The last two residents of an Echo Park Lake homeless encampment were arrested and removed from the park Friday, concluding a relocation operation that prompted two nights of contentious protests and raised questions about police tactics against protesters and journalists.
According to the Los Angeles Police Department, 182 people were arrested for failure to disperse during Thursday night’s protests. Officers deployed three rounds of less-lethal 37 mm projectiles, one round of less-than-lethal 40mm projectile and six rounds of less-than-lethal bean bags, according to the agency.
“I think a lot of people probably who were protesting didn’t know that there were only two people last night even left in the park, and those people have kind of refused to go, but hopefully, we’re optimistic and we’ve given more time to those folks,” Mayor Eric Garcetti told reporters Friday morning prior to the arrest of the last encampment residents.
The two people who remained inside the park and were arrested Friday morning were identified by Ground Game L.A. to the Los Angeles Times as Ayman Ahmed and David Busch-Lilly. Police said they were arrested for erecting a tent in a city park and using park areas or facility for a purpose contrary or inconsistent to its specific or designated purpose.
Ground Game L.A. officials told The Times that Ahmed and Busch-Lilly have since been released from custody.
Regarding the large police presence of hundreds of officers equipped with less-than-lethal projectile launchers, Garcetti said, “I think to make sure that folks wouldn’t surge in and prevent the housing operation that was happening and the ultimate closing to clean up the lake, that’s why the police were there.”
The American Civil Liberties Union on Friday criticized the Los Angeles Police Department’s response, which included detaining legal observers and journalists covering the protests.
“Taking militarized police action to displace people who are already displaced is cruel and does nothing to bolster public safety. Mass arrests of protesters, legal observers and journalists will not keep the city’s brutal, ill-conceived actions from being known. The city leaders who approved this approach should be held accountable,” the ACLU said.
“In this time of crises in both the economy and public health, the city should seek solutions in developing permanent, affordable housing and appropriate services for people who are unhoused.”
Councilman Mike Bonin called the police response “a disgrace.”
“A neighborhood in lockdown. Hundreds of cops in riot gear. Reporters being zip-tied and detained. Protesters being kettled and arrested. This is a disgrace and it did not have to happen. It’s a shameful day for Los Angeles,” he said on Twitter.
According to the LAPD, officers on Wednesday and Thursday nights were supporting efforts by Councilman Mitch O’Farrell and Los Angeles Park Rangers “to conduct outreach to those experiencing homelessness at Echo Park and connect them with service providers.”
Police declared an unlawful assembly about 8:30 p.m. Thursday at Lemoyne Street and Park Avenue, in front of O’Farrell’s district office, after “several instigators in the crowd demonstrated a willful intent to disrupt the peaceful activity and began to use strobe lights against the officers, an activity that has the potential to cause significant injury to the eyes.”
The department said two officers sustained minor injuries during the protests, and O’Farrell’s office and an LAPD vehicle were damaged.
James Queally of the Los Angeles Times was covering the protest when he was detained along with protesters after police issued a dispersal order for the area. Kate Cagle, a reporter and anchor for Spectrum News 1, was also detained by officers after she identified herself as a reporter and showed officers her L.A. County press pass, she said. Two reporters for Knock L.A., Jonathan Peltz and Kate Gallagher, were also arrested during the protest sometime before 9:45 p.m., according to the nonprofit news organization, which announced their release shortly before 1 a.m Friday.
Queally and Cagle both said their hands were zip-tied.
The Greater Los Angeles chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists called Friday for the Board of Police Commissioners to conduct an inquiry into the officers’ actions toward journalists and determine what training and policies are needed to ensure that officers properly identify members of the media and allow them to cover the events.
“Each of these actions are needed to protect the First Amendment and ensure that these types of incidents finally come to and end,” SPJ/LA said in the statement.
Some National Lawyers Guild legal observers — independent lawyers in the crowd who monitor police conduct and arrests, often identified by their lime green hats — were also detained, according to the LAPD.
O’Farrell urged “calm and cooperation” at Echo Park Thursday night as “we continue our work to move the final few people experiencing homelessness from the park into transitional housing before the park space closes temporarily for repairs.”
“We made significant progress (Thursday) toward our goal of housing everyone at the park and moved an additional 32 unhoused individuals into transitional housing,” O’Farrell said in a statement issued at 10:34 p.m. “Almost 200 of the park’s unhoused population has accepted and been placed in shelter options through Project Roomkey, Project Homekey, A Bridge Home and winter shelter.
“I’m happy to report that we have shelter available for anyone who is seeking to be housed tonight. The (Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority) is ready to engage them in the process to move them into transitional housing with supportive services and medical care if needed. Those who decline this offer for housing will be unable to stay after the park closure is in effect.”
The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority told City News Service Friday that 138 park residents were placed in Project Roomkey hotel rooms, 35 in Project Homekey sites and 11 in A Bridge Home shelters.
But advocates for the homeless blasted the city’s effort to remove the encampment, saying it had grown into a safe haven for people with no other options. They also questioned what would happen to the homeless once their stays at the temporary hotel rooms ended.
The two men who remained in the park said during an Instagram livestream just after midnight that they planned to remain in the park until they were arrested or forced to leave by late Friday morning.
O’Farrell told reporters Thursday that his office has been working with the Urban Alchemy outreach group since December to find housing for the homeless living in the park. He said he was committed to finding alternative housing for everyone before temporarily closing the park for repair work, which he estimated will cost about $500,000.
“Since the pandemic began and even before that, knowing the conditions at Echo Park Lake and the realities in the situation there, my team and I set out to make sure that even though the park needed repairs back then, that in order to do this, my non-negotiable was that we would find housing solutions for everyone at the lake no matter how they got there, and there are all sorts of stories about how people arrived,” he said.