Los Angeles police moved into MacArthur Park this week as part of an intensified enforcement push aimed at reclaiming a public space long associated with open-air drug use and street crime, sending suspected users and dealers fleeing from the area.
Officers from the LAPD’s Rampart Division, which polices one of the city’s most densely active crime areas, have launched regular foot patrols through the park as officials work toward what they describe as the final phase of a broader cleanup effort.
Capt. Ben Fernandes, the division’s commanding officer, said coordinated action by local police and federal officers has significantly disrupted drug trafficking in MacArthur Park, weakening what had become a violent, highly visible narcotics market.
The department’s focus now, Fernandes said, is on the remaining street-level activity: dozens of drug users and low-level dealers who continue to gather in and around the park.
“They’re zombies, walking around aimlessly, just trying to get a fix,” Fernandes said. “We need to break the cycle.”
The California Post observed the operation Monday morning as LAPD officers moved through the park in nine-person teams. During the patrol, officers arrested a woman who was allegedly smoking fentanyl from a piece of tin foil and appeared so disoriented that she did not notice police approaching. Officers said they also found a meth pipe and a container used to hold fentanyl.
“She gave us four names, and she’s got a warrant for five grand,” one officer said. “It’s time for her to see a judge.”
As the patrol continued along the park’s north side, the atmosphere appeared calmer, with officers encountering residents walking dogs and others relaxing on the grass.
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Cops encountered more action on the south side of MacArthur, as a wave of users and small-time dealers scurried away from officers as they approached. A homeless man left behind in the rush asked for a referral to a shelter, which police provided.
With the addicts gone, an elderly woman sat down on a bench to read a book.
“That’s exactly what we’re trying to do,” Fernades said. “Clean up the park so that residents can use it.”
More than a century old and originally conceived as LA version of the Champs-Élysées, MacArthur Park fell on hard times in the 1980s as dealers and gangs moved in, with as many as 30 murders occurring there in 1990.
The awful conditions took a turn for the worse as deadly fentanyl and crystal meth moved in, fueling throngs of drug-addles zombies and a human-trafficking trade orchestrated by gang kingpins who enforced their reign with ruthless violence.
LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell, federal prosecutor Bill Essayli and LA County District Attorney Nathan Hochman this year joined forces to tackle the problem, with takedowns of the Mexican Mafia and local drug distribution.
Next, Operation Free MacArthur Park brought in throngs of LAPD cops to arrest local dealers.
The Rampart Division’s foot patrols are aiming to clean up the rest.
Norm Langer, owner of legendary Langer’s Delicatessen-Restaurant next to MacArthur, told The Post he believes the park’s transformation is about 70% complete.
“I want the park taken back for the families and children in the area,” Langer said. “We’ve gotten rid of a lot of the gangs; we’ve gotten a lot of the drugs of the street. And we still have work to do.”
