HispanicBusiness

With the Occupy LA encampment at City Hall over, organizers say they will not be silenced and are planning future protests.

Organizers say more short-lived encampments might spring up at various locations, including banks, the homes of bank executives, or even golf courses and country clubs.

The leaders of 'Occupy L.A.' issued this statement on Wednesday:

"We call upon all sisters and brothers of the occupy movement to speak out against the use of intimidation, force and political power to break up peaceful occupations and repress or criminalize the exercise of our 1st Amendment rights."

A group of about 100 protesters have gathered at City Hall Wednesday evening. The protesters marched from Pershing Square to City Hall.

LAPD officers set up a skirmish line around City Hall as a precaution, but the protest was peaceful. Southbound Spring Street, however, was closed to traffic during the march.

Meantime, the National Lawyers Guild is calling for the immediate release of the nearly 300 protesters arrested in the police raid of Occupy LA early Wednesday morning.

The NLG says California law mandates that anyone charged with a misdemeanor be released with a written notice to appear.

NLG Board Member Carol Sobel condemned the action of the LAPD.

"The Los Angeles Police Department is deliberately refusing to release anyone arrested in the Occupy raids," Sobel said. "The city is holding them in jail on $5,000 bail until they can be arraigned by a judge, which can take up to 48 hours. This punishes people for exercising their First Amendment rights."

More than 1,400 LAPD officers moved into the park around City Hall shortly after midnight Wednesday, arresting 292 protesters who refused to leave, and ending the 60-day occupation of the park.

After the park was cleared, sanitation workers began a massive clean-up effort.

The park was blocked off with fencing and concrete barriers, and it will remain closed until all repairs are completed.

Officials said they expected to haul away 30 tons of debris from the Occupy L.A. encampment -- everything from clothing to heaps of garbage to miscellaneous items including books, CDs, luggage, boom boxes, chairs, cellphones and electric razors -- all left behind by the protesters.

During the raid, there were no major injuries to any police officers. One protesters suffered a broken hand when he was hit by a rubber bullet.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa praised the work of the LAPD in a news conference Wednesday morning.

"I couldn't be prouder of what I believe is maybe the finest moment in the history of the Los Angeles Police Department," Villaraigosa said.

"The activists' fundamental rights were respected, and the result was a peaceful and orderly end to the encampment at City Hall," the mayor said.

LAPD Chief Charlie Beck also spoke at the news conference.