A group of 200 protesters stopped a squad of riot-gear-equipped Los Angeles Police Department officers from clearing a homeless camp in the formerly scenic Echo Park.
City of Los Angeles officials dispatched LAPD officers in riot gear to clear homeless people from Echo Park, the Daily Mail reported. The order came after residents complained that the homeless camp made the beauty of the park unusable.
Demonstrators face off with police in the Echo Park section of Los Angeles Thursday, March 25, 2021. Demonstrators gathered Wednesday night to protest the planned temporary closure of a Los Angeles park that would displace a large homeless encampment, which has grown throughout the coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
LAPD officers carrying batons and rifles and wearing riot gear entered the “huge homeless encampment” in Echo Park to clear the area, the article continued. Approximately 200 protesters met the police and defended the homeless camp.
Over time, the camp grew to nearly 200 tents and spread out over half of the park. Local residents complained about drug use, other crimes, and an ever-increasing volume of garbage.
Homeless residents of Echo Park confront Los Angeles Police officers moving in to remove residents in the Echo Park Lake homeless encampment in Los Angeles late Wednesday, March 24, 2021. v(AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
By 10:30 p.m. police officials ordered the protesters to disperse and declared the protest to be an “unlawful assembly.” The protesters refused to leave and began to clash with police.
A man sets up a tent in front of police while activists and supporters of residents of a homeless encampment protest at Echo Park Lake in Los Angeles late on March 24, 2021, ahead of a planned and announced clean-up of the encampment – part of an estimated half-million USD city clean-up and repair effort. (Photo by RINGO CHIU / AFP) (Photo by RINGO CHIU/AFP via Getty Images)
The Daily Mail reported:
At one point during the confrontation, a line of police was seen moving slowly along Glendale Boulevard at the edge of the Echo Park Lake, telling protesters to leave. They were met with chants of ‘Whose park? Our park!’
Protesters then took up a chant, criticizing the police officers for their equipment. ‘Why are you in riot gear? I don’t see no riot here!’ they chanted.
A Los Angeles Police officer walks under the Cuban national hero statue of Jose Marti, surrounded by homeless tents, inside Echo Park Lake’s closed perimeter in Los Angeles, Thursday, March 25, 2021. People who were already in tents at Echo Park Lake were allowed to remain overnight but were given 24-hour notice to leave, Police Chief Michel Moore said in a social media post. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Activists and supporters of residents of a homeless encampment confront police at Echo Park Lake in Los Angeles late on March 24, 2021, ahead of a planned and announced clean-up of the encampment – part of an estimated half-million USD city clean-up and repair effort. (Photo by RINGO CHIU / AFP) (Photo by RINGO CHIU/AFP via Getty Images)
Despite orders to leave the park, the then-smaller crowd remained Thursday morning.
Activists and supporters of residents of a homeless encampment protest in front of police at Echo Park Lake in Los Angeles late on March 24, 2021, ahead of a planned and announced clean-up of the encampment – part of an estimated half-million USD city clean-up and repair effort. (Photo by RINGO CHIU / AFP) (Photo by RINGO CHIU/AFP via Getty Images)
The Wednesday night sweep operation appeared to fail and the homeless remained.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior news contributor for the Breitbart Texas-Border team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday-morning talk show. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook.