About time.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Police in Los Angeles and Philadelphia stormed Occupy Wall Street encampments under darkness Wednesday to arrest or drive out some of the longest-lasting protesters since crackdowns ended similar occupations across the country.
Dozens of officers in riot gear flooded down the steps of Los Angeles City Hall just after midnight and started dismantling the two-month-old camp two days after a deadline passed for campers to leave the park. Officers in helmets and wielding batons and guns with rubber bullets converged on the park from all directions with military precision and began making arrests after several orders were given to leave.
The raid in Los Angeles came after demonstrators with the movement in Philadelphia marched through the streets after being evicted from their site. About 40 protesters were arrested after refusing to clear a street several blocks northeast of City Hall, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey. They were lined up in cuffs and loaded on to buses by officers. Six others were arrested earlier after remaining on a street police that police tried to clear.
Update:
(Fox News) — Los Angeles police said more than 200 people were arrested during a raid of the Occupy Los Angeles encampment early Wednesday.
Police Chief Charlie Beck said at a news conference that the arrests were mainly peaceful and there were no injuries.
Beck said an initial search of the camp turned up no drugs or weapons.
Around 500 helmeted Los Angeles Police Department officers burst out of City Hall doors and raced into the Occupy L.A. encampment early Wednesday, some firing rubber bullets while others began arresting a few of the protesters on the south lawn.
“Please do the right thing,” one protester yelled at police as they began entering the encampment.