vandalism

PORTLAND, Ore. — A federal judge in Oregon temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deploying the National Guard in Portland, ruling Saturday in a lawsuit brought by the state and city.

U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut issued the order pending further arguments in the case. She said that the relatively small protests the city has seen did not justify the use of federalized forces and that allowing the deployment could harm Oregon’s state sovereignty.

“This country has a longstanding and foundational tradition of resistance to government overreach, especially in the form of military intrusion into civil affairs,” Immergut wrote. She later continued, “This historical tradition boils down to a simple proposition: this is a nation of Constitutional law, not martial law.”

State and city officials sued to stop the deployment last week, one day after the Trump administration announced that 200 Oregon National Guard troops would be federalized to protect federal buildings. The president called the city “war-ravaged.”

Oregon officials said that characterization was ludicrous. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in the city has been the site of nightly protests that typically drew a couple dozen people in recent weeks before the deployment was announced.

Generally speaking the president is allowed “a great level of deference” to federalize National Guard troops in situations where regular law enforcement forces are not able to execute the laws of the United States, the judge said, but that has not been the case in Portland.

Plaintiffs were able to show that the demonstrations at the immigration building were not significantly violent or disruptive ahead of the president’s order, the judge wrote, and “overall, the protests were small and uneventful.”

“The President’s determination was simply untethered to the facts,” Immergut wrote.

After the ruling, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said that “President Trump exercised his lawful authority to protect federal assets and personnel in Portland following violent riots and attacks on law enforcement — we expect to be vindicated by a higher court.”

Trump has deployed or threatened to deploy troops in several U.S. cities, particularly ones led by Democrats, including Los Angeles, Washington, Chicago and Memphis, Tenn. Speaking Tuesday to U.S. military leaders in Virginia, he proposed using cities as training grounds for the armed forces, alarming many military analysts.

Last month a federal judge ruled that the president’s deployment of some 4,700 National Guard soldiers and Marines in Los Angeles this year was illegal, but he allowed the 300 who remain in the city to stay as long as they do not enforce civilian laws. The Trump administration appealed, and an appellate panel has put the lower court’s block on hold while it moves forward.

The Portland protests have been limited to a one-block area in a city that covers about 145 square miles and has about 636,000 residents.

The protests grew somewhat following the Sept. 28 announcement of the Guard deployment. The Portland Police Bureau, which has said it does not participate in immigration enforcement and intervenes in the protests only if there is vandalism or criminal activity, arrested two people on assault charges. A peaceful march earlier that day drew thousands to downtown and saw no arrests, police said.

On Saturday, before the ruling was released, roughly 400 people marched to the ICE facility. The crowd included people of all ages and races, families with children and older people using walkers. Federal agents responded with chemical crowd-control munitions, including tear gas canisters and less-lethal guns that sprayed pepper balls. At least six people were arrested as the protesters reached the ICE building.

During his first term, Trump sent federal officers to Portland over the objections of local and state leaders in 2020 during long-running racial justice protests after George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police. The administration sent hundreds of agents for the stated purpose of protecting the federal courthouse and other federal property from vandalism.

That deployment antagonized demonstrators and prompted nightly clashes. Federal officers fired rubber bullets and used tear gas.

Viral videos captured federal officers arresting people and hustling them into unmarked vehicles. A report by the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general found that while the federal government had legal authority to deploy the officers, many of them lacked the training and equipment necessary for the mission.

The government agreed this year to settle an excessive-force lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union by compensating several plaintiffs for their injuries.

Rush and Boone write for the Associated Press and reported from Portland and Boise, Idaho, respectively. AP writer Josh Boak in Washington contributed to this report.

Names marked with an asterisk have been changed to protect identities.

When Akmal’s* mosque was vandalised last week in Basildon, a town in the English county of Essex, he felt shaken.

“I was so hurt,” said the 33-year-old electrical engineer, who requested Al Jazeera use a pseudonym. “It was so close to home. My local masjid [mosque]. It felt like a real kick in the teeth.”

The South Essex Islamic Centre in Basildon was defaced shortly before midnight on Thursday. Red crosses were daubed across its walls alongside the words “Christ is King” and “This is England”.

