Occupy DC Arrests ~ Police and protesters clashed over a wood building the group began constructing at McPherson Square .. Arrests Made ...

12/04/2011

Occupy DC demonstrators arrested by U.S. Park Police

U.S. Park Police began arresting members of the Occupy D.C. demonstration just before noon Sunday after police and protesters clashed over a wood building the group began constructing at McPherson Square.

Police gave demonstrators a one-hour deadline to start dismantling the two-story plywood structure Sunday morning and then began moving in when that deadline passed. Police on horseback cordoned off the area, and officers removed protesters one-by-one before putting them in handcuffs and taking them into custody.

It was a rare confrontation between police and the Washington demonstrators, who had up until now avoided the clashes that Occupy protests in other parts of the country have experienced, such as in Boston, New York and California.

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The arrests Sunday were peaceful and orderly, but some demonstrators clung to the wooden framework of the structure and refused to move, including at least two who climbed onto the roof and sat on the building’s ridge. Others sat inside the unfinished building and waited for police to enter and take them out. Some were handcuffed and put on the ground and later taken to waiting police vehicles.

Police appeared to be focused on the building itself and were not trying to remove the small tent city that has occupied the square for weeks.

The building, on the grassy southwest side of the square near the Metro entrance, sparked the issue early Sunday. Police surrounded it shortly after 10 a.m. and gave protesters an ultimatum: Take it down, or we will.

After discussing a way forward for an hour — demonstrators debated whether it was worth making a stand for the structure after lengthy good relations with police — roughly a dozen demonstrators remained inside at the deadline. Police told demonstrators they would need a permit to erect such a building.

As police moved in, some chanted: “Leave us alone. These are the people who oppress us.”

Michael Patterson, 21, of Anchorage, said the structure was meant to symbolize the need to house the homeless. It had been covered with a blue tarp until shortly before the arrests.

“It is counterrevolutionary to occupy space with a permit,” Patterson told the crowd. “Why don’t the cops care about sheltering the homeless in the streets?”

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