Days after anti-vaccination and far-right protesters halted operations at one of the nation’s largest COVID-19 vaccination sites, at Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles police chief Michel Moore said on Tuesday that such protests in the future would be met with quick arrests.
“Our action must be immediate and swift to hold them accountable for this illicit activity,” said Moore during a virtual meeting of the Police Commission in the morning.
Protests will be restricted to an area close to the stadium’s entrance in an effort to balance people’s rights to the First Amendment with the need to keep the vaccination site functioning, Moore said. Police officers, he added, will have no patience for a repeat of Saturday’s disaster, when unmasked protesters wandered through the long lines of cars, intimidating people and preventing them from entering the stadium.
“It is my expectation and direction that … individuals are to be arrested, summoned and their actions to be stopped,” said Moore. “This advance is a means of ensuring that the lines will remain open, that the vaccination sites will be cleared.”
The commission’s chairman, Eileen Decker, welcomed the chief’s guarantees, calling the protesters’ attempts to prevent people from receiving the vaccine “sad” and “tragic”.
“Interfering with obtaining life-saving vaccines is beyond reproach,” said Decker.
She said that people “certainly have the 1st Amendment’s right to express themselves,” but not to interfere in the medical care of others.
Moore’s promises followed the indignation of local officials, who demanded that no incident like the weekend be allowed to happen again.
After 40 to 60 protesters showed up on Stadium Way on Saturday holding placards condemning masks and shouting baseless claims about the dangers of the vaccine, Los Angeles Fire Department officials closed the main entrance for about an hour.
The images of the closed gate spread quickly. Some of those in line waiting for a shot expressed frustration with the way the police handled the situation. County officials expressed dismay at the idea that such an important public health effort – critical for a region of millions of people – could be undermined by a few dozen ill-informed protesters.
Moore on Tuesday reiterated earlier assurances that vaccines continued to be administered while the gates were closed and that people who had an appointment could still get their vaccines. He said police officers at the scene acted appropriately to lessen the situation and, eventually, keep the protesters going.
However, closing the gate gave the public the wrong and dangerous impression that protesters were able to suspend vaccines, which is “an image I am very dissatisfied with,” said Moore. “These images, in my opinion, offer a scary effect, or they may have offered a scary effect of intimidation or fear.”