3:25: THE MAYOR AND THE CHIEF OF POLICE COME OUT AND SAY A FEW WORDS
Villaraigosa said of Chief Charlie Beck: “He’s someone who understands that Constitutional policing is the only way to go for Los Angeles.”
Charlie Beck said that 1400 officers took part, and there were around 200 arrests. (There were 292 arrests, as it turns out, a great many of whom, cops and Occupiers both say, intended to be arrested. Last night Occupiers were repeatedly asking each other, “Are you arrestable?”—meaning, are you willing to be arrested or do you need to go home to put the kids to bed or feed the dog?)
“I’ve never been prouder of Los Angeles police officers than I am tonight,” Villaraigosa said.
2:40 am: The tree dwellers have been (sadly) plucked and the night is winding down. Well done, Occupy LA! Well done, LAPD!
(For those desirous of a more detailed account, my Twitter stream gives a fuller view of the night.)
And check out Kevin Roderick’s coverage.
By the way, one of the big stars among citizen journalists to have emerged from the Occupy movement is Spencer Mills who tweets and broadcasts under the name OakFoSho. He was great tonight!
12:59: Arrests definitely taking place. But slowly, as the tents are slowly and carefully dismantled. The cops have been very disciplined, actually, at least thus far.
12:26: UNLAWFUL ASSEMBLY DECLARED, OCCUPIERS HAVE 10 MINUTES TO COMPLY… Only problem: the 10 minute warning was given around 15 times at various intervals.
Fox 11 reporter chick to an LAPD spokesperson regarding the plethora of 10 min. warnings: “At what point does this become the boy who cried wolf?”
12:14 am – POLICE POURING OUT SOUTH DOOR OF CITY HALL
Now at 12:20 am – the police are moving into the crowd. The mood of the crowd has changed. Everyone seems to sense that the the eviction is about to commence.
12:02 am – LAPD COMMANDER ANDREW SMITH SAID THAT PRESS WILL NOT BE ALLOWED INTO PARK ONCE AN UNLAWFUL ASSEMBLY HAS BEEN DECLARED
Okay, that’s the tip off. That’s what will be the signal to move in. The LAPD will declare an unlawful assembly. And they WILL declare an unlawful assembly tonight. When? We don’t know. But tonight is the night.
11:56: LAPD HAS REPORTEDLY ISSUED A FINAL WARNING. (Or something of that nature. Trying to confirm. The TV folks certainly aren’t reporting any such thing. But they’re five steps behind through all of this. No, nothing seems to be happening. False alarm.)
11:28 pm: The OccupyLA crowd, plus onlookers and press, is estimated to be between 1500 to 2000.
10:58 pm – COMMANDER SMITH AFFIRMS THAT A PERIMETER HAS BEEN ESTABLISHED AROUND OCCUPY LA ALLOWING NO CARS IN
Commander Smith, the LAPD spokesperson, is saying that he’s “really optimistic that this will be peaceful.”
LA Times Live Feed from building to street. And here’s the CBS aerial stream.
10:41 FOLKS IN PINK SHIRTS ARE “PEACEKEEPERS” FROM OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE
10:31 pm: LAPD officers have arrived on a fleet of big buses.
10:23 pm: FINDING LAWYERS: Lawyers from National Lawyers’ Guild and legal observers are reportedly wearing lime green baseball caps.
9:30 pm – LAPD is on a tactical alert. A raid could come anytime after 10:30 pm. At least that’s the word going around. It isn’t officially confirmed that tonight is the night. But everyone seems to know. This is it. Game on.
Watch UStream for a view of the encampment.
Lady cop photo by Wendy Carrillo
Tree people photo by Gigi Graciette
Cool reporting!!!
Villareigosa:
Arrests were an example of “constitutional policing”. lol. Breaking up a peaceful assembly = constitutional? Never heard of that, Mayor.
Not taking sides. Just presenting facts.
The city of LA owns the park and maintains the park. They can lawfully close it at their discretion. It IS constitutional. Also, there is an LA municipal code against camping in a park overnight. I looked it up. Any reader can do the same.
Your 1st Amendment right to free speech and freedom of assembly doesn’t give you the right to break the law in order to exercise those rights. The Supreme Court has said so.
