In a span of less than five days, Occupy Wall Street protesters have been evicted from their rapidly degenerating tent encampments in five cities across the country, including the original in New York’s Zuccotti Park, plus Denver, Salt Lake City, Portland and Oakland. In every one of these cities, originally sympathetic Democratic mayors (or Democrat-turned-independent in the case of New York’s Michael Bloomberg) concluded that the camps had become dangerous threats to the public health and safety and had to be removed. Also in every case, the authorities promised that the protesters could return to the areas they had occupied and continue protesting, but only after cleanups from their previous encampments were completed. This time, however, no overnight camping will be allowed. It’s a different story here in the nation’s capital, where local and federal officials have allowed the Occupy DC protesters to continue squatting in McPherson Square in direct contradiction of federal regulations. Outside of Occupy DC’s “media tent” in McPherson Square is a piece of paper with the words: “We are not camping. We are assembling peacefully to petition the government for a redress of grievances. This is our permit.” The words are written over a copy of the Bill of Rights with the First Amendment circled. That sounds good, but the Occupy movement’s grasp of the First Amendment is as divorced from reality as its understanding of the U.S. economy.
Here’s why: In 1981, the Community for Creative Non-Violence began camping out in Lafayette Park near the White House in what it dubbed “Reaganville.” The CCNV activists were using the homeless in an attempt to embarrass then-President Reagan into supporting federalization of an intrinsically local problem. When the Park Police moved to evict the campers, they sued, claiming they had a First Amendment right to occupy the park. In 1984, by a 7-2 decision, the Supreme Court held that there is no free-speech right to camp in public parks. The court held that the camping ban was “safe from invalidation under the First Amendment” since “all those who would resort to the parks must abide by otherwise valid rules for their use, just as they must observe the traffic laws, sanitation regulations, and laws to preserve the public peace.”
Like other Occupy encampments, Occupy DC has become a public health and safety problem for others. The demonstrators are also interfering with the rights of thousands of downtown workers and legions of tourists who should have equal access to what is, after all, federal property. Hundreds of groups come to Washington every year to protest, with the vast majority of them following the rules, thus ensuring that everyone’s voice can be heard in a safe and orderly manner. It’s time for the National Park Service to end the Occupy DC encampment in McPherson Square. The longer the feds wait, the harder it will be to do.
