Los Angeles, (Asian independent) Thousands of people participated in the 11th straight day of peaceful protests in Los Angeles over the death of African-American man George Floyd in police custody, while the National Guard troops left the second largest city in the US.
Some troops would begin departing on Sunday evening, a week after being deployed to assist in managing protests and scattered looting, and “a small number of units will be stationed nearby until June 10 to provide emergency support if needed”, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said in a statement posted on his official twitter page.
“I’m proud LA residents are leading a peaceful and powerful movement to build a fair, just, and equitable city,” he said.
NBC news also said that the troops would be pulled out of all cities in the state, quoting an email from California National Guard Adjutant General David Baldwin, reports Xinhua news agency.
“After nearly a week assisting civil authorities on the streets of California, soldiers with the California National Guard will begin transitioning back to their home armories,” Baldwin said.
More than 7,000 National Guard troops were deployed to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento and other cities last week to assist local law enforcement to maintain social security amid protests across the Golden State.
Although the vast majority of protests have been peaceful, there were violent clashes with police and hundreds of businesses were vandalized.
The tensions between the protesters and local authorities were defused last week after local politicians showed their willingness to start police reform and condemned President Donald Trump’s inflammatory threats to send military to cities to quell the violence.
California Governor Gavin Newsom had said that the state would reject any attempts by the White House to deploy the military.