About a dozen people were arrested Thursday night as roughly 100 protested the removal of the homeless camp in Echo Park Lake. Police declared an unlawful assembly after officers said the large crowd used high-intensity lights in an attempt to blind them.
Thursday morning, Los Angeles City Councilman Mitch O’Farrell confirmed in a statement that the park would close until further notice to allow for repairs.
“The Echo Park facility has devolved into a very dangerous place for everyone there: drug overdoses, sexual and physical assaults, self-styled leaders taxing homeless individuals and vendors, animal abuse, families without shelter in the colder weather, and last fall shootings where one homeless individual was shot in the leg by gang members while children stood nearby,” O’Farrell said in a statement. “There have been four deaths in the park over the last year.”
According to a statement by the Los Angeles Police Department Thursday, the department "deployed its resources" and assembled a fence to support the shutdown of Echo Park Lake for much needed safety maintenance after a large-scale protest Wednesday.
"Though there were verbal confrontations from protestors, it remained a largely peaceful protest. After expressing their 1st amendment rights, all protesters voluntarily left the area. LAPD only made one arrest for failing to comply with orders from a police officer and two minor use of forces have been reported as of this morning. No reports were made to the Department of injuries to demonstrators, members of the public, and there were no officers injured," a statement from the LAPD read.
According to reporting by the Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles city officials and homeless advocates planned to move as many homeless people they could from Echo Park Lake Thursday to make room for a planned $500,000 in repairs to the park.
Councilman Mitch O'Farrell told reporters during an unrelated news conference Tuesday that the city will follow all U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines when preparing the park for the renovation work, and efforts are being made to find housing for everyone who has been living there since January.
Tony Arranaga, a spokesperson for City Councilman Mitch O’Farrell did not confirm a specific date for the move, but did say that the city has been working to move people from the area into hotels.
“When official notices of the closure are posted by the Department of Recreation and Parks, our office will alert the public and the media,” Arranaga told The Times.
Homeless outreach workers have been scrambling to log those living in the park in order to relocate them to area hotels while the park is closed.
A woman who identified herself as a resident of the Echo Park neighborhood said she supported the clearing of the park and closure for renovations.
"I personally have not visited the park in over a year because it doesn't feel sanitary or safe," she said. "I also worry that the $45 million investment the city made to rehabilitate the park is being wasted."
City News Service contributed to this story.