This month the City Council voted to amend Section 41.18 of the Los Angeles Municipal Code to prohibit camping or sleeping on sidewalks within 500 feet of schools and daycare centers in Los Angeles. The measure was an important step forward in protecting students and their families from encampments that often block safe passage to schools and daycares, bring children into contact with intoxicated or mentally unstable people, and expose school communities to risks of crime and fire.
Local parents, as well as LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho and school personnel, had urged the Council to address the problem, and the enactment of the new amendment has been widely applauded. Nonetheless, a screaming mob of extremists who oppose all restrictions on encampments in public spaces disrupted the City Council meeting – for the second time in a week – forcing the Council to recess until police were able to clear the room. In the latest incident, protestors actually breached a security barrier, threatened the Councilmembers and staff, and attacked police officers.
“There can never be any excuse or rationalization for this kind of anarchic lawlessness,” said Councilmember Krekorian in a statement to the press. “The people of our nation cannot tolerate raging extremists entering public buildings and threatening public officials with the intent to shut down government, no matter what their viewpoints may be.”
Krekorian called on all candidates for City office to denounce those who commit crimes and attack law enforcement when they can’t get what they want through the legislative process. “Community leaders, elected officials and candidates for office, as well as legitimate media sources, must speak with one voice in rejecting attempts by misguided mobs to steal the democratic process, whether it is at Capitol Hill, the Michigan statehouse, or Los Angeles City Hall,” said Krekorian.