The violence from protesters involved in the pro-migration, foreign-flag-waving riots in Los Angeles is “escalating,” Los Angeles Police Department Chief Jim McDonnell revealed during a press conference.

During the press conference, McDonnell revealed that the violence is “getting increasingly worse and more violent” since the riots first started over the weekend. McDonnell also added that protesters were shooting “commercial grade fireworks” at LAPD officers.

McDonnell also revealed that he respects U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, adding that they are a “fellow law enforcement agency.”

“To the people who are not happy with the fact that ICE is in the community doing what ICE does — I respect ICE for being a fellow law enforcement agency. They have their mission, they have their … what they have to do. We don’t engage in that activity, but again, we can’t preclude them from doing that. They have every right to do that,” McDonnell said.

“This violence that I’ve seen is disgusting, it’s escalated now since the beginning of this incident. What we saw the first night was bad, what we’ve seen subsequent to that is getting increasingly worse and more violent. Tonight we had individuals out there shooting commercial grade fireworks at our officers, that can kill you,” McDonnell added. “We have adapted our tactics to have a chance to take these people into custody, and to be able to hold them accountable. We are overwhelmed as far as the number of people out there engaged in this type of activity, and the type of things that they are doing.”

READ MORE