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California: The Los Angeles Riots continue as before amid increasing National Guard deployment. 2/7 Marines began movement into the area yesterday, while the roughly 2,000 National Guard forces continue mobilization.
Overnight, looting and rioting continued throughout the downtown LA area, with pockets of rioting emerging in Little Tokyo, the LA LIVE area, and Pershing Square. Most stores along Broadway were burglarized in the process by coordinated gangs of looters. Train service was halted for Little Tokyo, Chinatown, and Union Station due to unrest in and around the stations. Various ride-share and autonomous driving taxi companies have also begun to shut down services throughout Los Angeles, with Waymo vehicles being observed maneuvering out of the city early yesterday after several of their vehicles were set on fire.
This afternoon, the rioting continued in the same locations as before, with the 101 being shut down due to protesters once again. Additionally, a possible small arms attack was conducted at the corner of Atlantic and Alondra in Compton. An unidentified male produced a firearm and pointed it at a police line down the street.
AC: As this is a developing situation at the time of this report, many details are unclear. However, it's only a matter of time before small arms attacks take place, either directed at law enforcement or otherwise. Several gangs throughout the Los Angeles area have made statements indicating that they will defend their turf with lethal force, mostly in the context of rival gangs taking advantage of the fray to settle scores.
Texas: Demonstrations were carried out yesterday in Dallas and Austin, which devolved into rioting overnight. Further demonstrations are expected throughout the week.
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Analyst Comments: Yesterday LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell issued a press statement regarding the deployment of Marines throughout the city. The tone of the letter conveyed irritation, as the LAPD at the time had not been informed that the Marines were inbound. Consequently, this statement helps understand the management problems at the higher levels; communication problems persist both for technical AND political reasons.
Right now, everyone is looking at the burning husk of Los Angeles and thinking that this is a repeat of the unrest of the early 2020s. This may be true, or it might be a precursor to something else. This distinction is most sharply observable via the deployment of certain assets throughout this crisis. In short, the Marines are not there to provide crowd control or even respond to civil unrest for the most part...they are there to mitigate (as best they can) the effects should a legitimate insurgency emerge, in addition to buying time for the National Guard to get spun up and in position.
As attention-grabbing as it is for the nation to watch the B-roll of a car burning on live television, rioting and civil unrest can only get so bad before there's nothing left to burn or destroy, and everyone gets worn out. Right now, even as intense as it seems, the situation in Los Angeles is still a civil issue. The deployment of Marines (when the riots are not nearly as bad as in 2020) is very telling as it conveys the concern that the federal government has that this might not remain in the civil space for too much longer. If the situation in LA were to make the doctrinal transition from civil unrest into an insurgency, the types of units maneuvering and staging are the exact ones one would need to handle a more direct threat. How this situation will develop is anyone's guess, but at the moment quiet preparations are being made just in case these riots turn into something more serious.
Analyst: S2A1
Research:
https://publish.obsidian.md/s2underground
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