of protecting federal personnel as they do “federal functions” and law enforcement.
That includes during protests and going with ICE on raids.
“They’re allowed to temporarily detain and wait for law enforcement to come and arrest them,” Major General Scott Sherman, commander of task force 51 said. “They do not do any arrests.”
The commander also said that when the task force members are out on our streets they will not have ammo in their weapons, but will have it on their person.