The timing, the night before Friday prayers, appeared to many as calculated – an attempt to intimidate a flurry of worshippers in the southeastern English county.

“My wife and baby are growing up here,” Akmal told Al Jazeera. “I want to move out of the area. I just cannot stay here.”

Community leaders condemned the attack.

Gavin Callaghan, the leader of Basildon Council, described it as “pathetic criminal cowardice”.

“Don’t dress it up. Don’t excuse it. It’s scum behaviour, and it shames our town … The cowards who did this will be caught,” he said. “To do this right before Friday prayers is no coincidence. That’s targeted. That’s intimidation. And it’s criminal.”

Wajid Akhter, head of the Muslim Council of Britain, said, “The St George flag is a symbol of England we should all be proud of. For it to be used in this way, [which] echoes how Nazis targeted Jewish homes, is a disgrace to our flag and our nation. Silence has allowed hate to grow.”

Essex police are investigating the incident.

Council staff and volunteers worked in the early hours of the morning to remove the graffiti before worshippers arrived, but a sense of fear is still lingering.

“I was shocked,” said Sajid Fani, 43, who lives in the area. “I didn’t expect something like that to happen here.”

Local bishops decried the misuse of Christian imagery in the attack. They issued a joint statement calling the vandalism “scandalous and profoundly misguided”, saying that invoking Christianity to justify racism is “theologically false and morally dangerous”.

Racism amid flag-raising campaign

The vandalism took place amid a tense atmosphere in the United Kingdom, amid protests against asylum seekers and a social media campaign dubbed #OperationRaisetheColours.

In recent weeks, those heeding the call have pinned the flag of England bearing Saint George’s Cross and Union Jacks to motorway bridges, lampposts, roundabouts and some shops across the UK. Red crosses have been spray-painted on the white stripes of zebra crossings.

According to the anti-far-right HOPE not hate group, the campaign is led by Andrew Currien, a former member of the Islamophobic English Defence League and now a security figure for the political party Britain First, also an anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant group.

While some supporters frame the project as patriotic, it has been tied to racist incidents.

Racist graffiti has appeared in several other locations. Some 300 miles (about 500km) north of Basildon, for example, xenophobic slurs have been sprayed on buildings in County Durham and Houghton-le-Spring in northern England.

Some have blamed the media’s focus on the issue of asylum.

In recent months, British television networks and newspapers have dedicated significant coverage to asylum seekers, as some social media sites allow hateful content to proliferate.

Shabna Begum, head of Runnymede Trust, a race equality think tank, said the spate of vandalism is part of a “frightening intensification of Islamophobia” driven by political and media narratives scapegoating Muslim communities.

“The violence being played out on our streets and the vandalism of mosques is the product of a political and media soundtrack that has relentlessly demonised Muslim communities,” she said. “Whether it is policy or narratives, we have been fed a monotonous diet that tells us that our economic problems are caused by Muslims, migrants and people seeking asylum.”

She warned that history shows governments that fail to confront economic grievances while scapegoating minorities ultimately collapse.

“The question is how much will this betrayal cost for the Muslim communities that are served as political fodder,” she said.

Fani in Basildon said, “It’s the fear factor. They [media channels] put terror in the hearts of people when it comes to Muslims. I want to show people we are just like them. We’re just human.”

Days before the mosque was vandalised, a roundabout opposite was painted with a red cross.

“I wasn’t offended by England flags being flown,” said Fani. “But this is different. It crossed a line.”

In the wake of the vandalism, mosque leaders encouraged worshippers to attend Friday prayers in greater numbers as a show of resilience.

Fani said the turnout was larger than usual: “Alhumdulillah [Thank God], it resulted in more people coming to the mosque, so the outcome was positive.”

‘A line between being patriotic and being outright racist’

Maryam*, a Muslim woman who lives in Basildon, lamented the “attack on the Muslim community” as she emphasised that it reflects a dark climate.

“There’s a line between being patriotic and being outright racist or Islamophobic – and some people here are crossing that line.”

