On this episode of the Street Roots podcast, Jed Parriott of Street Watch LA joins host DeVon Pouncey to discuss police tactics during sweeps at Echo Park Lake in Los Angeles.
“There was a major — I would say it was a military operation — at Echo Park Lake, where hundreds of cops and helicopters showed up and put a fence around the encampment basically turning it into an internment camp or as the residents would say a prison camp they felt,” Parriott said. “And it was basically an act of militarized gentrification.”
Parriott also discussed the treatment of people who stood up against police during the operation.
“The police escalated by pushing folks with their batons. … One Street Watch organizer had his arm broken by an LAPD baton. He (the officer) swung it like a baseball bat. There was no threat of violence; they (LAPD) were the ones who came with violence.”
Parriott is also a member of NOlympics LA coalition, which is a group fighting against the Olympic Games' taking place in Los Angeles in 2028 as slated. He talked about the connection between the Echo Park sweeps and the games.
“Every city that the Olympics goes to, you see displacement, militarization, gentrification and the attempts to socially cleanse the city. Which means sending police to sweep homeless folks out of sight and out of mind, sending police to do mass arrests of Black and brown folks who are poor to make way for wealthy tourists and consumers,” he said. “Echo Park Lake is sort of the localized symbol of that same idea. It’s the second most popular park in LA. It has a big Olympic fountain there, and it also hosts big events like the Lotus Festival. Echo Park Rising is a big music festival, and everytime Echo Park Rising has happened, sweeps of homeless encampments get scheduled. It’s not a coincidence.”
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The Street Roots Podcast reflects the opinions of host DeVon Pouncey and his guests.
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