Over the last few days, sections of Los Angeles have looked more like a war zone than neighborhoods. Some of the hardest hit are some of L.A.’s more high-end shopping areas, including the world famous Rodeo Drive. Unintentionally there to document a significant amount of the protesting, vandalizing, looting, and conflicts with cops was one guy who usually just posts videos of exotic cars.
In one of the videos, titled “When Car Spotting Goes Terribly Wrong,” the guy behind the YouTube channel “effspot” starts off trying to film some expensive cars cruising around the Rodeo Drive area, but ends up coming up on a roaming band of protesters/rioters. He keeps the camera rolling and captures a whole lot of chaos, eventually posting around 30 minutes of the mayhem carried out by Black Lives Matter and other protesters-turned-rioters at the scene.
Captured in the footage are multiple acts of vandalism and looting of various high-end stores in the famous shopping district. At different points, police appear on the scene, sending some “protesters” running. At other points, demonstrators and police square off.
In one particularly tense moment, police in riot gear stand in front of multiple firetrucks apparently called to the scene to address the aftermath of some of the “demonstrations.” Some of the rioters are caught on camera hurling objects at officers. As highlighted in the video’s thumbnail, one of things that ends up getting destroyed by rioters over the course of the day is a black Porsche.
WATCH [Warning: Graphic Language]:
In another video, posted on Monday, “effspot” documents “the indiscriminate looting of Santa Monica.” The video, which runs about 27 minutes, provides another unflinching look at the impact of the rioters on the area.
As in the scene at Rodeo Drive, large bands of protesters/rioters roam the area or cruise in vehicles and, as the filmmaker put it, “indiscriminately” loot and destroy, climbing in and out of broken windows, vandalizing, and lighting fires, at least one of which ends up sending smoke billowing in the air. Among the stores hit by rioters is a 24 Hour Fitness, a Coffee Bean, and a Vons.
WATCH [Warning: Graphic Language]:
On Sunday, NBC News provided a summary of what took place on Rodeo Drive the day before (formatting adjusted):
What began as a protest in Beverly Hills Saturday over the in-custody death of George Floyd led to looting of the Alexander McQueen clothing store on Rodeo Drive, attacks on three police vehicles and multiple incidents of vandalism. Police used tear gas to break up the remaining 200-300 people gathered at Rodeo and Santa Monica Boulevard around 8 p.m., after the gathering was declared an illegal assembly. …
The Alexander McQueen store was looted by masked individuals around 6:20 p.m. as what appeared to be dozens of people entered the store and escaped with stolen items. There was also an attempt to loot the Gucci store. Three Santa Monica Police Department vehicles were attacked between 6 and 7 p.m. at the intersection of Santa Monica Boulevard and Rodeo. Santa Monica police were assisting the Beverly Hills Police Department on a mutual aid request.
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