After cops were sent to disperse the crowds during an abortion rights demonstration in downtown Los Angeles, the situation developed into a confrontation with law enforcement, resulting in the wounding of at least 1 officer.
Photos and videos posted online show cops mostly keeping an eye on the throng, which expanded from a peaceful gathering of around 30 people outside the federal courtroom building to over 250 people overflowing the streets and obstructing traffic in the area. Some protestors, however, started hurling items at the cops.
According to LAPD, a tactical alert has been issued for the whole city.
“We attempted to communicate, clear, and provide dispersal order to the group,” LAPD Chief Michel Moore said, but then the “crowd began to throw rocks and bottles at officers.”
Moore also said that at least one police officer had been hurt.
Following the example of demonstrators assembled outside the Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C. on Monday evening after a draft decision indicating the court might overturn Roe v. Wade was leaked to the public, reports of protests in major cities around the nation have emerged.
The LA crowd could be heard chanting like, “No more shame, no more silence. Forced motherhood is fascist violence.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a statement on Monday in which he described the likely ruling as an “appalling attack on the rights of women.”
“This draft opinion is an appalling attack on the rights of women across this country and if it stands, it will destroy lives and put countless women in danger,” he said Monday. “It will be the end of fundamental constitutional rights that American women have had for nearly 50 years.”
Newsom went on to say that the Court “does not value the rights of women,” and he promised to defend abortion rights for California residents.
“We have a Supreme Court that does not value the rights of women, and a political minority that will stop at nothing to take those rights away,” he said. “This won’t stop with choice and the right to privacy. They are undermining progress, and erasing the civil protections and rights so many have fought for over the last half-century.”
“We have to wake up. We have to fight like hell. We will not be silenced,” Newsom said.
“We can’t trust SCOTUS to protect the right to abortion, so we’ll do it ourselves,” he later tweeted. “Women will remain protected here.” The document has not yet been confirmed or denied by the Supreme Court
