Park police crack down on Occupy D.C. campers

WASHINGTON

Dozens of U.S. Park Police officers in riot gear and on horseback converged before dawn Saturday on one of the nation's last remaining Occupy sites, with police clearing the grounds of tents that they said were banned under park rules.

That move left large swaths of open space and raised questions about exactly what would remain of the encampment once the enforcement was over.

Still, police said they were not evicting the protesters. Those whose tents conformed to regulations were allowed to stay.

The police used barricades to cordon off sections of McPherson Square, a park under federal jurisdiction near the White House, and checked tents for mattresses and sleeping bags. Some wore yellow biohazard suits to guard against diseases identified at the site in recent weeks.

Police by midday had arrested about a half-dozen people, including four protesters who refused to move from beneath a statute.

The National Park Service, which has tolerated the protesters for months and protected their First Amendment rights, has said it will give protesters notice if police decide to clear the park. Police on Saturday were careful to say they were not evicting the protesters or closing the park.

Regulations allow protesters to remain onsite at all hours with tents; they are not allowed to camp out or lie down on things like blankets.

The Park Service had said it would start enforcing the ban last Monday, and though protesters had braced for a confrontation, it wasn't until Saturday that police cracked down.

Police said tents that broke the rules would be seized and their owners threatened with arrest.

Some protesters said they considered Saturday's enforcement a major step toward eviction.

"This is a slow, media-friendly eviction," said protester Melissa Byrne. "We're on federal property, so they have to make it look good."

The officers poured into McPherson Square around 5:40 a.m., some on horseback and others wearing routine riot gear.

They shut down nearby streets as a helicopter hovered overhead. They turned their focus to dragging out wood, metal and other items stored beneath a massive blue tarp — which protesters call the "Tent of Dreams" — that had been draped around a statue of Maj. Gen. James McPherson, a Union general in the Civil War. Protesters agreed to remove the tent.

Later, in a lighter moment, park police used a cherry-picker to remove a mask of 17th-century English revolutionary Guy Fawkes that had been placed on the McPherson statue.

The Washington demonstration is among the last remaining Occupy sites, enjoying special First Amendment protections by virtue of its location on Park Service property.

Dozens have been camped since Oct. 1 in McPherson Square, just blocks from the White House. Similar to the New York protesters, who strategically occupied a park near Wall Street to highlight their campaign against economic inequalities, the District of Columbia group selected a space along Washington's K Street. The street is home to some of the nation's most powerful lobbying firms.

The relationship with police has been generally peaceful, though a daylong standoff in early December over a makeshift wooden building led to more than 30 arrests. About five dozen protesters were later arrested during a mass demonstration that shut down K Street.

Democratic Mayor Vincent Gray initially appeared to support the protesters. But any enthusiasm by city officials waned amid reports of violent incidents and, more recently, a rat infestation.