In her view, a wave of protests against housing asylum seekers at hotels earlier this summer has coincided with Islamophobic abuse – particularly in Epping, a nearby town where The Bell Hotel has been the focus of violent agitation.

Police data is yet to confirm a link or rise in racist attacks, but locally reported incidents tell a troubling story.

Last week, a man in Basildon was arrested after a hijab-wearing woman and her child were allegedly racially abused, while vandals sprayed St George’s crosses on nearby homes.

At the end of July, residents reported glass projectiles being hurled from the upper floors of a building near Basildon station, apparently targeting Muslim women and families of colour.

Beyond the headline incidents, Maryam reeled off a list of other recent examples of racism she has witnessed – a woman of East African origin called a racial slur, a driver mocking a Muslim woman in hijab as a “post box”.

“Unfortunately, I’ve [also] been subjected to a lot of Islamophobia in Basildon – often in front of my child,” she added. “It has affected my mental health … it’s created a lot of trauma and barriers to simply living a normal life.”

While the mosque attack prompted swift attention from councillors and police, isolated incidents against individuals often go unreported.

“If the police engaged with the community better, explained what hate crimes are, how they’re reported, how investigations work, it would remove barriers to reporting,” said Maryam.

A SEASIDE town made famous by former world heavy-weight boxing champ Tyson Fury is on the ropes.

Gritty ITV cop drama ‘The Bay’ attracts five million viewers, but has done nothing to restore Morecambe’s fortunes as a tourist and holidaying hotspot.

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Dilapidated buildings, boarded up shops, closed hotels, and vandalised shopping arcades blight the Lancashire seaside resort.

And homeless down-and-outs, swigging cans during the day, plague the streets.

Morecambe FC has been besieged with talks of going under after 105 years, with the beleaguered club enduring a chaotic summer since being relegated from League Two, with staff and players not even paid.

Some football club workers have been offered food parcels. As it stands, the National League club is on the brink of extinction, though takeover talks continue.

Eden Project Morecambe – a sister to the popular Eden bio-spheres in Cornwall – is hoped to breath new life into the area and bring tourists flocking back to the resort. But that is at least three years away.

Brother and sister Liam, 14, and Lola, nine, were visiting Morecambe from their native Canada and were drawn to the vandalised and graffitied former shopping arcade, which is fenced off to the public due to a rusted and collapsing roof.

They were accompanied by their aunt and nan Kay Robinson, 73, who remembers the good old days of the seaside resort.

It used to boast such attractions as the Super Swimming Stadium lido, the pleasure park Frontierland and sea life centre Marineland.

“It’s gone down hill since the 1970s,” said Kay.

“There used to be fairgrounds, illuminations, an amazing swimming pool, there used to be everything. We liked coming here better than Blackpool.

“Even the outdoor market has gone now. Everything has gone or is going now.

“You can’t go round the pubs like you used to, it used to be a great night out around Morecambe, but not now.”

Visitors love taking selfies beside the statue of the late comedian Eric Morecambe, which was unveiled on the promenade by Queen Elizabeth II in 1999.

Holidaymakers Paul and Alison Johnson, from Glossop, posed with grandson Ralphie, eight, as they enjoyed the summer sunshine.

Paul, 59, who has visited Morecambe over the years, said: “It seems to be getting cleaner, now this sea front has been done up.

“We have a caravan near here.”

Alison, 51 said: “It’s lovely in the sunshine.”

But directly opposite the iconic bronze tourist attraction stands reminders of the resort’s decline.

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Standing side-by-side, Eric’s Cafe and the Tivoli Bar, are closed down at what should be the height of the summer season.

And the town centre, just a streets from the prom, is lined with abandoned shops, closed down pubs and eateries and empty banks.

A homeless rough sleeper was slouched by the entrance to the tired Arndale Centre, which stands beside a boarded-up pawnbrokers and opposite empty shops and the shell of the former Santander bank.

In a shaded doorway down a run-down street a couple of scruff-looking men, one sitting beside his crutches, were swigging from cans of super-strength Oranjeboom beers, as parents and kids walked past.

