Dozens of trees hacked down by vandals in downtown Los Angeles
Dozens of trees in downtown Los Angeles were hacked down over the weekend, according to multiple media reports and posts to social media.
It's unclear exactly what time the destruction occurred, with officials at the Los Angeles Police Department telling KTLA that, at least for now, they had no information about the incident and calls made to the city's Urban Forestry Division by the Los Angeles Times went unanswered over the Easter Holiday weekend.
In a post to Reddit, one user noted that several trees between 1st Street and Wilshire Boulevard had been cut down.
On Instagram, another user posted video that captured felled trees at Olympic Boulevard and Hope Street, Olympic Boulevard and Figueroa Street, Broadway and Cesar Chavez Avenue, Grand Avenue in front of the Wells Fargo Center and Grand Avenue and 5th Street.
It appears from photographs and video that the trees were cut using a chainsaw, with some of them cut at the bottom and others taken down several feet above the ground. In other instances, a clean cut wasn't made, leaving some of the trees connected by threads of bark.
At least some of the trees were of a drought resistant variety known as Indian laurel fig, The Times reported.
Why a vandal or several vandals would want to deface and damage city property in this particular manner is unknown and so far, no surveillance footage has emerged of the perpetrators or perpetrator.
There are reports that city crews have been out assessing the damage to the downtown trees.
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