U.S. Park Police cleared out Occupy protesters and many of their tents from McPherson Square Saturday in an action that deteriorated from a tension-filled standoff to a violent confrontation pitting police horses and riot gear against Occupiers attempting to remain in the park. What police suggested early Saturday morning would be a mere inspection — checking for compliance with a camping ban — turned by afternoon into outright removal of more than half of the tents in the square, some in place there since October.
Police pushed protesters out of the park, section by section, then moved in hazardous materials teams to tear down tents and carry away insulation, blankets and other materials in dump trucks.
Around 5 p.m. police began emptying the final section of the park, containing the Occupiers’ “library” — a collection of books housed for months inside a tent in the northwest quadrant of McPherson Square — bringing the day’s anger and tension to a climax.
“Reading is not a crime!” protesters yelled.
Police in riot gear, carrying shields, pushed protesters out of the park and onto the street, with tussles turning violent as police tried to right some barriers that protesters had knocked over. Some protesters fell or lost articles of clothing in the stampede out of the park. Others said they suffered injuries — everything from sprained ankles to reports of a man who was knocked unconscious. Protester Antoinette Bolz said she saw Occupiers trampled in the street, and added that she was hit on the side of the head with a nightstick.
A police officer was hit in the face with a brick, said Park Police spokesman Sgt. David Schlosser. A man was arrested for felony assault on a police officer and assault with a deadly weapon.
The Park Police on Monday were set to begin enforcing a camping ban at the McPherson Square Occupy camp and its counterpart at Freedom Plaza, but Saturday’s action was by far the most widespread and aggressive effort to enforce the ban, which prohibits sleeping or preparing to sleep in the park.
At around 5:30 a.m. Saturday, dozens of police officers arrived in the park on horseback and wearing riot gear. They ordered protesters to take down the Tent of Dreams — a massive blue tarp pitched around Gen. James McPherson’s statue in the center of the park — and promptly cleared out the tents sheltering underneath it once protesters took the tarp down. Police assured protesters that the action was not an eviction — just an effort to ensure compliance with the camping ban. But when they began to clear large numbers of tents from the park, protesters became angry, calling the enforcement a thinly-veiled eviction.
Schlosser said earlier Saturday that the Park Service was not only removing tents that had bedding in them — a violation of the camping ban — but also tents that presented a public health or safety risk, with “products that are substantially filthy.” He said protesters would be allowed to return to the camp and pitch tents again as long as they are symbols of the occupation and not dwelling places.
“It’s not our intention to have protesters leave,” he said.
At press time, Park Police had made at least eight arrests.
Protesters said they were outraged by the day’s events and vowed to continue the movement though they weren’t sure where they would be spending the night.
“Regardless of whether we’re not going to have the same presence as before, people will be even more determined to continue this movement,” said Occupy media organizer Sam Jewler as HAZMAT teams slowly cleared tents out of the park Saturday afternoon. “In no way is this movement over.”