Back on the sunny promenade where the popular outdoor swimming pool, which used to be home of the Miss Great Britain beauty contest between 1956 and 1989, John and Lynda Ritchie were taking a stroll.

“This is where they are going to build the Eden centre, if it ever gets off the ground,” said John, 80, visiting with wife Lynda, 80, from Kendal.

“It can’t come soon enough. It’ll hopefully save the town.”

“We used to bring our lads here to swim in the pool, but it is such a shame what it is like now,” said Lynda.

“Hopefully things will change when the Eden Project comes, but I wish they’d hurry up, I’d like to see it.

“The place has very much gone down hill, as many seaside towns have since people started to go abroad.”

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First-time visitors David and Lynn Buswell, from Leicestershire, were walking their Staffie Tyson – aptly named as Morecambe is the home town of former world heavyweight champ Tyson Fury – along the prom after parking up their motorhome.

“Never been here before. I’m here because my mum and dad had a photo taken with the Eric Morecambe statue and we want to recreate it,” said David, 64, a music producer.

“It looks like an average, typical English seaside town, nothing special. Okay for the kids, but not us.

“We will be parking up the motorhome for one night – not for two though. I think we will be moving on.”

Lynn, 69, said: “We have just come down from the Lake District, which was beautiful. This is a stark contrast.”

South of the town centre, the Cumberland View pub is boarded up.

Beside the former almost seafront railway station – closed now and turned into a pub – is the Festival Market.

Trains, no longer full or excited holiday makers and day trippers from West Yorkshire, now pull in to a dowdy wooden platform next to a boarded up former restaurant 500 yards of more inland.

Festival Market trader Karen Brown, 66, has been running her stall The Beauty Box for 50 years, and has seen the decline of the town.
“The place has gone really down hill since the glory days. The job is tougher now,” said Karen.

“I don’t do too bad in summer with the tourists. They come to buy things. But, in winter, the locals don’t tend to to use the market. They should do, they’ll whinge if it goes.

“The visitors come round saying what a lovely market it is and they appreciate it, but the locals, not so much.”

Fellow market trader Julie Norris, 58, has run sweet stall, Sweet Tweets, for five years.

“I’m finding trading in Morecambe alright because all the other sweet shops are shutting down,” said Julie.

“The kids are coming here for their holiday treats. And we also do well from people coming here to buy snacks and sweets before going to the cinema next door.

“They don’t want to pay rip-off cinema prices so stock up here before going to see a film.

“I love working here and if the Eden Project comes it will be fantastic. It’ll be very family orientated.”

Tyson Fury

Fury is arguably the town’s biggest name, living in the area with his wife Paris and their seven children there.

And today, it was revealed that he had sold a property in the area – for a knockdown price of £700,000.

Speaking last year, he told TNT: “17 years, it’s become my home. A new home, away from home. I actually cast myself now as from Morecambe, I don’t say I’m from Manchester anymore.

“It’s been keeping me grounded – I have always likened Morecambe to Alcatraz island… because if you go 200m that way you hit the sea, and if you go a couple of miles that way you hit the M6 motorway, and you’ve got to drive an hour to get to any city.

“It’s a big island, there’s not much distractions, there’s not much stuff to do, you can’t spend your money here because there’s nothing to spend it on, apart from Asda… That’s it, really, it’s a good place for a fighter…

“It’s kept me grounded, away from all the limelight.”

He added that locals are very respectful and leave him alone when he goes for runs. “If I go to any other city in the world, oomph Elvis has landed.”

The “Gypsy King” has previously expressed interest in buying Morecambe FC and told talkSPORT: “I was thinking I invest X amount of millions in them. Basically throw it at them and keep them going up. I’ve been offered to buy Morecambe Football Club.

“I own all the training facilities anyway and the training gym. So who knows? You might be looking at a football club owner.”

The Tyson Fury Foundation sits in the north-east corner of the football club’s Mazuma Mobile Stadium.

However, the Telegraph has claimed that Fury currently has no interest in buying the Shrimps.

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Weathered and bumpy, the wall hidden among the surplus clothing stores of the Fashion District was hardly the perfect canvas.

