No arrests or citations for curfew violations
By Sam Catanzaro
The National Guard continues to maintain a presence at the Westfield Culver City mall today, city officials say, as peaceful protests and civil unrest continue following the police killing of George Floyd locally and nationwide.
“The National Guard will continue to maintain a presence at the Westfield Culver City mall today, in order to relieve and support Culver City Police. Their mission is limited to preventing crime at the mall. How long they stay there will depend on the day-to-day analysis of security at that location,” the City of Culver City wrote in an email Thursday morning.
According to Culver City City Manager John Nachbar, 25 National Guard service members arrived Wednesday afternoon around 1:00 PM at the Westfield Culver City Mall to provide security. The National Guard are only being deployed at the mall.
In a statement, Nachbar said that the National Guard was requested after cars were spotted circling Westfield Culver City and learning of specific threats to businesses. National Guard troops are also present at Santa Monica Place and Palisades Village, among other Westside locations.
“During each of the past several evenings, there have been up to 100 cars at a time circling the Westfield Culver City Mall with persons attempting to gain access to vandalize and loot. Using significant resources, [Culver City Police Department] CCPD and local law enforcement partners have been successful in fighting off these criminal attempts, including using methods such as using buses to block mall parking lot entrances,” Nachbar said Wednesday. Specific threats have been made to stores in Culver City, including not only the mall but our two Target stores. These threats have come through social media, law enforcement intelligence, community members, other neighboring law enforcement agencies, and mall management.”
According to Nachbar, in at least six different incidents, CCPD has had to chase suspects in vehicles through the City.
“10 retail locations have been successfully burglarized, resulting in significant damage and loss of property, at a time when our businesses can least tolerate such losses,” Nachbar said.
On Thursday, the City of Culver City–along with the City of Santa Monica and the City of Los Angeles–removed an evening curfew that had been in place since Saturday.
“The current threat level has decreased so that a curfew is no longer necessary,” the City said in an email.
According to the City, Culver City Police have made no arrests or citations for curfew violations.
