After Wednesday's eviction, coupled with health services, City Hall's cleanup and potential lawsuits, Los Angeles is bracing for a hefty bill to cover Occupy LA, city officials said Wednesday.
"We're all going to pay for it, and in tough, tough economic times --and that's true around the country," said Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa at a news conference following the eviction of protesters from the lawn of City Hall.
"It's upwards of hundreds of thousands. It may even go beyond a million," said the mayor, adding that lawsuits can quickly add to that cost.
"In cities across the county, when the cost is ultimately calculated, the cost of the lawsuits will be part of that calculation," Villaraigosa said.
LAPD Police Chief Charlie Beck noted that the LAPD's mostly peaceful response could end up saving the city money.
"One lawsuit would pay for all of what we did last night," Beck said.
Nearly 300 people were arrested Wednesday as roughly 1,400 LAPD officers descended on City Hall to remove the last of the occupiers.
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Although the final bill has yet to be tallied, Villaraigosa and Beck said Wednesday that the taxpayers' expense will be less than other cities.
"Because (protesters) were peaceful here, we were able to keep our costs down in this period much better than some other cities our size," he said.
Beck repeatedly acknowledged "there was going to be a cost" to dealing with the movement; however, the city's response was as affordable as possible.
"I think it's false to criticize this as being costly. I think this was, maybe, one of the least expensive ways to do this," he said.
"This movement -- no matter what the city's action or reaction to it had been -- there was going to be a cost," Beck said.
Los Angeles City Councilman Mitch Englander told the Los Angeles Times he plans to call for a thorough report on the cost of Occupy LA.
"There were a lot of resources spent by so many departments, and we need to find exactly what kind of numbers we're talking about," Englander told the newspaper. "At the end of the day, the taxpayers paid for this."
An Associated Press report estimates the total nationwide cost of the Occupy movement at $13 million.
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