But artist Sloe Motions’ vision for the memorial mural in honor of Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna following their deaths in 2020 brought the stretch of Main and 14th streets to life with vibrant hues of purple and gold.

One of the most well-known Kobe murals across Southern California, the art piece — outside Jimmy Jam T-Shirts — was the backdrop for a commercial for Super Bowl LVI featuring Vanessa Bryant and has drawn fans from near and far.

For years, the mural remained untouched — an unspoken mark of respect for the artist and the subject but one that abruptly ended this year.

In late March, someone tagged the artwork with large bubble letters outlined in black and filled in with white — a similar style to other street tagging visible across the city.

Sloe Motions went back to work, painstakingly restoring the mural. There was much fanfare in downtown when the new mural made its debut in late May. But within a few days, it was again defaced. The artist is disappointed but vows to restore it once again — this time in a new location.

“This one has a lot of meaning to it, so it hurts me that people would do something like this where they’re disrespecting the Bryant family. It just exposes these people’s demons,” Sloe Motions said.

Graffiti has long been an element of Los Angeles life, and residents of downtown are used to tags as part of the landscape. This is, after all, the place where taggers coated the unfinished Oceanwide Plaza high-rise complex with graffiti, generating international attention and debate about the line between art and vandalism.

But the treatment of the Kobe tribute surprised Sloe Motions.

“This isn’t just another Kobe mural. It’s a memorial,” he said.

Street art has long been a part of the culture of Los Angeles, where murals — sanctioned and unsanctioned — and graffiti harmoniously share canvas space. Some abide by the unwritten code that you don’t cover someone else’s art. Others take a more autonomous approach, creating what they want where they want.

“Great cities have great public art,” said Wyland, a Laguna Beach-based artist who has painted murals across the world. “This Kobe mural, it’s become part of the fabric of Los Angeles. And for someone to come in and destroy it like that doesn’t make any sense.”

Los Angeles is known as a city of murals — some of which remain respectfully untouched for years, while others like the Kobe memorial are a seemingly irresistible target for taggers. There was a time when some property owners believed hiring the right muralist to grace your walls — or including a portrait of the Virgen de Guadalupe — could keep taggers away. But not anymore.

In many ways downtown Los Angeles is the perfect gallery for viewing street art, turning nondescript buildings into colorful canvases that tell the story of the region.

Ife Ewing, co-owner of Jimmy Jam T-Shirts, says street art has changed in the 13 years her business has been housed on Main Street.

James Ewing, co-owner of Jimmy Jam T-Shirts, looks at a mural Wednesday of Kobe and Gianna Bryant that has been vandalized again on the side of the business at 14th and Main streets.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

“Before, it was isolated to designated areas,” she said. “It’s a different breed of artists now. They have no respect for business owners, property owners. It’s disrespectful. You have to call it what it is, it’s just disrespect.”

Sloe Motions is far from the only muralist to feel burned.

Judy Baca’s famed mural of a female Olympic runner is beloved, even though it has been hit by taggers in the past. Then in 2019, the mural — part of the 1984 Olympics art movement — was mysterious whitewashed, sparking outrage. Metro eventually admitted one of its graffiti abatement contractors had covered the mural and vowed to restore it.

“They would rather paint on the mural than see even a mark of graffiti on the mural,” Baca said at the time.

The latest vandalism to Bryant’s mural felt like another blow to the area.

A post on June 3 from the DTLA Insider Instagram account summed up the situation simply: “We really can’t have nice things.”

The mural image is a spin on a photograph capturing a sweet moment during the 2008 NBA Finals when the Lakers legend — a proud “girl dad” — leans down and kisses the side of his smiling toddler’s head as he cradles her in his arm during a news conference.

Sloe Motions was drawn to the emotion in the photograph — the purity of a father’s love and a daughter’s admiration for her hero. It was captured years before Gigi started playing basketball, showing off her own version of her dad’s envied fadeaway jumper.

Next to them, the words “Mambas Forever” with an infinity symbol are painted in purple and gold.

