Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman hosted a picnic with his family and colleagues at MacArthur Park on Saturday, fulfilling a promise made in June to return to the park if public safety 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 a unsafe park," Hochman said Friday. "But I’ve watched the efforts of law enforcement, I’ve also watched the efforts of the community organizations."
The picnic followed a multi-agency raid in June targeting drug crimes at the park, during which Hochman proclaimed, "We will not allow MacArthur Park to be a cemetery any longer." The operation aimed to address open fentanyl use and drug dealing that had become prevalent.
MacArthur Park has historically struggled with crime, homelessness, and drug use since the 1980s, with as many as 30 murders recorded in 1990. This year, law enforcement, including the office of Los Angeles’ top federal prosecutor Bill Essayli, has prioritized cracking down on the drug trade in the area, describing it as an "open-air drug market."
Essayli, a Republican, stated on Saturday that significant progress has been made, noting that "we’ve come a long way in returning the park back from the criminals and drug users to the community. More work to do, but we’re headed in the right direction."
Hochman acknowledged that the park still faces challenges. "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," he said. "But I see great progress having been made in this park."
Major joint federal and local drug operations at MacArthur Park have resulted in at least 37 arrests this year.