LAPD Clears Out Occupy LA Camp

Los Angeles - Police officers in riot helmets today arrested more than 200 protesters and, in a mostly peaceful operation, dismantled the tent city that sprang up Oct. 1 outside Los Angeles City Hall as a western outpost of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

The park where the encampment was set up was fully cleared by 5:10 a.m., about five hours after the operation began, said Los Angeles police Officer Cleon Joseph.

"We've arrested all the Occupy L.A. protesters on the ground in the park and the last three people who had climbed high up into a tree house," he told City News Service. Police Cmdr. Andrew Smith added that a police shotgun that fires beanbags was deployed during the treehouse arrest, which he described as one of "two minor use of force" incidents during the operation. No major injuries were reported.

The few people in the tree house were the last of three groups that took to tree limbs to avoid removal from the encampment, said Kevin Maiberger, an LAPD spokesman. Officers were lifted in cherry pickers called "bat cats" to where the protesters were positioned and brought them down, along with a dog, which was later taken to a shelter.

Police said the people arrested at the Occupy L.A. site would be charged with misdemeanor failure to disperse for not complying with the LAPD's declaration -- issued just before 12:30 a.m. -- of an unlawful assembly. The declaration covered not only the encampment but also a multi-block area in the Civic Center area.

Bail for those under arrest was being set at $5,000.

At a morning news conference, protester Mario Brito called on Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and City Attorney Carmen Trutanich to reduce the bail amount, calling it an "unfair and inhumane" punishment.

"There is no reason what so ever that peaceful, nonviolent demonstrators should have a $5,000 bail. It's punitive in nature," Brito said.

Brito said the movement will continue and declared that a full moratorium on foreclosures will be the movement's "calling card."

"Banks, if you do not heed our call," Brito said, "expect to see our tents in your lobbies. Expect to see our tents in your boardrooms. Expect to see our tents in your houses. Expect to see our tents in your country clubs."

In preparation for the dismantling operation, the LAPD declared a citywide tactical alert about 10:30 p.m Tuesday, enabling it to hold over officers from earlier shifts and move officers around as needed. It was cancelled about 6:30 a.m., said Officer Norma Eisenman, an LAPD spokeswoman.

As the LAPD moved out the last of the protesters arrested outside City Hall, crews from the L.A. Department of Recreation and Parks this morning began delivering concrete K-rail to be used to block off access.

"The park will be closed to everyone for awhile, so that the Parks department can do an assessment of the damage done to the area," said Kevin Maiberger, an LAPD spokesman. "... Part of the irrigation system has been compromised, the lawn was destroyed and some of the trees were damaged, so they have to figure out a plan for repairs."

Shortly after 3:30 a.m., Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Los Angeles police Chief Charlie Beck arrived at the scene to survey what the police operation had accomplished over the preceding three hours. The mayor said he had never seen a "more professional, restrained police force under very trying circumstances as I've witnessed today" and, seemingly relieved by the absence of major incidents, praised the chief.

"This is a man who understood that constitutional policing is the only way Los Angeles can go. His officers responded to his call and did a phenomenal job," Villaraigosa said.

Beck thanked the mayor and said he had deployed 1,400 police officers who acted "with a minimal use of force. I've never been prouder of the Los Angeles police force." Lorenzo Quezada, an LAPD spokesman, added that "a little over 200 people" were arrested during the operation.

In a slow-moving operation that remained mostly free of violent outbursts, officers from the LAPD's elite Metro Division began moving onto the Occupy L.A. encampment on City Hall's South lawn at 12:14 a.m., arresting those who refused to leave and dismantling tents and other forms of shelter.

An estimated 500 helmeted LAPD officers -- some in white Hazmat uniforms -- burst out of City Hall doors and descended down concrete stairs and into the Occupy L.A. encampment, as another 1,350 officers formed a picket line around the tent city. An unlawful assembly was declared around 12:30 a.m.

"Please do the right thing," one protester yelled at the officers as they entered the camp.

Last week, the city declared that overnight camping on the south lawn outside City Hall would be unlawful starting 12:01 a.m. Monday.

The officers who enforced the order this morning began by ripping apart a makeshift so-called media tent and confronting a burly man with a camera who refused to moved, writhed and shouted, "I can't breathe," as around a half-dozen officers tried to subdue him.

Around 500 protesters were in and around the park on First Street between Main and Spring streets when the police raid began. Those wishing to call it a day were being escorted away by officers.

Among those arrested today were some 80 people who had locked arms in a "Circle of Peace" and were refusing to budge.

Opamago Cascini, 29, was one of those sitting in the circle awaiting arrest. "It's easy to talk the talk, but you gotta walk the walk," he said.

Four offramps from the northbound and southbound Hollywood (101) Freeway were closed down at 10:04 p.m. Tuesday to keep motorists out of Civic Center during the camp-clearance operation, said California Highway Patrol Officer Anthony Martin. The ramps at Alameda Street, Spring Street, Los Angeles Street and Broadway reopened at 5 a.m.