Bryant, 41, and 13-year-old Gigi, along with seven others — John Altobelli, 56; Keri Altobelli, 46; Alyssa Altobelli, 13; Christina Mauser, 38, Sarah Chester, 45; Payton Chester, 13; and pilot Ara Zobayan, 50 — died Jan. 26, 2020, when the helicopter Zobayan was flying crashed in the hills of Calabasas.

After the initial vandalism in late March, Sloe Motions had sought donations to help cover the cost of restoring the mural in the current location, hoping to preserve the spot for the Bryant family.

“There’s just a lot of meaning at that wall,” he said.

Lakers star Luka Doncic’s foundation quickly jumped into action, donating $5,000, the full amount needed, to a fundraiser to help restore the art piece.

In late May, Sloe Motions posted on Instagram that the mural was finally finished. He’d added a few additional touches, painting the No. 8 on Gigi’s jersey, an homage to the number that Kobe wore for the first 10 seasons of his career.

A week later, the new details were still visible but under the scrawl of white paint.

On June 4, television news cameras were positioned near the mural, and passersby stopped to assess the damage. A jumble of bright white paint cut across the image, and heavy white dots covered Kobe’s and Gigi’s eyes.

“This time, they really went heavy,” Sergio Bautista, 35, said as he stood in front of the mural. “It’s sad to see.”

Sky Hendrix, who was in the area filming a music video with a friend, expressed his disbelief.

“That’s disrespecting the dead,” Hendrix said as he took in the scene. “Who would do that? He’s the GOAT and she’s just a little girl.”

Despite the vandalism, Sloe Motions showed no real sign of anger as he talked about the future of the art piece somewhere else where more people could view and appreciate it. He said he sent “prayers” to the people who vandalized his work.

“Nothing’s forever, and that’s the beauty of this stuff,” Sloe Motions said. “Some stuff could last a minute, some stuff could last a day, some stuff could last years.”

Times photographer Genaro Molina contributed to this report.

In the overcast light — on a chilly, gray Monday morning in June — a cluster of city workers quietly gathered outside Los Angeles City Hall to assess the damage.

After thousands of demonstrators converged downtown over the weekend to protest the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants in the country without documentation, the granite walls of the towering Art Deco seat of city government was marked up with fresh graffiti, with the same four-letter expletive preceding the word “ICE” in about a dozen places.

On the south and west sides of City Hall, about a dozen windows were smashed. At least 17 glass-covered light boxes surrounding the structure were busted, with broken shards of blue-gray glass covering the light fixtures.

On the front steps, insults daubed in spray paint were directed at both Mayor Karen Bass and President Trump.

The vandalism and graffiti stretched out block after block across downtown Los Angeles: “Remove Trumps head!!” was scrawled on the front facade of the Los Angeles County Law Library. The T-Mobile store on South Broadway had several windows boarded up, and glass still littered the sidewalk. Spent canisters, labeled “exact impact,” lay on the ground at various intersections.

The former Los Angeles Times building was scrawled with expletives, along with the words: “Immigrants rule the world.” The doors to its historic Globe Lobby were shattered, with graffiti on the large globe inside and across the building’s facade: “Return the homies” and “Trump is scum.”

But few Angelenos appeared outraged by the destruction.

“It’s kind of the usual. We always have protests,” said Eileen Roman as she walked her dog near Grand Central Market.

As the daughter of Guatemalan immigrants, she said she understood why people were protesting. Although she didn’t plan to join them on the streets, she said, she would be involved on social media.

“I think we all are concerned about what’s going on,” Roman, 32, said of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

Thomas Folland, a downtown resident and art history professor at Los Angeles Mission College, also said he wasn’t particularly concerned by the graffiti and vandalism he saw Monday morning.

“I was curious to see what the aftermath was this morning,” Folland said, noting that it was a particularly loud night at his apartment. But so far, he said, it wasn’t anything that worried him — though he noted his apartment building did start boarding up its windows in anticipation of what might come later this week.

“I’m not that offended by graffiti,” Folland said. “This is at least a genuine community expression.”

Sunday marked the third day of protests in downtown Los Angeles after federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested immigrants at a Home Depot parking lot, L.A.’s Garment District, and several other locations on Friday.

