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Occupy San Fernando Valley Was Not An Overnight Success, LAPD Halts Camping Under Mayor's Orders
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Same city, same cause but the effort to get a second 24/7 Occupy Wall Street movement off the ground in Los Angeles City limits was shut down by police last night, according to Sherman Oaks Patch.
Occupy San Fernando Valley tried to stake a claim at the Van Nuys Civic Center last night — twenty miles from the thriving Occupy Los Angeles movement at City Hall — but the Los Angeles Police Department made good on their promise to boot protesters out when the clock struck 7pm.
The LAPD was under order to enforce the usual rules in Van Nuys, which bans anyone from camping out there. The movement had tried to work with local politicians to waive those rules so that they could establish a presence in the Valley, but they weren't able to find any allies inside City Hall. LAPD spokeswoman Rosario Herrera told Patch that questions about the differing policies for the two movements "are for the mayor's office."
Media reports (and especially the lack thereof) indicate that the process of booting protesters out was peaceful. By the time closing time rolled around, there were more cops than protesters, according to Patch.
The Occupy San Fernando Valley group posted this on their Facebook wall:
We did have like 40 people in our march and atleast 15 that stayed until the GA pretty interesting day....police were everywhere which really scared alot of people away.......So come down and Show your support.
Two campers stuck around and moved to nearby sidewalks to spend the night. The group is hoping to get more protesters in order to claim their space: "We need numbers to do civil disobedience so please help us alert the valley and we will try to take this space to occupy we are meeting here everyday @ 6:30pm at our GA we are in the plaza area, but this is just the start of occupy SFV we will motivate the Valley."
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The group has plans to protest at — what else? — the mall today.
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