The viral images were shocking: railroad tracks in the heart of Los Angeles buried in a blizzard of debris, as scavengers picked at what was left behind by thieves who broke into cargo containers on idle trains.
Last week’s thefts raised questions about how a key element of the supply chain could be so vulnerable. On Thursday, Gov. Gavin Newsom showed up to express his own confusion and outrage, even helping cleanup workers bag trash at the rail yard in Lincoln Heights.
“The images looked like a Third World country,” Newsom told reporters. “What you saw here in the last week is just not acceptable. So, I took off the suit and tie and said I’m coming because I couldn’t take it. I can’t turn on the news anymore. What the hell is going on?”
Gov. Gavin Newsom fills a garbage bag with debris from train tracks in Lincoln Heights. “The images looked like a Third World country,” he said. “What you saw here in the last week is just not acceptable.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Gove. Gavin Newsom and helps pick up trash along the rail lines in Lincoln Heights.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Gov. Gavin Newsom waits to speak with reporters after helping clean debris from train tracks where cargo cars were looted in Lincoln Heights.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Debris from shredded packages is strewn across railroad tracks passing through Lincoln Heights.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
A Union Pacific freight train navigates tracks in downtown Los Angeles littered with thousands of shredded boxes.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
People rummage through boxes left along Union Pacific train tracks near downtown Los Angeles.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
Discarded boxes of face masks and COVID tests.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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Ricko Mon, who was on his way to work, considers it a blessing to find speakers among the boxes.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
A man walks along a section of Union Pacific train tracks in downtown Los Angeles.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
A view of debris strewn across railroad tracks passing through Lincoln Heights.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Crews repair a section of detached railroad track near downtown Los Angeles on Sunday.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
Crews repair a section of detached railroad track near downtown Los Angeles on Sunday.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
A passerby watches work being done on the railroad tracks near downtown Los Angeles.
Robert Gauthier has been with the Los Angeles Times since 1994. He was the photographer for a project detailing the failings of an L.A. public hospital that won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for public service. Before The Times, Gauthier worked at the San Diego Union-Tribune, the Escondido Times-Advocate and the Bernardo News in San Diego County, his hometown.
Irfan Khan was a staff photographer with the Los Angeles Times from 1996 to 2024. He previously served as a freelance photographer for the publication beginning in 1989. Khan started his career as a commercial photographer in 1973 in Pakistan and moved to Dubai in 1977, where he worked for an advertising agency and at a leading English newspaper. Khan’s assignments have taken across Southern California and the U.S. Internationally, he has photographed the Hajj in Saudi Arabia and war zones of the Pakistan/Afghanistan border in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. He was part of the team awarded the Pulitzer Prize in breaking news for coverage of the 2015 terrorist attack in San Bernardino. In his spare time, he enjoys listening to semi-classical music of the Indian subcontinent and playing cricket on Sundays.
