What Really Happened When LAPD Dismantled the Echo Park Encampment?

FEATURING KRITHIKA SANTHANAM AND CC LUCE – Los Angeles Police last week dismantled a large encampment of unhoused people in the Echo Park area in a violent symbol of the city’s battle over poverty and homelessness. Hundreds of LAPD officers dressed in riot gear showed up as local area residents and activists faced off against them. All told police arrested hundreds of people including journalists and legal observers after declaring “unlawful assemblies,” and dismantled the encampment that had grown during the past year. The dismantling of the temporary living spaces went against the CDC’s own guidelines to conform to COVID-19 precautions. City Council member Mitch O’Farrell, who represents the Echo Park area, released a statement later saying that more than 120 people who had been living in the park had been moved into housing programs.

Krithika Santhanam, Movement Lawyer & Mass Protest Defense Coordinator at National Lawyers Guild of Los Angeles; CC Luce, a former resident of the Echo Park encampment, an organizer with Lotus Collective who also co-organizes with Streetwatch LA.