Occupy DC protesters haven’t been allowed to sleep in McPherson Square for more than a month now. But protesters are maintaining their vigil by sleeping on sidewalks around the square to skirt a federal camping ban.
About 10 to 20 demonstrators remain in the park, said protester James Hill, and about 20 to 25 tents are now pitched there as symbolic representations of the occupation. Additional tents have sprung up since the U.S. Park Service cleared them away a month ago and protesters are again planning a series of new demonstrations.
National Park Service regulations forbid protesters from sleeping in the park or even keeping bedding in their tents. So those that remain are empty except for an information tent, the library and the Anarchist Alliance’s tent. At night, Hill said, protesters simply move the empty tents to sidewalks around McPherson and spend the night there.
“We’ve been putting our tents by the edge of the road, and as soon as we wake up in the morning, we get our stuff and go back into the park,” Hill said.
In McPherson Square Thursday, a cluster of tents swayed in the wind as Occupiers and office workers alike ate lunch in the park and protesters tapped at laptops in the adjacent Starbucks. It’s a far cry from the sprawling tent city that covered McPherson at the height of the Occupy movement just a few months ago. But protesters say their quiet reoccupation of the park indicates that Occupy DC has no plans to leave McPherson — and that they’ll likely remain through the spring and summer.
U.S. Park Police say the protesters can remain as long as they comply with the camping ban, and protesters say officers check on them frequently to make sure no one is sleeping in the park. And though he pleaded with the Park Service to clear Occupiers from the park in January, a spokesperson for Mayor Vincent Gray said Thursday that the mayor “continues to support the right of people to carry out their First Amendment rights.”
Still, Occupiers say they worry about proposed amendments to the D.C. criminal code that would penalize those who block sidewalks and parks, despite assurances from city council that Occupy isn’t being targeted. Protesters plan to attend a hearing on that bill next Friday, part of a slew of protests planned for the week ahead. Organizers are also gearing up for a large-scale protest planned for March 30, which Hill said could draw a few thousand protesters to the Capitol.
“We’re staying on course,” said Occupier Larry Foster-El, who was stationed in the information tent Thursday. “We may give out, but we’re not giving up. I want to stay in my square.”
