The last two residents of the Echo Park Lake encampment were removed from the park and arrested by the Los Angeles Police Department Friday, concluding a relocation 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. The department also said officers deployed three rounds of less-lethal 37 mm projectiles, one round of less-than-lethal 40mm projectile and six rounds of less-lethal bean bags.
“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, who has remained mostly silent, told reporters Friday.
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. The police department 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. 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 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 Los Angeles Police Department, 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 that 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.
Some National Lawyer Guild legal observers — independent lawyers in the crowd who monitor police conduct and arrests, often identified by their lime green hats — were also arrested, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
O’Farrell urged “calm and cooperation” at Echo Park as “we continue our work to move the final few people experiencing homelessness from the park into transitional housing before the parkspace 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.”
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.
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.
As fencing was erected around the park, Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore said late Wednesday night that no one else would be permitted inside the park, and those who remained inside had 24 hours to leave. He noted that “housing resources are being provided to everyone.”
“This is a phenomenal situation that’s developing, and right now we have the best professional outreach workers, Urban Alchemy, out there fanning the park to make sure the last few remaining people experiencing homelessness will accept the services that we’re offering, and we can get them into safe shelter as well,” O’Farrell told reporters outside the park.
O’Farrell said his office contracted with Urban Alchemy in December to being outreach work to those living in the park and begin to identify housing solutions. He said he was committed to finding alternative housing for everyone before temporarily closing the park for repair work
“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.