Women's March Under Way In Downtown LA

DOWNTOWN LA (CBSLA) — Thousands of people began to march through downtown today for the second annual Women's March Los Angeles, with thousands more already gathered at the event's City Hall end point.

The crowd at last year's inaugural WMLA far exceeded the expectations of organizers, who said that about 750,000 people attended, although fire officials estimated the crowd at about 350,000.

Organizers predicted at least 200,000 this year.

Officials with both the Los Angeles Fire Department and Los Angeles Police Department said they would not be offering any crowd size estimates, but KTLA-5, which has a helicopter over downtown, estimated the crowd size at about 400,000.

Police said there are no active threats against the march, which is one of many being held around the country on the one-year anniversary of President Donald Trump's inauguration. Last year, an estimated 3 million to 4 million people marched nationwide.

"We are looking to a very successful event, a very active series of marches in the downtown area. The largest consideration is going to be traffic,'' Los Angeles Police Department Assistant Chief Michel Moore said Friday. "We ask people to use the transit systems, bus and rail. We will have more than sufficient officers that will facilitate. We have no threats against
this event.''

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