guardian.co.uk,
Associated Press, Saturday 3 December 2011
 |
| Los Angeles Police officers remove an Occupy Los Angeles supporter from the camp at the City Hall in Los Angeles. BRET HARTMAN/POOL/EPA |
Los Angeles
police used nearly a dozen undercover detectives to infiltrate the Occupy LA
encampment before this week's raid to gather information on the anti-Wall
Street protesters' intentions, according to media reports.
None of the
officers slept at the camp, but they tried to blend in during the weeks leading
up to the raid to learn about plans to resist or use weapons against police, a
police source told the Los Angeles Times. The source spoke on the condition of
anonymity because the case is ongoing.
The
undercover work yielded information that some protesters were preparing bamboo
spears and other potentially dangerous weapons in advance of an expected
eviction, none of which were used, according to the City News Service, which
first reported the story.
Police
downplayed the significance of the undercover work since Occupy meetings were
public and easily tracked.
Police
officer Cleon Joseph declined an Associated Press request for comment on the
reports.
Occupy LA
protester Mario Brito told City News Service he was not surprised by the
revelation, but said it was "tantamount to 1950s McCarthyism."
Meanwhile,
the city attorney's office filed criminal misdemeanor charges Friday against 27
more of the people who were arrested following the police sweep of the camp.
In all, 46
of the 291 people arrested during the raid have been charged with misdemeanor
crimes of failure to disperse from an unlawful assembly. Some also were
charged with resisting arrest.
The arrests
came Wednesday during a pre-dawn raid on City Hall Park, where nearly 500 tents
had been erected.
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