Letters to the Editor: What did Los Angeles learn from the Echo Park Lake homeless crackdown?

To the editor: The only product of violence is, inevitably, more violence. The tragedy of Echo Park should only yield one lesson — never again. The framing of our city’s response as benevolent patience for those who are “not ready” to “choose housing” is laughable when our local housing system falls short by every measure.

We should not be surprised to find the same violence used to remove these camps redirected back to us. We should celebrate when, instead, people come together in solidarity to survive, and we should send aid in the manner those bound together in common suffering request.

Common sense and simple economics teach us at least two things: There is no choice at the end of a gun, and as long as demand for affordable housing exceeds supply, people will live on our streets.

Robert Morrison, Los Angeles

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To the editor: “Nobody dreamed that we’d be able to house more than 200 people when they started,” Mayor Garcetti is quoted as saying in your story.

This comment regarding the Echo Park camp closure speaks volumes. Tens of thousands of human beings are living on the streets of Los Angeles. That just over 200 could be housed during this closure is not a dream, Mr. Mayor. It is a reflection of a nightmare of epic proportions. And a reflection of a years-long failure of leadership of epic proportions.

Babette Wilk, Valley Village

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To the editor: What did the city gain?

First and foremost, an area of the city designed and paid for with the taxes of generations of Angelenos is on the path to being returned to them. They will hopefully no longer have to endure the drug dealing and using, bottles filled with urine, excrement and filth.

The problem has been tolerated for too long, and perpetuated by progressives and liberals. The people we owe something to are the ones who endure this scourge.

Stewart Cumming, San Bernardino