Someone Left the Cake Out in the Rain

Earlier this month, heavily armed federal officers and California National Guard troops occupied MacArthur Park, Los Angeles, on horseback and in military vehicles. The park was otherwise largely empty except for a children’s summer day camp, whose staff quickly moved the children indoors, away from the scary sight. Health workers helping homeless residents said troops pointed guns at them and told them to leave. After an hour or so, the troops and officers left without explanation, violence, or arrests.

MacArthur Park began as a swampy wetland. Los Angeles converted it in 1886 to Westlake Park, a public greenspace surrounding a lake, with boating facilities and a bandstand. The park was renamed in honor of General Douglas MacArthur in 1942. Later it became notorious for gang violence, prostitution, drugs, and murder. Redevelopment efforts after 2002 reduced the crime rate, though problems persist. The population nearby is dense, mostly immigrants, mostly poor.

I first heard of MacArthur Park in the 1968 hit of that name, a story of love and loss written by Jimmy Webb and sung by Richard Harris. “MacArthur’s Park is melting in the dark, all the sweet, green icing flowing down.” Sweet hopes of romance spoil like a cake left out in the rain.

Immigrants came with sweet hopes of a safer new life, where hard work paid off and the ever-present threat of armed thugs was a distant memory. Instead, according to leaked documents, the cavalry showed up on July 7 to protect federal agents “whose intent at MacArthur Park is to demonstrate, through a show of presence, the capacity and freedom of maneuver of federal law enforcement within the Los Angles Joint Operations Area. . . . The purpose of this operation is to enable and protect the execution of joint federal law enforcement missions in a high-visibility urban environment, while preserving public safety and demonstrating federal reach and presence.”

Someone left the cake out in the rain.

Image: MacArthur Park.