LA Protesters Defy Eviction Efforts, Go to Court

[bemildred]

For now, Wall Street protesters camped out on the Los Angeles City Hall lawn still have their tent city after defying a deadline to pack up and clear out. "Still occupied," read the sign of a protester up in a tree.

Hours after emerging from a possible confrontation with police largely unscathed Monday, demonstrators turned to the federal courts to keep officers away.

They are arguing that the City Council had passed a resolution in support of Occupy Los Angeles and that the city's mayor and police did not have the authority to evict them.

The chances that protesters will get an injunction appear slim, constitutional experts say.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/deadline-passes-occupy-philly-protesters-calm-15038092

[sabrina 1]

1. Several other occupiers in other cities did get injunctions

against eviction, so they are right to do this. Nashville, Cleveland and Boston eg.

Hopefully it will work for LA also. The other cases basically argued that the Constitution trumps local ordinances. Boston got a temporary injunction as the judge said she was concerned that their rights might be violated if they were evicted.

[MADem]

2. Boston's injunction is temporary; they will be back in court on 1 DEC.

Menino has pledged a 72 hour notice in any event, and has said that he has no plans, at this time, anyway, to evict.

[sabrina 1]

3. I believe I did say that Boston's injunction was temporary in my

comment.

Boston did not want to give any notice airc. It will be interesting to see how it works out.

I'm glad they are willing to at least give notice in LA. But there is the argument that there is no curfew on Constitutional rights and that the Constitution trumps local ordinances.

[MADem]

6. The mayor indicated well before the court ruling that he wasn't planning on evicting so long

as they stayed peaceful and within the law.

The Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy have been pressuring Menino for weeks to do an eviction and he had been resisting the pressure (and he deserves credit for it). The pressure by the Greenway people is part of what moved OWS to seek the temporary injunction. There is another court date scheduled for 1 December.

The Globe had a good editorial summing it up--I agree with the points they make: http://bostonglobe.com/opinion/editorials/2011/11/19/don-make-turf-battle/9ipfbjnU28uu3WLaNeoyJI/story.html

[Fire Walk With Me]

4. Still Occupied!

[blkmusclmachine]

5. .

O
C
C
U
P
Y

[coalition_unwilling]

7. I'm not an attorney, more an interested layperson. But, after 30 days,

California laws protecting squatters' rights may also enter into the mix. Add to that the fact that Villaraigosa and his henchpeople may have lured some of LA's countless homeless to relocate to City Hall and all of a sudden you have California tenancy laws -- tending to favor the rights of tenants -- also kicking in.

It will be interesting and the real fight may be in the state courts, under the auspices of filings by the National Lawyers' Guild.

Still, I'm glad that OLA has convinced Occupiers with outstanding warrants or questionable immigration status to pack up and leave, at least for the short term.