LOS ANGELES ? Police in Los Angeles and Philadelphia stormed Occupy Wall Street encampments in both cities 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 Los Angeles 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. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa raised public safety and health concerns in announcing plans for the eviction last week, while Philadelphia officials said protestors must clear their site to make room for a $50 million renovation project.
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 began marched through the street and continued through the night.
Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey said breaking up the camp in the early-morning hours helped minimize any disruption to businesses and traffic.
"We acknowledge the fact that we are going to have to leave this space .... 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," Philadelphia protestor Bri Barton, 22, said before police began clearing out the camp.
"Whether or not we have this space or work in the city is nowhere near done," she said.
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.
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.
___
Matheson reported from Philadelphia. Associated Press writer Shaya Tayefe Mohajer also contributed to this report.
| @ neontommy : #Occupyla calls for rally tomorrow 4 pm at Pershing Sq. City Hall Park "closed" #ascj #ws #la |
| @ coconnell : 6 arrests now at #occupyphilly so far |
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa issued a statement via e-mail early Wednesday morning about the closure of City Hall Park. In the statement, he called the raid "a measured approach," then announced the creation of a new place where citizens will be allowed to exercise their right of free speech and assembly.
During the park closure, 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."
Click here for the full statement on L.A. Observed.
| @ OccupyLA : Tents are being searched & destroyed. Hazmat people are bringing out a few people in cuffs- 12:57 |
| @ neontommy : Police have taken over most of tent camp and have moved crowd into streets where they are corralled #ascj #occupyla |
| @ anblanx : #LAPD declares unlawful assembly as boos go up from #occupyLA camp. |
Police entered the Occupy Los Angeles encampment at City Hall early Wednesday morning and began began arresting protesters, The Associated Press reported.
About half of some 500 tents in Los Angeles remained after the Monday morning deadline and the remaining protesters showed no sign of leaving.
The Los Angeles encampment is one of the largest still remaining in the country.
Click here for more.
| @ PhillyPolice : ?@DPBell: #OccupyPhilly has a permit to relocate to Thomas Paine Plaza , no tents, @PhillyPolice encourages continued peaceful protest. |
| @ coconnell : #occupyphilly crowd still marching. More barricades torn down |
| @ OccupyPhilly : Mounted police charge on non violent protesters #occupyphilly |
| @ jennymedina : Dozens of police are in #occupyla and tensions are extremely high. Batons out again |
| @ jennymedina : Throng of officers at main and first where protesters are angrily saying they "don't have to do this" "that's what I call a thin blue line" |
| @ benjamin_max : National Lawyers guild just spoke to LAPD. They say #Occupyla will have 10 mins to disperse after ordered to. #ascj #ola |
The Los Angeles Police Department denied Patch editors direct access to the Occupy LA demonstrations on Monday night, HighlandPark-MountWashington Patch reported.
Patch editors were excluded from a media pool drafted by the Los Angeles Police Department on Monday evening, denying editors the ability to cover the Occupy Los Angeles demonstrations around City Hall themselves.
Instead, they must rely on coverage from other media organizations who were selected at a meeting Monday night from which they were excluded.
Click here for more.
| @ CBSLA : LAPD says they cannot talk about plans or timetables & hope things continue to go peacefully at #OccupyLA LIVE VIDEO: http://t.co/IoGVNHPc |
| @ PhillyPolice : @PhillyPolice following examples set by @Michael_Nutter @RichNegrin, working to ensure peaceful and respectful protest with #occupyphilly. |
| @ lou_dubois : "Unfortunately it came to having to clear the plaza, but fortunately there have been no arrests." Police Commissioner Ramsey, #OccupyPhilly |
| @ wilw : The LAPD has allowed 12 reporters to cover the eviction of #OccupyLA. That a police force can "allow" media to cover anything disgusts me. |
| @ PhillyPolice : @Phillypolice thanks #occupyphilly for their cooperation. We're here to protect constitutional rights and ensure public safety. |
| @ OccupyPhilly : hundreds of police removing tents #occupyphilly chanting "who do you prot5ect? who do you serve?" |
| @ OccupyPhilly : #occupyphilly sit-in currently at 18th and Locust in front of wall of cops preventing entry into Rittenhouse |
Some activists used trash and recycling bings to block the main entrance to the law, L.A. Now reported.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said he decided that it was time to evict Occupy L.A. protesters from the City Hall lawn after learning that there were children staying there.
Given the smattering of assaults and other incidents reported at the camp, ?the chaos out there could produce something awful,? he said in an interview with The Times.
Click here for more.
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