Hundreds of Los Angeles police officers dismantled tents and arrested protesters who had camped out on the City Hall lawn for two months.
Police moved in at 12:30 a.m. Wednesday (3:30 a.m. ET). About an hour later, the park was cleared and closed for cleanup
Officers took several protesters into custody, but authorities did not immediately provide an exact figure.
"It's gone fairly peacefully," police spokeswoman Mitzie Grasso said.
During the raid, more than a dozen protesters sat in a tight circle in the middle of the park with their arms linked. Some cried. Some wore masks.
Officers in riot gear and armed with batons closed off streets around City Hall. They used bullhorns to warn the scores of agitated Occupy LA protesters to disperse.
"This has been declared to be an unlawful assembly. You have seven minutes to gather your belongings and decide to leave," one officer said.
A white police truck drove through the center of the park, announcing orders to disperse in English and Spanish.
Some campers left willingly. One carried a skateboard under one arm and what looked like a rolled-up sleeping bag in the other.
Officers were met with profanity but no violence.
"This is what a police state looks like!" some of the protesters chanted.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said the police action was "a measured approach to enforcing the park closure."
On Sunday, he gave the group a 12:01 a.m. Monday deadline to take down their camp, saying "an encampment on City Hall grounds is simply not sustainable indefinitely."
FULL STORY
They only call it class warfare when we fight back.
This is very good news.
It appears that the dispersal proceeded peacefully.
Occupy Building 7.
http://michaelfury.wordpress.com/2008/09/17/barry-jennings-speaks/
It is about time they start enforcing the laws. Most of us are getting tired of these whining hippys. They are at that age where they think they know everything and all others are dumb. Many young go through this stage. Especially eliteist white youth. They are just spoiled kids that have never had to work and wish to continue to be supported in this fashion.
Ironic how so many of these people are rather old yet we keep hearing right-wingnuts sneering about their own children who happen to be included as if they were the only ones protesting.
Yeah, tell it to those old people that got pepper-sprayed how they are just whining teenagers. I hope they blow your head off.
not all white kids are spoiled !!! not all white kids come from happy homes they are children of single families too so don't be looking at the color of people making statements like that makes me mad.. i raised 2 kids that got nothing for nothing i had to put my kids thru school without the help of government agencies so don't even go there with that one.....look at the big picture before you make a statement like that.... people are people some are spoiled some are not..
Many of these youth are protesting because they think it is cool or makes them hip.
I'm not sure that I would call the protests "hip," but they certainly are "cool," in the worst sense of the word.
The word "cool," as a desired condition, is one of the worst influences ever pressed into the mentality of USA citizens.
OWS has come to the wall. Rallies, protests and speeches have reached the point of diminishing returns. The only positive dynamic is the cost of 'security force' maintenance. "This has been declared to be an unlawful assembly"-get used to hearing that. It is time to employ strategy and tactics to move forward. If not, thanks for coming.
How about a general strike of the work force?
A one-day strike?
@JIF:
Congress does that on a regular basis.
It appears that the right-wing thugs triumphed in Los Angeles this time. The worst part of all of this is that change in Washington will be a long time coming, if at all. We're all in for more of the same, unfortunately!!!
Hey Occupiers, if you don't have a job, then your 8-hours-a-day, 7-days-a-week job is to go find a job. Not sit around whining about not having a job.
Hey punk, quit whining from your parents basement you fat slob!
Only cretins talk like you do. We should have wiped out the South after the Civil War. Every damn last one of you!
Warrent is just a ignorant Fox news drone, repeating that same trash on other blogs.
Thank you, s kel. I agree. This Warrant is most probably just another ignorant, right-wing Tea Partier who can't think his way out of a wet paper bag!!! They all support the right-wing thugs in Washington.
Joey Isotta-Frashini@10:05:
Your posts are boring.
Not banasy.
You know that I really wrote that 5:15 post, don't you?