[dropcap size=big]T[/dropcap]he first signal came with the uniformed federal officers and plainclothes agents. They surrounded the beat-up camping tent on the sidewalk outside the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles Friday afternoon, and prepared to make an arrest.
A federal police vehicle was parked next to the sidewalk and agents demanded the inhabitant come out. There was a pause, and a voice spoke back but was lost in the sound of the nearby freeway traffic.
Slowly the zipper opened from the inside of the tent and a man stepped out in shorts and a white shirt. He was barefoot. Frederick Murphy was immediately arrested by the officers who patted him down with blue nylon gloves. They handcuffed him as they announced — loudly — that they held a warrant for his arrest.
One observer held up a phone and asked the uniformed officers why Murphy was being taken away, but none of them answered.
Murphy’s arrest was the fifth at the camp in the previous days, according to organizers and to police. With law enforcement upon it, the camp against the separation of families at the border is believed to be on its last days. Friday, September 14, was its 85th.