US police evict camps, protesters mull next step

LOS ANGELES: Police cleared Occupy camps in Los Angeles and Philadelphia on Wednesday, detaining nearly 350 people as they clamped down on months of protests, but the crippled movement vowed to regroup.

The latest evictions followed action in recent weeks against anti-Wall Street encampments in cities across the United States including Dallas, New Orleans, Oakland, Portland, and New York, the cradle of a now-global movement.

In downtown Los Angeles police arrested 292 protesters in an overnight raid using some 1,400 officers to clear out hundreds from the two-month old camp in a park outside City Hall, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said.

"I couldn't be prouder of what I believe is maybe the finest moment in the history of the LAPD," he said, updating reporters on the rapid and largely peaceful police operation which began shortly after midnight.

"Almost 300 people were arrested with a minimal use of force.... The activists' fundamental rights were respected. This was truly an exemplary operation," he said.

The tent settlement in Los Angeles was one of the biggest of many that have sprung up across the country to protest financial inequality, corporate greed and the influence of big business on government.

Despite the eviction, Los Angeles protesters remained defiant. "Occupy LA will not die. We will move forward and the Occupy movement will only become stronger as a result of this punitive action," spokesman Mario Brito told reporters.

"We feel the pain of being evicted from what was our home for 60 days, but it does not compare to the pain of millions of Americans who are being evicted from their homes by greedy banks."

The movement now finds itself in a precarious position, with permission to overnight in public spaces being rapidly curtailed as many cities including New York restrict protest permits to daylight hours.

"If anything, (the movement) has gotten much stronger," said one protester who identified himself as Joel at the camp just two blocks from the White House in Washington, one of Occupy's few major encampments to avoid eviction so far.

"There's nothing they can do to stop the momentum of this thing," he said.

The movement is "still based around a central idea. We're not going to go away because of the shutdown of a camp."

But the protests have worn thin in many places, including Philadelphia, where a police raid early Wednesday cleared a downtown park of its protesters after the mayor warned of deteriorating health and safety conditions.

Police made 52 arrests there, a police spokeswoman said.

"I think our officers showed a lot of restraint. We've been very patient," Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey told AFP.

In Los Angeles, the eviction was implemented two days after a midnight Sunday deadline set by the mayor to clear the camp, which had been in place since October 1.

There were barely any clashes as hundreds of riot police flooded into the area in a meticulously planned operation, with lines of officers keeping the crowd at bay as others arrested a stream of protesters in the camp itself.

In both Los Angeles and Philadelphia, the police were followed by garbage trucks, which carted off the tents, tarps and signs that had accumulated in the camps.

Minor scuffles broke out in both operations, but the scene was far calmer than in previous raids, including one in Oakland, California last month in which police fired tear gas and clashed with demonstrators.

The loosely organized, left-leaning Occupy Wall Street protesters insist they are exercising their freedom of speech in the run-up to November 2012 national elections.

But local authorities have said the tent camps -- which activists often share with the homeless -- threaten public health and safety.

New York police cleared the tent camp in Manhattan's Zuccotti Park -- the epicenter of the Occupy movement -- earlier this month, and Occupy Wall Street said on its website that it is in "desperate need of housing and transport." (AFP)