Just a few weeks after moving into McPherson Square and Freedom Plaza, Occupy DC stood out from its counterparts across the country because it hadn’t clashed with police, it hadn’t been threatened with eviction and it hadn’t seen the mass arrests that marked so many other Occupy encampments.
These days, Occupy DC stands out simply because it’s one of the last major Occupy camps still standing.
Occupy Baltimore, one of the last holdouts, was evicted last week. Occupy Wall Street, the original, is long gone, evicted by police in a violent, mid-November raid. Occupy Philadelphia and Occupy LA were evicted within days of each other late last month, and Occupy Boston was kicked out of the park in early December.
In Richmond, Occupiers voluntarily and peacefully broke camp this week. In Denver, protesters set fires when police tried to evict them late Monday night; nine were arrested. Cities like Houston, Miami and Charlotte, N.C., still boast Occupy encampments, but they’re much smaller than the District’s twin camps.
As other camps are shut down, D.C. Occupiers are seeing an influx of new protesters arriving in the nation’s capital, some from as far away as Wisconsin and Florida. Occupiers in Philadelphia and elsewhere are trying to keep their movements alive without full-time encampments, but it’s hard to sustain an Occupy camp without an actual camp — so some are migrating.
“It’s really hard to connect with other people if you don’t have a site,” said Franklin O’Sullivan, who left Occupy Boston for Occupy DC.
One reason Occupy DC has outlasted so many other demonstrations is that, unlike police departments in other cities, the National Park Service, which oversees the protesters’ use of D.C. parks, has tried to accommodate the protesters. The Park Service classified Occupy as a “24-hour vigil” so it can remain camped in McPherson Square and Freedom Plaza even though camping is banned there.
However, impatience with the movement is growing. District Mayor Vincent Gray last week asked the federal government to reimburse the city for Occupy-related costs, which have topped $1.6 million so far.
“The decisions that led to these on-going protests were made entirely by the National Park Service and yet have forced the city to incur significant costs,” Gray wrote. “This is unfair and must be corrected immediately.”
House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R.-Calif., started an investigation into why the Obama administration has allowed Occupiers to remain in McPherson Square.
Despite a spate of clashes with police earlier this month that resulted in dozens of arrests, Occupy DC shows no signs of fading away.
In Freedom Plaza, protesters are erecting three 30-foot Army surplus tents, complete with wooden floors. They said they’re expecting the National Park Service to renew their permit, which expires at the month’s end, for another two months. Even in McPherson Square, where campers lack a permit, tents still cover the entire park.
“The No. 1 reason why we’re still here? We’re in D.C.,” said protester Anthony Sluder. “And we’ve tried not to antagonize our surroundings. We’ve tried to live peacefully.”
