West Hollywood will be under curfew this evening beginning at 6 p.m. and ending at 6 a.m. on Monday.
The new countywide curfew order follows one issued yesterday by City Manager Paul Arevalo in response to acts of violence that took place on streets outside West Hollywood where thousands had rallied to protest the death last Monday of George Floyd.
The curfew requires all residents and visitors, which includes hotel guests, to say inside and all businesses to close in time for their customers and employees to get home by 6 p.m.. People will be permitted to drive to or from work.
The same curfew has been put in place again in Los Angeles County and nearby cities such as Beverly Hills. Santa Monica’s curfew began at 4 p.m.
There have been marches and rallies across the nation to protest Floyd’s death in Minneapolis after an altercation with a police officer who kneeled on his neck while Floyd, who was handcuffed, screamed that he couldn’t breathe. Floyd had been arrested for allegedly trying to use a counterfeit $20 bill to make a purchase at a deli. A video of the incident went viral and has sparked protests across the nation.
The protests have been, for the most part, peaceful. However, some protestors have scrawled graffiti on local buildings and smashed windows of local businesses. Many of the small shops on Fairfax Avenue south of Melrose Avenue and on Melrose Avenue have been looted.
In West Hollywood, the MedMen cannabis shop on Santa Monica Boulevard near Havenhurst had its windows smashed and looter stripped the shop of merchandise. There also have been windows smashed at the Gateway shopping center on the southwest corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and La Brea. Target, one of the largest retailers at the Gateway, has announced it is closing its store there and all other in L.A. County because of the violence. While there was some graffiti in West Hollywood, it was mostly seen on the windows of shops in the La Cienega Design District south of Santa Monica Boulevard and on the walls of the Beverly Center. There also was substantial graffiti on the sidewalks, walls and business windows on Melrose and Fairfax. This afternoon a number of neighborhood residents went out to help clean up the sidewalks on Melrose and Fairfax and paint over the graffiti.
Sheriff’s Capt. Edward Ramirez said yesterday that more than 30 arrests have been made.
A “sit-in” protest is scheduled for 4 p.m. on Monday at tSunset Boulevard’s intersection with Crescent Heights Boulevard and Laurel Canyon.
the police failed the citizens of west hollywood.
Indeed they did