Bratton Vows Continued Action on Homeless Camps

The Los Angeles Police Department will continue to crack down on illegal street behavior in downtown’s skid row and will not allow the area, or any other part of the city, to become a permanent homeless encampment, Chief William J. Bratton said Wednesday during a meeting with homeless service providers.

“Let’s be frank, we’re dealing with a core population of street culture who don’t want to be in shelters and who have no right to literally occupy public streets when there are alternatives available,” Bratton told an overflow crowd hosted by the Los Angeles Coalition to End Hunger and Homelessness.

Bratton’s references to so-called service-resistant homeless people and his aggressive enforcement policies have angered many homeless people and their advocates, who insist that the vast majority of the homeless are law-abiding and stay on the streets because there are no shelter beds available.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the National Lawyers Guild sued the city and police to curb sweeps of parole and probation violators on skid row.

A U.S. district judge issued a preliminary injunction last month against such sweeps. And civil rights organizations have also sued to block the city’s ordinance against sleeping on sidewalks.

Bratton said he agreed that there are too few shelter beds but insisted that “as chief, I’m not the solution.”

“I’m part of the intervention component and my overriding responsibility is to focus on the behavior of people, not their living conditions.”

Homeless providers, however, argued that behavior and living conditions are intertwined. The meeting came on the day that police cleared out a homeless encampment at the 4th Street Bridge, an area near the Los Angeles River that is an emerging arts district.

Bratton said the action was based on complaints about drug dealing, graffiti and gangs and should not be characterized as a sweep. Saying their action was different from the parole sweeps targeted in the injunction, officers gave a three-week warning and provided information about shelters and services.

No arrests were made but about 25 people were told they were trespassing and would have to go elsewhere.

But Becky Dennison, head of the Downtown Women’s Action Center, who said she was at the bridge Wednesday morning, noted that officers referred people to the city’s cold and wet weather program, which is only open in the evenings.

Bratton was applauded when he said he opposed the three-strikes law and said too many people are incarcerated for minor drug offenses.

And Bratton said he would commit the department to improving officers’ training to understand the needs of homeless and mentally ill people.