Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass dismissed the presence of the National Guard and Marines amid anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement protests in the city.

The Los Angeles Police Department has issued dispersal orders across the cities of Los Angeles and Paramount as activists set cars on fire, including Waymo taxis, and throw frozen water bottles and cinderblocks at police cars, among other acts of destruction. Bass also instituted a curfew in downtown Los Angeles.

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President Donald Trump has deployed 4,000 National Guard troops since Sunday to assist in ending the riots despite Democratic lawmakers saying the protests are peaceful. Trump also sent a group of 700 Marines to the area. During a Wednesday appearance on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Bass was asked to react to federal soldiers’ presence in the city. She shook her head and rolled her eyes in response.

“Well, my reaction is that it is completely unnecessary. What are they going to do? The 100 National Guard soldiers who are in downtown Los Angeles are guarding one federal building. So there is no need for this. The city handled things perfectly last night and will continue to do this,” Bass said.

However, Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell disputed Bass during a Monday press conference after the third night of riots.

“We are overwhelmed as far as the number of people engaging in this type of activity and the types of things that they’re doing. They’ll take backpacks filled with cinder blocks and hammers, break the blocks, and pass the pieces around to throw at officers and cars, and even at other people,” McDonnell said. “In the past couple of nights, we’ve seen violence at a level that disgusts every good person.”

The Los Angeles County sheriff seemingly disputed Bass’s claim that the protesters are peaceful, saying in a statement they have become “increasingly agitated” and are demonstrating “violent behavior” toward police officers.

Bass continued, “I do believe, though, that this is all part of an experiment that’s taking place in Los Angeles. And the test is what happens when the federal government intervenes and takes power away from a governor and a mayor.”

She said that while there were no incidents of looting or vandalism Tuesday night, there were still some arrests related to violating the curfew.

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“This is happening over about 5 or 6 streets in downtown Los Angeles. The curfew that we put in place last night covers about two square miles of our city. If that is a picture of chaos, I’m sorry, but that’s just not true,” Bass said. “Just like it wasn’t true that the National Guard saved the day before they even got here.”

Bass was implicitly referencing Trump’s early Sunday Truth Social post, in which he congratulated the National Guard on a “great job” settling the riots. A White House Official confirmed to the Washington Examiner that the National Guard was deployed Saturday night, just after Bass said in an X post no troops had arrived in the city.