HOMELESSNESS POLITICS--On March 24, hundreds of police officers swept Los Angeles’ Echo Park Lake of its unhoused encampments after City Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell directed the park’s closure. The move crushed a community one leader compared to the utopian socialist Llano Del Rio settlement; police arrested 182 protesters over two nights of demonstrations and arrested or detained at least 20 journalists, according to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. A year ago, the Centers for Disease Control warned that encampment sweeps could potentially increase spread of the coronavirus by dispersing people throughout the community and disrupting connections with service providers. Los Angeles accordingly cut back on such actions, outraging Angelenos who were demanding sweeps in their own neighborhoods.