Anti-ICE sex toy protest outside L.A. detention center leads to arrests

A protest in downtown Los Angeles against the ongoing actions of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement grew heated Saturday afternoon, with police declaring an unlawful assembly.

A few dozen anti-ICE protesters had gathered around noon and began adorning the fence surrounding the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown L.A. with silicone phalli of all colors — pink, purple and human skin-colored.

As the toys piled up outside the facility, a small group of protesters spilled onto Alameda Street, between Aliso and Temple streets. They carried signs reading “Detention centers are concentration camps” and “No ICE.”

Protests in L.A. and elsewhere in the U.S., driven by outrage over intensified federal immigration enforcement, have been inflamed in recent months by the fatal shootings of two protesters and the aggressive tactics used by federal agents in Minneapolis earlier this year.

LAPD officers take a demonstrator into custody following a protest against ICE at the Metropolitan Detention Center.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Four L.A. Police Department vehicles pulled up to the protest at about 12:40 p.m. and told demonstrators to move out of the way of passing cars.

“Stay out of the street. You will not block traffic today,” an officer said through a megaphone.

Several protesters confronted law enforcement officers, who wore riot gear, before moving back to the sidewalk in front of the detention center.

Officers moved their vehicles back but approached protesters on the sidewalk on foot, where the confrontation continued.

At around 3:30 p.m., the LAPD issued an alert saying it had declared an unlawful assembly in the area “[d]ue to acts of criminal behavior by multiple agitators” and had made arrests.

LAPD Lt. Bruce Coss said the protest was not permitted and that at about 2:30 p.m., protesters were “obstructing the street” and “stopping cars,” prompting police to declare an unlawful assembly and evacuate the area.

Five people were arrested for failing to disperse, Coss said.

By about 4 p.m., the street was clear with a few dozen people still in the area, Coss said, who he described as “mostly media.”

Saturday’s protests come weeks after the March 28 “No Kings” rally that saw thousands of demonstrators pack downtown. Police made several arrests later that evening after protesters converged outside the Metropolitan Detention Center.

A teenage photographer said a Department of Homeland Security officer shot him in the eye with a less-lethal projectile. The USC freshman who went to photograph the event had his eye removed, his attorney said.