Law enforcement is putting MacArthur Park in rehab

City Councilwoman Eunisses Hernandez has spent years backing policies that turned MacArthur Park into a squalid zombie-filled drug den.Law enforcement leaders, including LA’s police chief, district attorney and top federal prosecutor, have pushed for months to clean up the public park –– and return it to taxpaying families.Their progress, highlighted this weekend by LA County District Attorney Nathan Hochman, is an admirable start on a long reclamation project.California's top news, sports and entertainment delivered to your inbox every day.

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Never miss a story Hochman fulfilled a promise from June to bring his family for a Labor Day picnic at the roughly 35-acre park, to show that law enforcement has made it safer.While the park still has a long way to go, the symbolism matters.So do the public commitments made by Hochman, LA Police Chief Jim McDonnell and federal prosecutor Bill Essayli, who have united to target the Mexican Mafia, local drug sales and other scourges of the once-proud public space.Law enforcement has arrested dozens of people this year in major anti-drug operations at MacArthur Park.Good.The park’s crime and filth –– enabled for years by LA politicians such as Hernandez, Mayor Karen Bass and homeless committee chair Nithya Raman –– has long been unacceptable.Hernandez should be especially ashamed, as the park rests at the historic heart of her council district.

One might think she’d fight to clean it up, clear it of crime, end the human misery and stop the flood of drugs.Quite the opposite.She’s fought against police funding, against anti-camping laws to curb homeless squalor, and against efforts to hold people accountable for the havoc spilling into law-abiding neighborhoods.In 2023, Hernandez redirected $250 million in scholarship money to needle and pipe distribution in...