A protest closes the 110 Freeway in downtown LA Wednesday Dec. 13, 2023.
A protest on the 110 Freeway brought morning traffic to a halt for more than an hour Wednesday in downtown Los Angeles.
Protesters linked arms at about 9 a.m. on the southbound side of the freeway near Third Street. California Highway Patrol officers were at the scene, where the morning drive ground to a halt.
Backups extended to nearby streets and freeways. Traffic on the southbound 110 Freeway was jammed for miles, well past the 5 Freeway.
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CHP officers began taking people into custody just before 10 a.m. Most of the protesters were removed by 10:30 a.m., but several cars appeared to have stalled due to mechanical problems, adding to traffic headaches. Tow trucks removed the vehicles.
The CHP said 75 people were arrested, but it was not immediately clear whether all were protesters.
The 110 Freeway connects downtown LA with Long Beach to the south and San Gabriel Valley communities to the northeast.
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The protest was organized by a group calling for a lasting Israel-Hamas War ceasefire in Gaza. In November, dozens of protesters shut down lanes on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge for roughly four hours, demanding that President Joe Biden call for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war.
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