(Facepalm) Occupy LA protesters subject to arrest 'at any time' – mayor's office

[Fire Walk With Me]

"As the mayor and Chief Beck said last week and in a statement last night, the park closed at 12.01am today," a spokesman for Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa told the Guardian.

"The protesters are being given ample time to remove their belongings and leave the park, and it is the mayor's hope that the closure continues peacefully. Those who remain in the park are subject to enforcement and arrest at any time."

Between 200 and 300 police officers were deployed to the area surrounding City Hall park just after 12 midnight on Monday, but an LAPD public relations officer said the action had not been an effort to evict the occupation.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/28/occupy-la-protesters-arrest-any-time?newsfeed=true

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Similar article in the LA Times:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/11/lapd-chief-occupy-la-camp-thinning-but-arrests-inevitable-1.html

LAPD chief: Occupy L.A. camp shrinking, but arrests inevitable
November 28, 2011 | 2:39 pm

Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said Monday that his department's Occupy L.A. eviction order had reduced the numbers of protesters camped on the City Hall lawn but acknowledged that the LAPD would have to make more arrests to completely clear the area.

Beck told The Times that there were about 150 fewer tents at City Hall Park on Monday than there had been over the weekend. That people were packing up and leaving was a sign to Beck that the city’s strategy for dealing with -- and bringing an end to -- the Occupy camp was working.

Beck was under no illusions, however, that all of the hundreds of protesters who ignored the city’s midnight deadline and remained encamped Monday morning would eventually leave voluntarily. It is inevitable, he and other police officials have concluded, that police will have to remove some number of protesters by arresting them. Beck remained tight-lipped about when he would give the order to move on the camp, saying only that it would be done at a time of his choosing.

[Fire Walk With Me]

1. Go go 'gosa, watch him go go go...

They're going to try again. I can sense it. I hope they again fail miserably!

[Eric J in MN]

2. We should get rid of park curfews.

Take back the commons: public property.

NYC had no curfews in its public parks until Mayor Koch in the 1980s decided it would be a good way to stop the homeless from sleeping outside on cold nights.

[Fire Walk With Me]

3. Kick for additional, local article (in OP)

[ellisonz]

4. I like Charlie Beck.

From the LA Times:

The way Sunday night played out, Beck said, left him feeling encouraged that such an outcome was possible. What could have turned into a night of ugly confrontations remained largely calm. Beck credited both his officers -- who were largely a young and inexperienced group -- for using restraint and the predominant attitude of the protesters, which was one of boisterous, but nonviolent protest.

“Everybody, all my folks, didn’t become microfocused. They didn’t lose sight of the bigger picture. It was the middle of the night in downtown L.A. on a Sunday. There was very little traffic to disrupt. If there is ever going to be a time and place in Los Angeles where you’re going to have a little leeway, that’s it. So, they utilized that.

"In some cases you see law enforcement get so focused on the letter of the law -- of enforcing no sitting down in the street or something like that -- that they don’t get … that this particular event isn’t harming anyone, so you have a little time.”

Quite possibly the best Chief LAPD has ever had.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Beck

I think we can all agree LAPD has showed great restraint in comparison to other police departments in dealing with OWS.

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