Politics & Government

Echo Park Reacts to Osama Bin Laden's Death

Locals struggled to make sense of the news as it filtered through the downtown entertainment district of Echo Park Sunday evening. .

Osama Bin Laden is dead and U.S. forces are in possession of his body, president Barack Obama said Sunday night.

"Justice has been done," Obama said in a televised announcement Sunday.

Normally lively on a Sunday night with diners and drinkers, patrons at Echo Park’s restaurant listened quietly as Obama delivered his remarks.

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When he finished, most in the room applauded, though one patron loudly joked,  “I guess the war on terrorism is over now.”

Jenna Corbin, a waitress at Taix, said she first learned Bin Laden was dead from a patron, who received a e-mail alert with the news.

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“Just because they lost their leader, doesn’t mean all their hope is lost,” said Corbin, who has a brother-in-law in the Navy.  “There could be an uprising.”

“I think it’s a small piece of whole part, and I think there’s a lot more to deal with,” seconded Tony Juliano, an Echo Park resident standing in line at Tacos Avizas, a truck just off Sunset Boulevard near Walgreen’s.

Alexandra Embelton was visiting Pizzeria for the first time. She lives in the Pico-Robertson area. “I think I’ll feel safer. But it’s also scary--the war’s not over,” she said.

“But the fact that they achieved something they’ve been trying to do for a long time might mean they can finally wrap things up over there.”

To read a transcript of President Obama's address, click here.

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