Police arrest Occupy LA protesters who blocked traffic
By Mary Slosson | Reuters
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Police in riot gear closed in before dawn Monday on some 2,000 anti-Wall Street activists who defied a midnight deadline to vacate an 8-week-old encampment outsideLos Angeles City Hall before blocking traffic.Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa had given protesters until 12:01 a.m. local time to dismantle their tents and clear out of the City Hall park or face a forcible removal, setting the stage for the latest showdown between leaders of a major U.S. city and the Occupy Wall Street movement.
But about two hours after the eviction deadline had passed, police commanders said they would permit the Occupy LA encampment to stay put until at least daybreak, forestalling a raid for which demonstrators had been bracing.
Police, however, later declared scores of protesters blocking a downtown intersection at the edge of the park to be an unlawful assembly and gave them five minutes to disperse.
"I command all those assembled to disperse," an officer shouted over a public address system from a police truck. "If you do not do so you will be subject to arrest or other police actions."
Minutes later, dozens of helmeted police carrying night sticks and special shotguns for firing "bean-bag" projectiles enclosed the intersection and forced their way into the crowd with batons, as demonstrators who had lingered in the street quickly retreated into the park.
Onlookers chanted "Whose street? Our Street" at police and shouted at those defying police to "Get off the street!"
At least one demonstrator was hauled away by officers after someone in the crowd hurled what appeared to be pieces of a bamboo pole at police.
Earlier, police Commander Andrew Smith said plans to break up the encampment had been postponed until at least dawn.
"We have no plan at this time to go into the park and evict people," Smith said. "That could change in the near future but right now we are hoping to clear the streets and that'll be the end and people can relax for a little while."
Some protesters expressed suspicion at word of a reprieve, saying it could be a ploy by police to get them to let down their guard.
SUPPORTERS RALLY TO BOLSTER CAMP
The Los Angeles encampment is among the oldest and largest on the West Coast aligned with a 2-month-old national Occupy Wall Street movement protesting economic inequality, high unemployment and excesses of the U.S. financial system.
Staking its place since October 1 on the grounds surrounding City Hall, the compound has grown to roughly 400 tents and 700 to 800 people, organizers and municipal officials said. At least a third are believed to be homeless.
By Sunday night the size of the crowd outside City Hall swelled as supporters from organized labor, clergy, civil rights and other groups streamed into the area, answering a call for an 11th-hour show of support for the campers.
Police estimated the overall number of protesters, some wearing gas masks, had grown to at least 2,000.
Police, who had kept out of sight during the day, began to make their presence known as the eviction deadline came and went, and the mood of the protesters, which had been calm and festive, turned more rowdy.
Shortly after midnight, throngs of demonstrators began blocking traffic along a street running between City Hall and the Los Angeles Police Department headquarters across the street, finally moving to take over an entire intersection.
One group of protesters left the park and marched about a block away, where they were met by a phalanx of riot police. Some in the crowd advanced to the line of officers, shouting: "We are peaceful!" But police held their positions.
Smith's police truck was briefly surrounded by protesters, prompting more riot police to converge on the area.
At one point, a group of about 50 protesters gathered around a tent in the center of the park holding candles and linking arms. They had scrawled telephone numbers of lawyers on their arms anticipating arrest.
HUMAN CHAIN
Dozens of others formed a human chain around the perimeter of City Hall, holding hands as they stood on the sidewalk.
After the threatened eviction was postponed, most of those protesters and others who had been disrupting traffic drifted away. But about 100 or more returned to the street as the 4:30 a.m. deadline set for clearing the streets approached.
Hours earlier, the mayor issued a statement saying the park "will officially close tonight," but that police would allow campers ample time to remove their belongings peacefully.
"I wouldn't leave if they tell me to leave," said Jennifer Mawias, 24, who identified herself as a two-month veteran of the camp. Dressed in a black leather jacket with a black bandanna over her nose and mouth, Mawias said she was ready to be arrested even though she was due at work in the morning.
Occupy LA campers spent much of the weekend removing and placing into storage their more valuable equipment to keep it from being damaged or confiscated, including an array of solar panels, power generators, computers and a makeshift library.
Los Angeles has been relatively accommodating to its Occupy group compared to other major cities, with Villaraigosa at one point providing ponchos to campers when it rained.
But after the collapse of negotiations aimed at persuading protesters to relocate voluntarily, the mayor said last week the encampment would have to go. He said he hoped to avoid violence that erupted in other cities when police used force against Occupy protesters.
(Writing by Steve Gorman; Additional reporting by Lucy Nicholson; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Todd Eastham)
Protesters light candles outside City Hall at the Occupy LA encampment after the 12.01am eviction
deadline in Los Angeles November 28,2011.
Photo By LUCY NICHOLSON/Reuters