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Politics & Government

Protesters Defy Order to Clear Downtown Occupy L.A. Encampment

LAPD officers clad in riot gear take up positions on and around First Street but back down.

Police ordered Occupy L.A. protesters off the streets of Civic Center today so traffic could roll unimpeded but stopped short of enforcing the expired deadline for them to dismantle their tent city.

The Los Angeles Police Department announced shortly before 5 a.m. that the protesters in the streets near City Hall represented an unlawful assembly. But the announcement underscored that it pertained just to the streets.

Officers appeared to meet little resistance as they took up positions on the street to keep them clear of activists. By 6 a.m., five arrests had been reported.

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LAPD officers clad in riot gear began to take up positions on and around First Street around 1 a.m., blocking all westbound foot and vehicle traffic at Broadway and First and all southbound traffic at Main and First and Spring and First streets.

After that, the situation settled into a kind of stalemate, with police quietly holding their positions and protesters milling about on the street and the encampment, chanting, singing, banging drums and rallying support to the Occupy L.A. cause.

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Ranking LAPD officials said this morning their No. 1 objective was to keep the streets clear rather than dismantle the encampment, which Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and police Chief Charlie Beck said last week had to be done by 12:01 a.m. Monday.

"Our goal right now is to try and keep it as peaceful as possible," said Commander Andy Smith, adding he was not sure if any attempt to clear the encampment would take place today. "Right now our biggest issue is to try and move people off the street and onto the sidewalk because they don't have a permit to be in the street."

Smith and other officers spoke to protest organizers about moving people off the streets, and several organizers used bullhorns to try to move protesters back to the encampment, with mixed success.

Police and news helicopters hovered through the night over a crowd that appeared to number between 4,000 and 5,000 people. The Occupy San Fernando Valley movement, which has and other areas of the Valley, posted on their website that they were joining the downtown protesters.

Earlier, as the deadline passed, demonstrators, the media and the curious all began moving out into the street and up First Street. Organizers used bullhorns to rally people to stay the course and protect the encampment.

Impromptu drum circles began spring up at locations inside the encampment and the sidewalks. Two men and one woman climbed up on top of a bus stop enclosure and began to dance to a rhythmic beat as the scent of marijuana lingered.

At the corner of First and Main streets, leftist ANSWER coalition protesters took up their positions, exhorting people to stay and "fight the power," even if that meant getting arrested. Hundreds of people filled the steps leading up to the rotunda around City Hall, and work continued in the various tents that protesters had set up to keep the encampment functioning by providing food, information and health services.

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