LOS ANGELES (Reuters) ? Police in riot gear closed in on anti-Wall Street activists in Los Angeles early on Wednesday, determined to enforce the mayor's order to evict protesters who have camped outside City Hall for the past eight weeks.
Hundreds of Occupy LA activists, joined by supporters streaming into the area in a show of solidarity, stood crowding the lawn, sidewalks and streets around City Hall as throngs of helmeted officers moved into the encampment.
They were followed by a separate line of police in white biohazard suits. Live local television news footage showed police shoving one man to the ground and arresting him as he confronted a line of officers.
The Los Angeles encampment, which officials had tolerated for weeks even as other cities moved in to clear out similar compounds, is among the largest on the West Coast aligned with a 2-month-old national Occupy Wall Street movement protesting economic inequality and excesses of the U.S. financial system.
Except for some initial minor scuffling, the crowd remained boisterous but peaceful. Police declared the crowd an "unlawful assembly" around 12:30 a.m. and ordered people to disperse within five minutes or face arrest. The announcement was met by boos from the crowd.
Several demonstrators climbed into trees, and fireworks were set off as the crowd grew steadily more raucous before police arrived. Many protesters chanted, "Move your feet, Occupy the street!"
City officials had hoped to keep the timing of the widely expected eviction operation under wraps.
But live local television footage revealed large numbers of police, patrol cars, buses and other vehicles massing at Dodger Stadium, a few miles away, in what appeared to be a major staging operation.
Asked how he planned to respond to the raid, Anthony Candelaria, 21, a Los Angeles college student among the crowd gathered at City Hall, said, "Hold the fort down until they drag us out by our feet."
By contrast, about 100 Occupy protesters in Philadelphia peacefully vacated their camp early on Wednesday after police moved in and warned protesters they faced arrest unless they left on their own, police said.
POSSIBLE RESISTANCE
One Los Angeles police supervisor told a group of officers to be ready for protesters who might put up a fight, warning that some demonstrators were believed to have gravel and other debris they were planning to throw at police.
Protesters began moving onto the City Hall park on October 1, and within weeks the encampment had grown to include as many as 500 tents, with between 700 to 800 full-time residents.
That number had diminished sharply since Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said last week that he wanted protesters to pack up their tents and other belongings and clear out by first thing on Monday morning or face forcible removal.
Since that deadline passed, the status of the camp had remained in limbo. Attorneys for Occupy LA asked a federal judge for a court order barring police from shutting it down, arguing city officials had violated their civil rights by ordering the camp dismantled. The judge has made no ruling.
Villaraigosa had initially welcomed the protesters, going so far as to supply them with ponchos for inclement weather. But as city officials complained of crime, sanitation problems and property damage they blamed on the camp, the mayor decided the group had to go.
He issued his eviction notice last Friday after talks on a plan to induce the protesters to leave voluntarily collapsed, setting the stage for the latest showdown between leaders of a major U.S. city and the Occupy movement.
The mayor has promised to find alternative shelter for homeless people who had taken up residence at City Hall and were estimated to account for at least a third of those camped there.
(Writing and additional reporting by Steve Gorman; Editing by Cynthia Johnston)
Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111130/us_nm/us_usa_protests
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