LOS ANGELES – Police and sheriff's deputies evicted farmers and their supporters yesterday from a 14-acre urban community garden being reclaimed by the landowner, making arrests as protesters resisted by occupying a tree, chaining themselves to barrels of concrete and blocking traffic with demonstrations on nearby streets.
Actress Daryl Hannah and tree sitter John Quigley raised their fists as a firetruck lift was used to bring them down from a walnut tree towering over the green swath in a gritty area southeast of downtown.
“I'm very confident this is the morally right thing to do, to take a principled stand in solidarity with the farmers,” Hannah told The Associated Press in a cell phone call before officers reached her perch and arrested her.
Authorities moved against the garden occupiers at about 5 a.m. Seventeen arrests were made inside the garden for investigation of failure to obey a court order and for obstructing sheriff's deputies trying to carry out the order, said Kerri Webb, a Sheriff's spokeswoman.
An additional 27 people outside the garden were arrested by police for investigation of misdemeanor failure to disperse, said police Lt. Paul Vernon.
Protesters linked arms and sat on train tracks, drawing officers with helmets and batons. Officers dragged some protesters away as other officers forced supporters back.
Inside the garden, firefighters had to cut free protesters who had chained themselves to the walnut tree, barrels filled with concrete and a picnic table. The garden was cleared just after noon.
At City Hall, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa called the evictions “unfortunate, disheartening.” He expressed frustration to reporters that a deal could not be reached despite months of negotiation, and he lamented the potential loss of “an oasis in a sea of industry and concrete.”
For years about 350 people tended plots of produce and flowers.
Recently, landowner Ralph Horowitz began taking action on plans to replace the garden with a warehouse.
Horowitz noted that the farmers were squatting on land he owned that was zoned for warehouses and factories.
Horowitz said in a telephone interview he was paying $25,000 to $30,000 a month in mortgage and other land costs.
“We've made, in the last three years, enough of a donation to those farmers,” he said. “I just want my land back.”
Horowitz accused the farmers of ingratitude, saying they had sued him and their supporters had picketed his home and office.
“I feel that the gardeners have been on the land for 14 years, almost 15 years for free. After 15 years, you say thank you,” he said.
Horowitz also said the city had provided alternate locations for the gardeners and most had left.
