LA County DA hosts family picnic at MacArthur Park amid ongoing drug sweeps

District Attorney Nathan Hochman fulfilled his June pledge by bringing family to the notorious park. At least 37 arrests have been made there this year in joint drug operations.

DA makes good on MacArthur Park promise with Labor Day picnic

Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman attended a family picnic at MacArthur Park on Saturday, according to NY Post Metro, fulfilling a pledge he made in June to return to the notorious green space if public safety had sufficiently improved.

"I promised we would do it many months ago and if I viewed the park as having not improved as far as public safety then I wasn't going to risk the public safety of myself, my family, my friends and my colleagues to go to an unsafe park," Hochman said Friday ahead of the outing.

The visit follows a high-profile multi-agency raid in June that targeted drug crimes at the park, during which Hochman declared: "We will not allow MacArthur Park to be a cemetery any longer." Officers at the time handcuffed several individuals found openly smoking fentanyl near the corner of Alvarado and Seventh streets, while others fled the scene.

MacArthur Park has carried a troubled reputation since the 1980s, when dealers and gangs moved in. As many as 30 murders occurred there in 1990. In recent years, the area has been identified as an epicenter for homelessness and open-air drug use, with large numbers of people purchasing fentanyl and methamphetamine there daily.

This year, Los Angeles' top federal prosecutor, Bill Essayli, designated the park a priority target. His office has conducted a series of drug busts at MacArthur Park and other hotspots, with Essayli characterizing the location as an "open-air drug market."

"We've come a long way in returning the park back from the criminals and drug users to the community," Essayli, a Republican, told a local FOX reporter on Saturday. "More work to do, but we're headed in the right direction."

At least 37 people have been arrested across major joint federal and local drug operations at the park this year.

Hochman was careful not to overstate the progress. A FOX11 reporter observed visible drug use in certain areas of the park as recently as Friday. "It's not perfect. I don't want in any way to suggest that this park doesn't still have a lot of problems. It does," Hochman said. "But I see great progress having been made in this park."

He also cited the role of community organizations alongside law enforcement in driving improvements, saying he had watched both groups' efforts before deciding the outing was safe to proceed.

Source: NY Post Metro