Thousands Join No Kings Rally in Downtown Los Angeles, Chaotic Scene Follows

The rally had been peaceful for hours. By around 5:30 p.m. Saturday, officers in tactical gear were firing tear gas and bean bags outside the Metropolitan Detention Center on Alameda Street, where a smaller group of demonstrators had begun throwing rocks, bottles and concrete blocks over the facility's fence.

The confrontation capped a day when tens of thousands took to the streets across Los Angeles and Southern California for the nationwide "No Kings" march on March 28, 2026. At its peak, the main crowd stretched from Grand Park to Los Angeles City Hall, where demonstrators hoisted anti-ICE placards, waved LGBTQ+ pride flags, and watched a giant blimp depicting President Donald Trump as a diaper-clad baby drift overhead.

The violence was confined to the aftermath. After the main rally concluded, a smaller group broke off toward Alameda Street, a recurring flashpoint in Los Angeles for anti-immigration demonstrations. The Los Angeles Police Department reported on X that federal authorities deployed tear gas after protesters threw "large concrete blocks, bottles and other objects" over the property's fence, and that multiple people were arrested for not leaving following a dispersal order. Department of Homeland Security officers in riot gear were present at the scene. Authorities established a skirmish line near the intersection of Alameda and Commercial streets before surrounding roughly 150 demonstrators. Authorities had also deployed bean bags and pepper spray earlier in the standoff before escalating to tear gas. LAPD shut down Alameda Street between Arcadia and Temple streets and issued a tactical alert, suspending end-of-shift rotations citywide. NBC Los Angeles reported that nearly six dozen people were ultimately taken into custody.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass had posted on social media before the clashes: "Peaceful protest is our constitutional right. When people come together to make their voices heard, that is democracy in action."

Saturday's demonstration came just months after aggressive immigration raids and the protests they sparked in Los Angeles last June, with anti-ICE signs dotting the crowd throughout the day. It was also the first nationally planned "No Kings" action since the January killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minnesota.

Organizers claimed almost half of all protests took place in GOP strongholds, with Texas, Florida and Ohio each recording over 100 events and states like Idaho, Wyoming and Utah holding events in the double digits. One of the most far-flung demonstrations took place in Kotzebue, Alaska. More than 3,000 demonstrations were planned across the country, with roughly two-thirds outside urban areas, and organizers projected more than 9 million participants nationwide, though those figures were not independently verified.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz addressed the crowd in St. Paul. In San Francisco, scores of protesters filed into Embarcadero Plaza carrying American flags and "No Kings" signs. The multiple No Kings contingents in Manhattan merged through Times Square, where families carried LGBTQ+ pride flags and Palestinian flags, while older marchers held pun-heavy protest signs. In Washington, D.C., as one of the capital's marches wound down at the Southwest Waterfront, demonstrators stood within feet of National Guard members. "Donald Tump unleashed this on Washington DC first," said Ama'd, 27. "We need the rest of the country to know that we are being over-policed in our communities."

CNN reported it had reached out to the Department of Homeland Security and the Los Angeles Police Department for comment, with no public response from DHS issued at the time. The specific federal agency that deployed tear gas was identified by LAPD only as "federal authorities.