LAPD officers also shut down a number of streets in downtown near the Civic Center site to block any would-be supporters from joining people at the Occupy L.A. encampment.

"The area we've shut down is bounded by Temple Avenue on the north, Broadway on the west, Third Street on the south and Alameda Avenue on east," Rayner said.

Members of the elite Metro Division led the final assault when police moved in to clear the camp, LAPD Officer Sara Faden said. Metro Division specializes in crowd control and LAPD SWAT units are drawn from Metro.

Villaraigosa said before the operation began that "a First Amendment area will remain open on the Spring Street City Hall steps. Once the park is cleared, it will be repaired and returned to all Angelenos to exercise their First Amendment rights."

Los Angeles Police Protective League President Paul Weber praised the way officers handled the situation.

"Amid ever-changing political winds, LAPD officers have adhered to the highest standards of law enforcement in dealing with the Occupy L.A. protesters over the past two months. Acting on the commands of the civilian leadership in Los Angeles, the LAPD cleared the Occupy L.A. camp," Weber said.

"While there is a place for civil protest, the unsanitary and dangerous condition of the Occupy L.A. encampment required that the encampment be disbanded."
Wednesday, demanding protestors leave demonstration sites that had become two of the movement's largest after evictions upended others across the country.

Dozens of officers in riot gear flooded down the steps of City Hall just after midnight and started dismantling the two-month-old camp two days after a deadline passed for campers to leave the City Hall lawn. The raid had a military precision and officers in helmets and wielding batons moved in and began making arrests after several orders were given to leave the small park.

The raid in Los Angeles came after demonstrators with the movement in Philadelphia marched through the streets after being evicted from their site.

Defiant Los Angeles campers who were chanting slogans as the officers surrounded the park, booed when an unlawful assembly was declared, paving the way for officers to begin arresting those who didn't leave.

In the first moments of the raid, officers tore down a tent and tackled a tattooed man with a camera on City Hall steps and wrestled him to the ground. Someone yelled "police brutality."

Teams of four or five officers moved through the crowd making arrests one at a time, cuffing the hands of protesters with white plastic zip-ties. A circle of protesters sat with arms locked, many looking calm and smiling.

Opamago Cascini, 29, said the night had been a blast and he was willing to get arrested.

"It's easy to talk the talk, but you gotta walk the walk," Cascini said.

In Philadelphia, police began pulling down tents at about 1:20 a.m. EST after giving demonstrators three warnings that they would have to leave, which nearly all of the protestors followed. Dozens of demonstrators then marched through the street until they were stopped by police.

Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey said breaking up the camp in the early-morning hours helped minimize any disruption to businesses and traffic.

Six protesters were arrested after remaining on a street police that police tried to clear. The eviction overall appeared to have been carried out without any significant scuffles or violence.

"This is a symbolic action, but in another sense this has been our home for almost two months and no one wants to see their home taken away from them," 22-year-old Philadelphia protestor Bri Barton said while acknowledging the movement would have to leave the site.

Demonstrators and city officials in both Los Angeles and Philadelphia were hoping any confrontation would be nonviolent, unlike evictions at similar camps around the country that sometimes involved pepper spray and tear gas. The movement against economic disparity and perceived corporate greed began with Occupy Wall Street in Manhattan two months ago.

About 1,200 Los Angeles officers staged for hours outside Dodger Stadium before the raid. They were warned that demonstrators might throw everything from concrete and gravel to human feces at them.

"Please put your face masks down and watch each other's back," a supervisor told them. "Now go to work."

Before police arrived in large numbers, protesters were upbeat and the mood was almost festive. A protester in a Santa Claus hat danced in the street. A woman showed off the reindeer antlers she had mounted on her gas mask.

Fireworks exploded in the sky at one point. Later, as helicopters hovered above, someone blew "The Star Spangled Banner" on a horn.

As officers first surrounded the camp, hundreds of protesters chanted, "The people united will never be defeated."

Campers planning to defend the camp and hold their ground barricaded entrances to the park with trash cans.

The police operation was planned at night because downtown is mostly vacant, with offices closed, fewer pedestrians and less traffic, but a spokesman said it could make officers more vulnerable.

"It's more difficult for us to see things, to see booby traps," Lt. Andy Neiman, told pool reporters. "Operating in the dark is never an advantage."

Neiman said the force was prepared to deal with demonstrators holed up in the camp or those who had climbed up trees in the small park.

Gia Trimble, member of the Occupy LA media team, said a lot of people committed to the cause would stay and risk arrest.

"This is a monumental night for Los Angeles," Trimble said. "We're going to do what we can to protect the camp."

In their anticipation of an eviction, the Los Angeles protesters designated medics designated with red crosses taped on clothing. Some protesters had gas masks.

Organizers at the camp packed up computer and technical equipment from the media tent.

Two men who constructed an elaborate tree house lashed bamboo sticks together with twine to push away any ladder police might use to evict them.

Police said they would be able to remove the tree climbers.

Members of the National Lawyers guild had legal observers on hand for an eviction.