Meanwhile, in Los Angeles . . . : Sidewalk Encampment Sweeps Resume Amid Theatrical Atmosphere

The city resumed its controversial sweeps of sidewalk encampments on Los Angeles’ Skid Row on Monday, but this time there seemed to be more police, city workers and protesters directly involved than homeless people.

A theatrical atmosphere accompanied police and city maintenance crews back to two sites first raided a month ago. This time, Los Angeles police had a film crew taping the scene, activists showed up to block city trucks and Maureen Kindel, president of the city Board of Public Works, took a broom and began sweeping a sidewalk herself.

Eight of the protesters were arrested as Skid Row street people took on the role of observers. No homeless people were arrested.

At 6th Street and Stanford Avenue, site of the first sweep Feb. 17, the last of the up to 20 homeless who frequent the spot was pushing a swivel chair, loaded with filthy blankets and cushions, down the street, when the raid began shortly before 1 p.m.

Last month, the homeless had almost no notice before their possessions were dismantled as part of an announced two-month campaign against Skid Row sidewalk camps that city officials said are unsanitary or pockets of crime.

On Monday, a “Notice of Scheduled Clean-Up,” as required by a Superior Court order mandating 12-hour notice, had been posted, and most had carted their things away.

But this time, too, more than two dozen protesters and observers, including people who work for social service providers and lawyers, unrolled banners reading: “Bulldozers are not the answer” as crews picked up two chairs, a trash bin used as a makeshift street stove and a small wooden shelter containing a cooler of food.

At a second raid at 5th Street between Crocker and San Pedro streets, Kindel emerged from a shiny black car, wearing a black dress and heels, and began poring through some mattresses and clothing with her bare hands.

“I just want to see what’s here,” she said when reporters asked what she was doing. She then put on gloves and led the cleanup, pushing a broom and instructing workers on how to clean the street and sidewalk:

“This has to be disinfected and washed down,” she said, wrinkling her nose at some food left in the street.

“It doesn’t make any difference,” Carl Wilkes, 40, said casually, his legs thrown over the sides of an old green sofa that remained on the sidewalk until crews removed it. “I’ll just come right back,” he said. “Where am I going to go?”

At 6th and Stanford, Cheryl Miller of San Pedro, a volunteer with Skid Row homeless, joined protesters blocking the street. When police handcuffed her and two others, some onlookers got angry. Jeannette Hall, a 28-year-old pregnant woman who is homeless, jeered: “Why are you handcuffing them? They’re not homeless.”

The eight protesters arrested face misdemeanor charges of interfering with a police officer.

Two police officers filming the sweeps were there “to chronicle the event,” possibly for use in court “to document what we did,” said Capt. Rick Batson.

A lawsuit filed two weeks ago charging that the sweeps are a violation of the rights of the homeless is still pending. Gary Blasi, a Legal Aid Foundation attorney observing the sweeps, said he thought that “things had changed” from earlier sweeps because of greater notice, but that “the basic policy of dispersing the homeless is continuing.”

The sweeps resumed after Mayor Tom Bradley temporarily suspended them two weeks ago. Last week, the mayor agreed to back efforts to improve and increase housing on Skid Row but turned down a request for a six-month moratorium on the sweeps.

“We’d like to get the filth cleaned up,” Kindel said. But on future sweeps, she added, “I’m going to ask for a little lower presence,” with fewer police and fewer city trucks. “We possibly don’t have to have a bulldozer.”