LOS ANGELES — Around fourteen hundred police officers stormed the “Occupy Los Angeles” encampment Wednesday morning, pulling down tents and arresting at least 200 people, two days after a deadline passed for the protesters to clear out.
LAPD chief Charlie Beck told reporters at a brief 3:30 a.m. local time news conference that he had “never been prouder” of his police force. He was joined in praising the operation by mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. More details on the raid would be made available at a 9.30am news conference at City Hall.
Police officers flooded out of Los Angeles City Hall just after midnight and started dismantling the two-month-old camp, MyFoxLA.com reported. Officers in helmets and wielding batons surrounded the camp from the streets.
POLICE ARREST UP TO 50 DURING OCCUPY PHILLY EVICTION
Defiant campers who were chanting slogans as the officers entered the park, booed when an unlawful assembly was declared, which paved the way for officers to begin arresting those who did not leave.
Officers immediately took down a tattooed man with a camera on City Hall steps and wrestled him to the ground as someone yelled “police brutality.”
Police then arrested at least a dozen more protesters.
The La Placita Olvera Church opened its doors to the evicted protesters and members of the clergy were also escorted to talk to the protesters, where they reportedly encouraged them to leave peacefully, according to the LA Times.
Earlier more than 1,000 officers were taken to the encampment aboard 30 buses from a staging area outside Dodger Stadium, myFOXla.com reported.
The officers were briefed on the potential for violence and the possibility that demonstrators could throw everything from concrete and gravel to human feces.
Hundreds of protesters chanted, “The people united will never be defeated,” as officers first surrounded the camp.
Before police arrived in large numbers, protesters were upbeat, setting off fireworks as helicopters hovered above. Someone blew “The Star Spangled Banner” on a horn while another protester in a Santa Claus hat danced in the street.
Campers said they planned to defend the camp and hold their ground. They barricaded entrances to the park with trash cans.
Earlier, Gia Trimble, a member of the movement’s 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.”
Members of the National Lawyers guild had legal observers on hand for any possible eviction.
“Occupy Los Angeles” started Oct. 1, two weeks after the protest movement began in New York with “Occupy Wall Street.”
To read more, go to MyFoxLA.com.