Los Angeles ? After 21 years living amid the tent encampments of downtown Los Angeles, friends call Tyrone Taylor the “Mayor of Skid Row.”

These days, the mayor is not happy.

On two afternoons last week, police officers, accompanied by correction officials and federal agents, made an estimated 200 arrests on Skid Row.

They said they were targeting parole and probation violators hiding amid the homeless. But Taylor and others fear police are moving to take them off the streets.

“They are stopping us at random,” Taylor said as he pushed his shopping cart along the street Sunday. “They searched me. I’m not on parole. I’m not on drugs.”

The crackdown came just days after a consortium of downtown business and development groups, along with two city council members, called for initiatives to combat homelessness downtown. Officials estimate there are between 3,000 and 5,000 people on Skid Row.

Capt. Charlie Beck of the Los Angeles Police Department said the raids were designed to get criminals off the streets. City officials say there are no plans to relocate the homeless.

Despite official assurances, tensions are running high on Skid Row. A brawl broke out at an outdoor soup kitchen on Sunday.

Barry Laskey, 40, was waiting for a ticket to eat when the violence erupted. Blacks fought Hispanics, and one man ended up with a gash across his head.

“You can feel the tension,” Laskey said. “The cops have disrupted the normal life down here.”