by LA-IMC
Tuesday, Jun. 16, 2009 at 7:17 AM
Summary of reports from the streets of last night’s Lakers victory celebrations:
Spontaneous street parties broke out at various locations around the city Sunday night after the Lakers won the NBA Finals. There are reports of hundreds of fans in East LA taking Whittier at Atlantic. In South Central fans took parts of Crenshaw Blvd and in the Valley the intersection of Woodland & Van Nuys. The largest street party was downtown in front of the Staples Center where an estimated 1,000 fans filled the street.
Downtown celebrations were boisterous, but peaceful until tension between some of the more rowdy fans and the police erupted when a small group broke away and smashed the windows of several police cars. This incident was broadcast live by local corporate media helicopters. At 9:00 pm the LAPD went on tactical alert and began to clear the streets around the Staples Center. Around the same time LA County Sheriff began clearing Whittier Blvd in East LA.
It was at this point that the situation actually became more unstable, resulting in the looting of a small gas station store, smashing of some storefront windows and the setting of trash fires. For next two hours police fought a cat and mouse game with fans often showing up to locations after the fans had moved on. By 11:30 pm things had mostly calmed down.
No serious injuries have been reported. Four Lakers fans related arrests have been reported and there may be more. There are reports of objects thrown at police, including fireworks. And there are unconfirmed reports of police bean bag rounds shot at a crowd of fans during an incident near Washington & Grand.