For example, you can’t LEGALLY decide to hold a protest and block traffic (peacefully or any other way)……unless you have been issued a parade permit by the city. Along the same lines, if the Mayor wanted to be a hard ass he could have ordered LAPD to arrest occupiers as soon as they pitched a tent in the park.
He didn’t, He gave them there time and let them make their statement.
If you believe the city should allow camping in the park indefinitely, you should petition and get it placed on the ballot.
The city would fight that with all they’ve got. It’s what allows them to keep the homeless out of city parks if they wish. After all, what’s the difference between “indefinite camping” and taking up residency?
Just providing info. for your readers Celeste.
I guess the Readers Digest version would be….just because you’re peaceful doesn’t mean they can’t legally make you leave.
ATQ, I like the short version. Funny. And true.
I like the short answer too. But I felt a little bit of explanatory dialogue was necessary for Shadow’s benefit because he had
“never heard of Breaking up a peaceful assembly = constitutional?”
Just trying to keep him/her from getting arrested because he/she thinks they aren’t breaking the law.
Any law banning peaceful assembly is unconstitutional. Yes, they’re common. But theyr’e still unconstitutional. Just one of those things that we’ve been conditioned to believe is normal by those in power. But it’s still unconstitutional. And, City of LA owns the parks? lol. Who is the city of LA? A police chief behind a curtain? It’s the people of Los Angeles. Just what do you think a government is? By and for the people. At least that’s how the founding fathers intended it. the wealthy and the police have other plans.
****Any law banning peaceful assembly is unconstitutional***
If that we’re the case, the occupiers, as long as they we’re peaceful, could sit in the middle of Wilshire Blvd.
THAT’S why the Supreme Court disagrees with you.
It seems that what you’ve been conditioned to believe is that as long as you’re peaceful, you can stay wherever you want for as long as you want.
The Supreme Court says Municipal codes are constitutional.
I’ll take the word of constitutional scholars.
Because you don’t like the law or agree with it doesn’t make it unconstituional.
“City of LA owns the parks? lol.”….
Correct. Many municipalities own land. They pass laws regarding what the public can and can’t do on municipal property. The Supreme Court says they can do so. There is a reason they can have a gun show in Orange County on county owned property, but not in LA County….Get it? Different municipalities have different laws/policies. Municipalities fall under the 10th Amendment rights given to the states, counties and municipalities. That’s why you can’t park your car on some PUBLIC streets between certain times, get it?
“Who is the city of LA?”…..
It’s a municipality.
“Just what do you think a government is?”
lol. In an attempt to avoid an argument, (because I know how much Celeste hates it)I’ll let Wikipedia answer that. From Wiki.
Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized.[1][2] Government is the means by which state policy is enforced, as well as the mechanism for determining the policy of the state.
The word government is derived from the Latin verb gubernare, an infinitive meaning “to govern” or “to manage”.
Well, there you go.
Who suffers when the department of Recreation and Parks has to spend a lot of money to clean up the park? Special attn. to the “rec centers” comment. OOOOOOOPS. Looks like underpriviledged kids in urban LA will suffer the consequences for the cost of the cleanup of the park. You can bet THAT was never taken into consideration by the occupiers. What a tragedy. Also, Hoosier, special attn. to who has to spend the money to clean up the park. It’s the city of LA. The OWNER.
From the LA Times.
What that mess will cost to remove is uncertain. The price tag for Occupy L.A. is not expected until Friday at the earliest, although Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa warned that it could exceed $1 million.
Jon Kirk Mukri, general manager for the Department of Recreation and Parks, said the city may spend more than two months and up to $400,000 to re-sod the lawn, repair the irrigation system and plant new drought-tolerant landscaping. At least one tree will have to be removed.
“Every cent that’s going to go into the park is coming from taxpayer dollars, and that could mean less programming when we get to springtime at our rec centers,” he said.
Thanks for the lecture, Answering The Question. Most of it is beside the point, and you put words into my mouth. But nonetheless, good read. You’re a talented and witty writer.
It wasn’t meant as a lecture Hoosier, it was meant as an factual presentation with explanatory analogies. Nonetheless, you’re welcome and I’m glad you enjoyed it.
Hoosier, re: comment #7,
Thank you! Couldn’t have said it better myself.
This confrontation could have been ended much sooner and without the police. The city should have had someone empty a big bag of snakes in the park.
That’s thinking outside the box lol.