Bass to meet with LAPD chief following violent clashes between Pico and Robertson

Mayor Karen Bass plans to meet with Acting Los Angeles Police Department Chief Dominic Choi on Monday to “further discuss the safety of Angelenos” following violent clashes between Palestinian and Israeli supporters in the Pico district. Robertson.

“Today’s violence in the Pico-Robertson neighborhood was heinous and blocking access to a place of worship is unacceptable,” Bass said in a statement released Sunday evening. “I have asked the LAPD to conduct additional patrols in the Pico-Robertson community as well as outside places of worship in the city. I will be meeting with (Acting) Chief (Dominic) Choi tomorrow to further discuss the safety of Angelenos.

“I want to be clear that Los Angeles will not be a haven for anti-Semitism and violence. Those responsible for either will be found and held accountable. I will join City Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky, Jewish Federation of Los Angeles Executive Director Rabbi Noah Farkas, and other law enforcement and religious leaders at a community meeting as we discuss set of steps to follow.

The clash began at 10:52 a.m. Sunday, when pro-Palestinian protesters gathered outside the Adas Torah Synagogue at 9040 W. Pico Blvd., a block east of Doheny Drive, and encountered counter-protesters, some carrying Israelis. flags, LAPD Officer Tony Im told City News Service.

The heated verbal clashes turned physical soon after, with several scuffles in the streets of what Sam Yebri, who lost to Yaroslavsky in the 2022 race for the Fifth District seat, called “the most Jewish neighborhood of America outside of New York.”

Video from the scene shows punches being thrown, people falling to the ground and kicking, chemical agents being sprayed and demonstrators brandishing handfuls of protest signs as weapons. The police intervened in riot gear.

One person was arrested for carrying a “spiked flag,” a prohibited item during a public protest, Im told City News Service.

The video appears to show at least two pro-Palestinian protesters taken from an SUV and detained at a gas station on Pico Boulevard at Doheny Drive, with an LAPD officer removing a small child from the backseat.

I said there were no immediate reports of injuries.

Nafoli Sherman, an Israeli fan whose T-shirt was stained with blood, told reporters: “I just wanted to see what happened there. I just wanted to see what was happening. As soon as I got there, a person went boom, right in my nose,” Sherman said while demonstrating a punch.

” I fell on the ground. I was hit in the head several times. I was kicked out here,” Sherman said.

Yaroslavsky, whose district includes the Pico-Robertson neighborhood, said in a statement released Sunday evening: “The anti-Semitic violence that erupted this afternoon in Pico-Robertson would have been completely unacceptable anywhere in Los Angeles, if they had been planned and carried out. in front of a synagogue in the heart of Los Angeles’ Jewish community should concern us all deeply.

“Everyone has the right to protest, and everyone also has the right to be free from fear and violence. We deserve answers about how this situation got out of hand.

Governor Gavin Newsom wrote in a social media post that “the violent clashes outside the Adas Torah Synagogue in Los Angeles are appalling. There is no excuse for targeting a place of worship. Such anti-Semitic hatred has no place in California. »

Rabbi Hertzel Illulian, founder of the Beverly Hills-based JEM Community Center, which provides sports, recreational and educational activities for young people, told KCAL from the scene that the protest “does not belong here.”

“I don’t think Jewish people would go to a mosque and Christian people would go to a mosque to do such a thing,” Illulian said. “No one would accept that. But here, when it comes to Jews and Israel, everything is kosher, everything is fine. »

Sergio Ramos, an investigative journalist for the CalMatters news agency, posted on social media that a protester had stolen his cell phone, “to stop me from filming.”

“I told him I was a journalist and showed him my credentials, he said ‘You shouldn’t be here’ and took my phone,” Ramos wrote.