“It’s mayhem,” wrote a resident of Los Angeles’ Pico-Robertson neighborhood , a predominantly Jewish community that experienced an outbreak of violence on Sunday afternoon, June 23 as anti-Israel demonstrators descended on the area.
Social media and Citizen video along with firsthand reports describe a melee that combusted outside of Adas Torah Synagogue on the 9000 block of West Pico Boulevard following a morning procession of demonstrators carrying Palestinian flags and wearing keffiyehs. One video shows a brutal beating of a women in the middle the street. Another records an observer being pepper sprayed . Some of the protesters also purportedly wore symbols affiliated with terrorist organizations Hamas and Hezbollah and many had their faces covered with masks and scarves.
Calls for violence against Jews extended to nearby streets, and while there was a police presence, many report that the officers were told to stand down and not intervene.
Los Angeles has reached out to the Mayor’s office for comment.