COLLEGIAN TIMES
44
2021 SPRING-SUMMER
TAKING MILITARIZED POLICE ACTION TO DISPLACE PEOPLE WHO ARE ALREADY DISPLACED IS CRUEL AND DOES NOTHING TO BOLSTER PUBLIC SAFETY. MASS ARRESTS OF PROTESTERS, LEGAL OBSERVERS, AND JOURNALISTS WILL NOT KEEP THE CITY’S BRUTAL, ILL-CONCEIVED ACTIONS FROM BEING KNOWN. — HECTOR VILLAGRA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ACLU OF SOUTHERN CALIF.
POLICE SNARE COLLEGIAN REPORTER IN HOMELESS CRACKDOWN
It was no surprise when police officers in riot gear began to evict residents of a homeless encampment in Echo Park at the end of March. The surprise came when LAPD officers rounded up and arrested journalists. BY MATTHEW RODRIGUEZ PHOTOS BY LOUIS WHITE
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umors swirled among the protesters at Echo Park Lake as nearly 100 LAPD officers surrounded them for hours. Police were ready for a confrontation if anyone interrupted their forced removal of the unhoused park residents. Members of the media were there and so were observers and community activists. When police ordered protesters and homeless to disperse, some packed their belongings and cleared the area. Others were ready to stand their ground. “They’re taking cameras,” one person said. “They’re arresting people,” said another. Police were indeed arresting people and not just protesters. In the darkness, they encircled members of the press, including reporters from major media outlets like the L.A. Times, Spectrum Cable, and KnockLA, a nonprofit newsroom tied to progressive causes. They also detained legal observers and reporters from smaller media outlets, some of whom lacked press credentials. L.A. City College reporter Keliyah Williams was trapped in the middle of the large group of protesters as police herded them down Glendale Boulevard toward the lake to more waiting officers. Williams reports for the Collegian, the student voice of L.A. City College since 1929. She had been to Echo Park to cover the unhoused before. She followed the tension between the LAPD and the activist groups the police were threatening to evict from the park.
Williams says she felt a glimmer of hope when LAPD officers asked for members of the press to step forward. Her hopes faded when they asked for a press badge, something she did not have. “I went up and told the officer that I was with the Collegian, that school was not in-person this semester, but that I have my school schedule and some bylines to prove that I’m a journalist,” she said. “They would not even look at it.” Unmoved, the officer instructed Williams to get in line with the protesters waiting to be arrested. She would be next. “Once they heard LACC and no press badge, they were not interested,” Williams said. “They were targeting people once they were identified. If you didn’t pass the ‘vibe check,’ you were next.” Police officers deployed a crowd-control technique referred to as “kettling.” It is also known as “trap and detain,” when officers surround protesters to corral them before arrests. “Once I was put into plexi-cuffs, they patted me down, took my bag from me and asked for my ID, which I thankfully had and made my processing a little faster,” Williams said. “While this was happening, the officer was trying to make conversation. He says, ‘You go to LACC?’ and I think ‘oh, so it’s not that you doubt that I’m a student journalist.’” Williams says she did not feel afraid or intimidated by the presence of the more than 100 LAPD officers.
