Evacuation of the homeless at Echo Park Lake Los Angeles leads to chaos and face-off between the protesters and police

On Thursday night this week, there was a clash between the police and the protesters who were staying in the homeless encampment in Echo Park Lake in Los Angeles.

There were around 200 people who were currently staying in the encampment before Los Angeles police came and evacuated the place, pushing all the campers out of place.

Source: LA times

The camp' sprawled along the Lake and have grown its roots. This movement is said to be a part of the government's rehabilitation plan that would cost around $500000.

This city is full of homeless settlements with lots of homeless camps spread in several neighborhoods and parks. the Echo Park is one among them.

Incidents before the evacuation

But the people who were staying in camps in the echo park were given a deadline to leave the place as it was soon to be closed. Before the city government gave the deadline, many hotel rooms and other temporary shelters were arranged for the homeless. This has decreased the number of people who were staying in this camp. But this movement did not remove all of them. There were still some people who were lingering in this place. Therefore, upon completing the deadline, the city government ordered the police to evacuate the place immediately.

People's reaction to this incident of evacuation

Source: LA times

This has made all the 200 homeless people enraged. They demand an answer as to why the city government only targets the Echo park camp and not the others situated in the neighborhoods and the other parks.

This specific movement has raised the anger among the protestants and has captured the American Civil Liberties Union's attention. Many criticisms were Going on against the city government.

On Thursday around 8:00 PM, hundreds of protesters faced right off with the police. According to the Police Department reports, the crowd used powerful high lights to flash at the officers. This was done so that they get blind and they become incapable of performing their duties.

Incidents after the clash

Source: CNN

In this clash, 182 people were taken under custody. Few journalists were arrested for a short period. However, they were released on the spot later on. One of the reporters was from the LA Times.

During the clash, two officers were injured minorly and were released after first aid. Those people who refused to leave the Park were immediately taken under custody.

Words of the City Government

Mitch O'Farrell, the Councilman of Los Angeles, stated that the homeless people were offered temporary and proper shelter and COVID-19 vaccines free of cost. On the evening of Thursday, 166 people were given temporary housing.

The Councilman said that this particular encampment was instead a crime site as there have been cases of assault, shootings, and drug overdoses that have led to several deaths of people living in the Echo park encampment. All of these things have happened only in a short span of a year. Moreover, the place had become an unhealthy zone becoming a question for public safety. Therefore, it required immediate public safety repairs, lighting, etc.

Effect on people

This evacuation has left many people terrified and traumatized, as they find it very unlawful and ruthful to blaze in suddenly and scoop them out of their camps in the middle of the night and leaving behind their belongings. There are people of other homeless encampments who fear that the same incident may happen to them at any time in the future to come.

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