More than 200 arrested in peaceful sweep of Occupy L.A.

The LA Times reports: Without resorting to large-scale violence, Los Angeles police successfully cleared out the Occupy L.A. camp at City Hall early today, managing to avoid fierce confrontations that marred sweeps in Oakland and New York.

Hundreds of police officers swarmed the large camp at City Hall’s south lawn shortly after midnight, encircling the demonstrators in less than 10 minutes. By quickly establishing a perimeter, police managed to take control of the scene in the first moments of engagement.

No tear gas was used in the shutdown of what was the nation's largest remaining Occupy camp. More than 200 people were arrested in the operation that involved 1,400 officers.

“They were like storm troopers. They encircled us,” said protester Cheryl Aichele, who was sitting in the middle of the south lawn in a circle with other protesters when police first entered the camp.

The protesters largely kept to their promise of confronting the police peacefully. While some taunted police verbally and a few rocks were thrown, most protesters either left on their own or nonviolently submitted to arrest, with many going limp and forcing the police to carry them out.

In a matter of minutes, officers poured out of City Hall and from streets in all directions, encircling the park as protesters linked arms and chanted, "We are peaceful" and "We are the 99%."

Most protesters seemed to eschew violence, and downtown did not see any of the violence of the kind that erupted in Oakland last month, when protesters started fires, police used tear gas and some protesters suffered serious injuries.

Toward the end of the operation, a large group of protesters that had locked arms in the middle of the south lawn chanted to police making arrests: “You’re sexy. You’re cute. Take off your riot suit.”