Tens of thousands of Americans have marched through the United States' major cities in a massive protest effort against Donald Trump, coordinated to counter his show-of-force military parade in Washington DC.
The "No Kings" protests took place against a backdrop of intensifying fears of political violence, after two Democratic politicians and their spouses were shot in Minnesota hours before the rallies.
Marches were planned in all of America's major cities except for Washington DC, where the largest military parade in the US in decades was staged to coincide with his birthday.
In downtown Los Angeles, Saturday's protest was a loud but largely peaceful culmination of a week of demonstrations. But late in the day, police used tear gas on lingering protesters after issuing a "dispersal order" for an area downtown.
At a federal building in the area, crowds were standing face-to-face with National Guard troops and Los Angeles Police Department units at the building's entrance.
The crowd was pushed to the bottom of the building's steps and as the afternoon wore on, there were several moments when the National Guard units raised their shields and moved them back.
"I've just seen the United States National Guard unit push back against its own citizens," Crystal Flores, 21, said.
"We are here peacefully. Everybody is unarmed. We're out here handing out free waters, out here with medics, dancing, keeping the peace and they're trying to push us back."
Protesters were firing what police described as commercial-grade fireworks against officers, along with rocks and bottles, according to the Reuters news agency.
Some demonstrators wore gas masks and helmets and vowed to remain in the area for hours.
Over the course of a few hours, the presence grew and roads were blocked, and just past 5pm, an emergency alert was issued to phones across the area warning an "unlawful assembly" had been declared.
Police then used less-lethal means to break up the crowd, including using tear gas, and what appeared to be flash grenades and pepper spray rounds.
"People in the crowd are throwing rocks, bricks, bottles and other objects," the Los Angeles Police Department posted on X.
Block-by-block, law enforcement units pushed protesters out of the area, but as a local curfew came into effect at 8pm, there was still action on the streets and sirens heard across the city.
The week-long protest action was initially triggered by raids on local businesses by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers.
Streets were filled with chants of "no ICE" earlier on Saturday.
Speakers warned "America has no kings" and said LA had "extinguished the fires in January, and will crush ICE in June".
For some, Mr Trump's immigration raids were their tipping point.
As the values of Trump's America clashed with those at the very heart of LA this week, locals were compelled to make signs and march for the first time.
Sixty-five-year-old Cleotide, who only wanted to use her first name, said she saw Mr Trump as "a Hitler reborn in America".
"I'm pissed off because of all the people who are suffering," she told the ABC.
"Because they deport a lot of people, there are a lot of families missing the father or the mother, even the kids. And they're crying for food, they're crying for their parents."
Cuban-born immigration lawyer Joaquin Talleva, who moved to the US when he was four, said his clients were "scared to death".
"There's the mistreatment of the Latino community in Los Angeles, which is being done in a very heartless manner, but it's the undermining of the constitution and the rule of law that has me out here today," he said.
Helicopters buzzed over the parade and most of downtown LA as law enforcement patrolled the crowds from the land and air. Businesses were closed and boarded up ahead of the event.
The spotlight has been on LA over the past week after Mr Trump deployed thousands of National Guard troops, as well as Marines, to the city despite local authorities insisting they were not required.
But Mr Trump's mass deportation efforts helped fuel large turnouts in cities far from California.
One of the largest protests was in Philadelphia, where a diverse crowd of almost 100,000 turned out, according to police estimates.
"It sends the message that this isn't just a small group of college kids or unemployed young people," one demonstrator told the ABC.
"This is everyone from every socio-economic class … and everyone is pissed, because we don't have kings, and this dude is acting like he owns everything," she said.
"He's ignoring law."
Protesters told the ABC they were motivated by a range of causes — but particularly what they saw as Mr Trump's use of power beyond his constitutional authority, including his deployment of troops to manage protests in LA.
Mr Trump argues he is carrying out a mandate to deport illegal immigrants, rein in wasteful spending, and rebalance "woke" government agencies and federally funded institutions. He frequently criticises what he calls "activist" courts that find his actions unlawful or unconstitutional.
One Philadelphia protester, who said she was the granddaughter of a military veteran, said he would be "rolling in his grave" at the sight of troops deployed onto LA's streets to police protests.
Another woman, an aspiring doctor, said she was angered by Mr Trump's cuts to healthcare, research and Medicaid.
Her sister, holding a sign reading 'liberty and justice for all', said: "Every day in school at 8am we would say the Pledge of Allegiance and say 'liberty and justice for all', and we're not upholding that today."
Protest organiser Vicki Miller told the ABC she was thrilled by the turnout in Philadelphia.
"We do it to show people, to show the country, to show the world that we have the power and we're not going to stand for what's happening in Washington," she said.
She said many protesters and other Americans were disgusted by Mr Trump's "pathetic" military parade, planned for later in the evening.
"He's not actually strong, he's weak, and so he uses our tax dollars and this military that is available to him to pretend that he is really strong."
In Minnesota, the planned protests were cancelled after the assassination of a state politician and her husband, and the shooting of a state senator and his wife, in what were deemed politically motivated attacks.
And in Austin, Texas, a "credible threat" against local politicians sparked the evacuation of the state parliament building just hours before a No Kings rally was set to start nearby.
Build-up to demonstrations
The week of demonstrations in LA was sparked by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents carrying out raids across California in a move at odds with the local and state values.
LA is a sanctuary city, meaning the city does not spend resources on immigration enforcement.
Californian Governor Gavin Newsom urged protesters to stay peaceful and said Mr Trump's decision to federalise the National Guard and deployed troops to the city was an escalation and threatened democracy.
Hundreds of people have been arrested as part of those protests over Mr Trump's immigration policy, many for defying curfew orders and staying in LA's protest zone past 8pm.
In the sprawling city of nearly 4 million people, just a section of the downtown area is under curfew. The law enforcement presence has been heavy, but remained relatively out of sight during Saturday's No Kings protest.
As tensions in LA rose throughout the week, similar protests gathered in other cities and commentators had signalled that momentum was building to this day of nationwide protests.
