Sunday during a day-long standoff with police that began after
Occupiers erected a plywood shelter in McPherson Square and then
refused to leave when police ordered them to vacate.
Built overnight, the wooden shelter on the
south side of McPherson Square was designed to host Occupy DC's
general assembly meetings during the winter months. But a
building inspector brought in by the U.S. Park Police said the
building was unsafe and declared it unlawful for anyone to
enter.
That didn't deter 16 protesters who
remained in the structure, some of whom perched on the
building's unfinished roof and refused to leave. Park Police
officers eventually used a basket crane to remove three
remaining protesters from the roof, tying ropes around their
waists and lifting them bodily off the structure. One protester
urinated on the structure before police carried him off the
roof.