As President Trump ordered the deployment of hundreds of National Guard troops to the city, tensions escalated Sunday. Demonstrators blocked the 101 Freeway, set self-driving cars ablaze and hurled incendiary devices — and, in some cases, chunks of concrete — at law enforcement officers. Police, in turn, wielded tear gas and rubber bullets.

At 8:56 p.m. Sunday, the Los Angeles Police Department said in a social media post that “agitators have splintered” throughout downtown and an unlawful assembly had been declared for the Civic Center area.

“Residents, businesses and visitors to the Downtown Area should be alert and report any criminal activity,” LAPD Central Division said on X. “Officers are responding to several different locations to disperse crowds.”

About half an hour later, the LAPD expanded its unlawful assembly across downtown Los Angeles. By 10:23 p.m., police said business owners were reporting that stores were being broken into and burglarized in the area of 6th Street and Broadway.

“All DTLA businesses or residents are requested to report any vandalism, damage or looting to LAPD Central Division so that it can be documented by an official police report,” LAPD Central Division said just before midnight. “Please photograph all vandalism and damage prior to clean up.”

Eric Wright and his wife, Margaux Cowan-Banker, vacationers from Knoxville, Tenn., were on a jog Monday morning downtown and paused to take photos — past scores of police vehicles — of the graffiti-covered Federal Building at 300 N. Los Angeles St., which houses offices for ICE, the IRS, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and other agencies.

There was egg on the exterior walls and spray-painted slogans with expletives.

“When tyranny becomes law,” one graffiti said, “rebellion becomes duty,”

The couple — who laughed about being red-state denizens in L.A. during this time — said the peaceful protesters, of which they saw many Sunday night, didn’t bother them.

Though “the graffiti is tough — I appreciate the sentiment, but someone’s gotta clean it up,” said Wright, a 37-year-old physical therapist.

“But a few graffiti-ists don’t make the protest, right?”

As dawn broke Monday, city crews had already fanned out across downtown, cleaning up the aftermath.

Several yellow city street sweepers drove up and down Los Angeles Street in front of the federal courthouse, between blooming purple jacarandas and scores of police vehicles from various SoCal cities.

Just before 9 a.m., two workers from C. Erwin Piper Technical Center carried planks of plywood to City Hall to board up the windows. When they were done, they told The Times, they planned to head across the street to repair the Los Angeles Police Department’s headquarters.

Members of the National Guard were stationed outside the federal detention center and downtown Los Angeles V.A. clinic at Alameda and Temple streets, and police cars blocked roads around the federal buildings.

A person in a silver SUV — their head entirely covered by a white balaclava — drove by the barricade at Commercial and Alameda streets, window down. They flipped off the officers standing nearby.

Some stores that were typically open on a Monday morning remained shuttered, including Blue Bottle Coffee. But others, including Grand Central Market, were already buzzing with customers.

Octavio Gomez, a supervisor with the DTLA Alliance, quickly rolled black paint onto a wall next to Grand Central Market that had been newly covered in graffiti.

“Today’s a bad day because of … last night,” Gomez said, noting his teams had been working since 5 a.m. to respond to the damage across the city. “It’s all going to come back, right? Because there’s still protests.”

For the couple from Knoxville, the juxtaposition between their weekend in L.A. and news coverage of the protests felt bizarre.

They had an idyllic Los Angeles Sunday — a food festival, the L.A. Pride March in Hollywood, a visit to Grand Central Market.

But on TV and social media, Los Angeles was portrayed as a place of total chaos.

“People back where we live are going to completely be horrified,” said Cowan-Banker, a 42-year-old personal trainer. “I’m sure they think it’s a war zone here.”

But Wright said he thought people should be protesting the Trump administration: “They’re stealing people off the streets from their families,” he said, referring to the ICE raids. “This is America. To send the National Guard was intentionally inflammatory.”

“This feeds right into his voters,” Wright said of Trump.

“And they’re the people we go home to,” his wife added. “I’m kinda glad we’re here to carry information, though no one’s gonna listen.”

The couple, at the halfway point of their five-mile morning run, kept on snapping their photos, past a line of police cars.