Another Day of Devastation
12:03am- I turn on my live streams knowing something bad is going to happen tonight. I had received a text earlier in the afternoon about numerous buses being filled with police at Dodger Stadium. We were all preparing for “the inevitable”. As opposed to Sunday’s supposed raid, LAPD officers were going to follow through with their eviction plans tonight. Despite the calm and peaceful evening of protesters sitting at Solidarity Park with arms linked together, an uneasiness tension loomed in the air. Police were lined up in rows out on the streets surrounding City Hall, as if waiting for an air horn to signal off their attack.
12:17am- All of a sudden police rushed into the camp, pushing and shoving occupiers out of the way. People were chanting “Stay nonviolent”, “Put down the guns”, “Join us”, and other words of encouragement to maintain a peaceful assembly. Occupiers were told to leave and pushed onto the sidewalks. A few minutes later they were told to get off the streets, forcing them to go back into the park. It was as if it was a game to the officers.
12:45am- The ten minute warning was given for all occupiers to disperse before arrests would begin. Swarms of police moved in with their helmets, riot gear, and their fingers on the triggers of loaded bean bag shotguns. I even witnessed an officer pointing the shotgun to occupiers and the journalist who was streaming the very footage I was watching. (Nothing like getting the chills from a gun pointed to a camera. I felt as if he was aiming for me right through my computer screen. I can’t even imagine how he must have felt being there, having it pointed directly at him!)
1:00am- Media were asked to leave the premises and remain outside the park, across the street behind a police blockade. A few cell phones were able to sneak footage of what was taking place in the camp, but the majority of the streams were left in the unknown of what was to soon take place beneath the Solidarity Park trees.
1:11am- Like clockwork police began pulling apart linked arms and pushing people off the grounds. I witnessed a man being arrested while his wife began to cry, begging the police to let him go so they could leave the premises and return to their home. Her request was of course denied, and responded with a shove off to the sidewalk. Officers in HazMat suits moved in and carried occupiers off-site. The irony of seeing men and women accused of being “dirty, uneducated hippies” for the past two months, being carried away by officers in HazMat suits! As if these occupiers were a walking disease, spreading their infection to the world. It was like watching a movie!
1:41am- Some of the occupiers who had escaped the raid decided to form a group on the street and protest to the police what was happening. Nearly a hundred of them stood behind a line of police shouting their Constitutional Amendment rights, encouragements to remain nonviolent, and pleading police to join our side. A “cherry picker” hydraulic truck pulled onto City Hall to pull the occupiers who had posted themselves up in the Solidarity Park trees. It took an hour or so for LAPD to finally pry them out.
2:24am- Some occupiers had begun marching down Los Angeles Street only to be chased by LAPD officers. More LAPD officers re-assembled themselves into rows in the street as if they were ready for Raid Round 2. The live stream footage had dispersed in all different directions, some on the blocked protesting group, some on the marching occupiers, some on the arrested occupiers being carried onto buses, some on the attempts at removing occupiers from the trees, and others on interviews of those who had escaped. It was utter chaos.
3:28am- Mayor Villaraigosa, LAPD Chief Beck and Commander Smith give their statements about the raid during a quick, no-questions press conference. 1,400 LAPD officers involved, 200 arrests made so far, 12 occupiers still onsite at City Hall with arms linked, 1 person still in a tree. “Anyone arrested will be required to post bail of $5,000 under the misdemeanor charge of unlawful assembly.” (-Chief Beck) “Occupy did a fantastic job at remaining nonviolent…It went much smoother than Sunday night.” (-Commander Smith) Were these updates and words supposed to put us at ease? Villaraigosa & LAPD: fail. EPIC fail.
4:15am- It is announced that there are three occupiers still remaining onsite in the tree house that was built on Sunday. I later found out it was Shane, Manny, Chad, and Lucky (and a dog). LAPD cannot convince them to come down, and the four instead are shouting out all the code violations and amendment rights that LAPD is breaking by evicting Occupy LA. The cherry picker truck comes out 20 min later to try and break down the tree house, with no success. Almost an hour later, LAPD still has been unable to remove them from the trees and resorts to “nonlethal” weapon actions. Using a 12-gauge bean bag shotgun, LAPD Officer Rubio fires five times at the four occupiers to get them down. Commander Smith tries to assure bystanders that the bean bag bullets are not meant to harm anyone. (Now come on, we all remember what happened to Johnny Knoxville in Jackass 2 when he got shot by a bean bag gun. How can you STILL claim it’s not meant to harm anyone?)
4:58am- LAPD finally removes the last four occupiers from Occupy LA. They are arrested, shouting in pain from the bean bag bullets, and escorted into City Hall. Chad thinks he broke his arm, yet KTLA is more concerned with how the dog got down from the tree and who it belongs to. Go figure.
5:09am- KTLA and Magda begin filming the aftermath of the raid. I am in tears as I see tents being ripped apart, food shelves knocked over, and the camp torn to pieces by HazMat officers. The lives and community we had created here for the past two months was being sorted through and dumped. People’s personal belongings were tossed aside as if they had no value whatsoever. The Kid’s Village, once a vibrant tent of color, life and a hopeful future, now looked dirty, grim and….dead. Magda began reading through the wishes that Occupy children had posted onto trees for their lives and this earth. I felt my stomach turn as a child’s dream “for a world where everyone loves each other” was thrown onto the ground.
5:28am- The cameras scanned over the park, and what was full of life just a few hours ago was now a scattered mess. It looked as if a bomb had gone off. My heart sank when I saw the area where I had set up my tent and lived for 3 weeks. All that was left was The Rock. A small, little rock with a plaque stating some piece of LA’s history at City Hall. Being the perfect size to sit on, that rock became my observation bench into this new world of grassroots revolutions that I had chosen to explore on my own. For 3 weeks I would stay awake all night with other occupiers, forming relationships, creating community, and building solidarity. I had listened to stories of individuals who had lost their jobs, homes and children while I sat on that rock. People would see me always sitting there at my spot and come up to me every day with a new story, a struggle, or just a friendly hello.
Sitting on that rock I met Carlos, an immigrant from Venezuela whose beautiful, pop culture art had become a huge hit at Occupy. On that rock I befriended Joel, a passioned political advocate and punk rock fan whose life engulfs around the two. At that rock I met Dalton, an army soldier who had already finished serving and was now attending school for Theater and Drama. On that rock I met Toad, Jake, Robin, Sebastian, Jessica, Tamra, and Skyler, a group of friends so loyal and close that they are a tighter “family” than most. It was at that rock that I had met Susan on her 50th birthday, a woman who only a week before the Occupy protest begun, attempted to take her life. She could not see a reason to live until she learned of a group of people who had hope for change and restoration of this world. That rock, that place of fellowship and community, had given me a reason to continue to fight in this battle against The Powers. And now it was amidst a shattered and broken down mess. I felt completely defeated of all the hard work and effort we had put into this movement. All the progress we had made….gone.
