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The End Is Near: City Plans to Evict Occupy Los Angeles Next Week
City Hall liaisons giving Occupy Los Angeles the news that the city plans to evict them next week. Photo by @BGFCentral via Twitter
Protestors at Occupy Los Angeles have known that its days at City Hall were numbered for some time, but the mayor's office confirmed this afternoon that the eviction is coming next week — possibly as early as Monday.
The city has not given the exact hour or day but it told LA Weekly that this will be the last week for protestors at the City Hall encampment. Unlike other cities, Los Angeles will give protestors 72 hours notice to clear their things.
It's not clear what will happen to the protest or whether it will move. Negotiations broke down between the city and the protestors. Two liaisons from the protest Mario Brito and Jim Lafferty walked out of negotiations this afternoon when the mayor's office told them of its plans. The liaisons complained the city was not negotiating in good faith.
Already, lawyers and other supporters are giving protestors advice on how to deal with the eviction. They warn protestors to get rid of their weed and not to go limp if they're being arrested, because that could be considered "resisting arrest."
The Occupy Los Angeles liaisons complained that they were not given enough time to mull over the possibility of moving the protest to another location in the city, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The liaisons also added that city officials promised not to use pepper spray on protestors. We're guessing the city is trying to learn from the mistakes of other cities and a certain UC campus — but maybe the city is really just worried about how pepper spraymight ruin the lawn.
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