The Los Angeles Times /

As the eviction deadline loomed for Occupy L.A. protesters to abandon City Hall Park, Emmanuel Freeman was preparing for a clash with Los Angeles police.

So he built a treehouse.

Freeman, a 28-year-old from the San Gabriel Valley, used scrap pieces of wood to build a roughly 10-foot tall treehouse held up by a few palm trees. The fort, which he began constructing Sunday morning, gives him a bird's-eye view of the south lawn and offers him some protection, he said.

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If Los Angeles police want to arrest him, they'll have to climb up to get him, he said.

To make their jobs harder, he said he would deny officers access by kicking down a rickety ladder fashioned out of a wooden pallet. He was also prepared to push them away from his fort with a long, bamboo stick.

But the deadline passed, and come Monday morning the camp was still there.

Freeman said he was known around camp as an expert on how to talk to police. He says that when he encounters police officers, he reminds them of their oath to uphold the Constitution and freedom of speech. This oath, he argues, gives him the right to stay holed up in the palm trees.