No Vegas dice for ICE
Protests in Las Vegas over the Trump administration’s aggressive deployment of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement body in Los Angeles have left property damaged and nearly 100 people in police custody.
hundreds of protesters waved Mexican flags
According to reports, many among the hundreds of protesters waved Mexican flags, along with those carrying flags from Central and South America, and some with the Stars and Stripes.
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department took to X Thursday to state it had arrested 94 adults and cited nine juveniles for the Wednesday night protests:
The LVMPD stated that protestors in the 500 block of South Las Vegas Blvd threw rocks at the police, blocked roads and damaged and vandalized property.
Chaos reigns
While Metro declared the protest “unlawful assembly” and issued multiple dispersal orders, threatening arrest in Spanish and English, many ignored the order. Footage circulated of protesters surrounding the federal courthouse on Las Vegas Boulevard, chanting: “If we don’t get it, shut it down.”
they’re shooting at the crowd.”
The subsequent clashes involved a phalanx of LVMPD allegedly firing tear gas. KLAS cited protestor Stephanie Gentry as stating: “It’s nerve-wracking to be put in a situation where cops have non-lethals, and they’re shooting at the crowd.”
“I know someone who had their car shot at. Multiple of us were tear-gassed,” Gentry added.
Four LVMPD officers were injured during the protest, which, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, resulted in the arrest of a co-star in a Vegas Cirque du Soleil production “and a 12-year performer.”
More in store?
President of an LVMPD union protecting officers, Steve Grammas, said there was a valid reason to disperse protesters.
“When you watch a lot of the footage, you see bottles being thrown at cops, bricks being thrown at cops,” said Grammas. “Our cops have been hit, that we have people with injuries.” Reports have flooded in of protesters allegedly not hearing the order to disperse, and that cops were too heavy handed.
anti-ICE gathering planned in Vegas Saturday
Grammas stated Metro will deploy large numbers of officers for the big anti-ICE gathering planned in Vegas Saturday night to coincide with other US-wide protests.
