D.C. police dragged about 10 handcuffed protesters out of a vacant downtown building Saturday, hours after the protesters, affiliated with the Occupy DC movement in McPherson Square, broke into the building to protest the city’s treatment of homeless people.
The masked occupiers broke into the abandoned Franklin School at 13th and K Streets Northwest Saturday, unfurling a black banner that read: “PUBLIC PROPERTY UNDER NEW MGMT COMMUNITY CONTROL.”
Occupiers said their goal was to reclaim the building that was once a homeless shelter to prevent it from being sold to private developers. They cheered wildly as police dragged out those arrested, who rocked back and forth to shake the vans they were in as supporters shouted.
“Get up, get down, there’s a revolution in this town,” protesters chanted.
The building, which closed in 2008, is two blocks away from the Occupy camp at McPherson Square.
Protesters said they wanted to occupy the school in time for winter.
“Hypothermia season is coming up, and people will freeze outside,” Paige McNamara, a 20-year-old American University student said. “It’s disgusting, and we’re occupying the building to take it back.”
Protesters passed out cheeseburgers and played cards as they waited for the police to exit the Franklin School with the arrested occupiers.
