LAST GASP IN FIGHT FOR FARM 10 ARRESTED AS ACTIVISTS ATTEMPT TO STOP BULLDOZER.

Byline: BRENT HOPKINS Staff Writer

SOUTH LOS ANGELES -- When the bulldozer came to destroy the South Central Farm on Wednesday, the movie stars had gone home, the activists had moved on and only the diehards remained.

And by day's end, the Los Angeles Police Department arrested 10 people, protesters screamed themselves hoarse and the once-tidy rows of crops farmed by more than 350 families since the early 1990s lay in shambles.

Barring last-minute legal intervention next week, the multiyear dispute over the land appears to be over. Still, after dozens of courtroom setbacks, the farm's supporters vowed to press on.

``These people have been defeated again and again and again, but they're still fighting,'' said Alma Soto, who volunteers with the farmers and served as their spokeswoman Wednesday. ``When they say it's over, we'll go home. But they haven't told us that yet, so we're going to keep supporting them.''

Early Wednesday, an earthmover arrived to rip out the corn and carrot crops the farmers left behind at the 14-acre plot near Alameda and 41st streets, and 25 protesters rushed in to try to stop the massive machine.

In contrast with last month's eviction, which drew hundreds of angry demonstrators, Wednesday saw a much smaller crowd looking on as the machine pushed its blade through the greenery. Though they screamed passionately, the farm's supporters could not sway the bulldozer operator or the private security guards hired to keep them out.

Shortly after noon, when the earthmover began working again, nearly a dozen protesters spilled over the fence and into the field. They rushed the machine and struggled with its operator as security guards and LAPD officers waded in to break up the melee. Some of the group fled, while officers handcuffed and loaded the rest into a van.

In addition to two arrests in the morning -- including one man who chained himself to the bulldozer -- LAPD spokeswoman Officer Norma Eisenman said police arrested eight others in the afternoon, all on suspicion of felony vandalism, one with an additional count of battery on the driver and another with the added charge of battery on a police officer.

``We've been struggling for years,'' a tearful Juliana Cuevas, another volunteer with the group, screamed outside the barbed-wire gates. ``Families govern this, not profit. These families are just workers trying to survive.''

For the past decade, the land has been a source of dispute. Last month, the property's owner, developer Ralph Horowitz, ordered the farmers evicted, a move that drew the attention of Joan Baez, Daryl Hannah and other high-profile supporters. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa attempted to intervene and raise money to keep it open.

But on June 13, Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies forced the farmers out.

Still, the group has staked its faint hopes on a July 12 court date to determine whether Horowitz had legally repurchased the land from the city after a long eminent domain dispute.

Horowitz did not return a call seeking comment Wednesday, but has said in the past that he sees the farmers as ungrateful for the time they had on the land. Though at one point he offered to sell it for $16.6 million, when the money appeared to have come together in early June, he refused to take it. Angry at vilification by the farmers, he vowed never to sell the land to them or anyone who had supported their cause.

And so they stood and watched as the police led their compatriots away, arguing with the guards who kept them from coming inside. The mainly Latino activists hassled the African-American guards, lecturing them on civil rights. The guards' apparent supervisor, a man in a ski-mask, golden-rimmed glasses poking through the holes in his black hood, ignored their insults and ordered them back from the gate.

``Martin Luther King would be out here!'' one screamed. ``Malcolm X would be out here!''

On the other side of the fence, a young man in an orange tank top, hired to keep them away, cursed.

``Yeah,'' he said. ``But I've got kids to think about, too.''

brent.hopkins(at)dailynews.com

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CAPTION(S):

4 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) A protester attempts to place a flag in the exhaust of a bulldozer working to remove crops at a community farm in South Los Angeles. About 25 activists fought the South Central Farm's razing Wednesday, and 10 were arrested by Los Angeles police.

(2 -- color) Activists who fought to stop the destruction of a South Los Angeles farm Wednesday are transported in an LAPD van.

(3 -- color) Activists protesting outside a South Los Angeles farm on Wednesday line up to be loaded into an LAPD van.

(4 -- color) Brenda Alvarez of Torrance cries as those protesting the bulldozing of the South Central Farm are arrested Wednesday. The farm's supporters have vowed to keep fighting.

Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer