Occupy DC demonstrators arrested by U.S. Park Police - Post Now
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.
About half a dozen demonstrators had been arrested as of 1 p.m., and there were more than 20 demonstrators sitting inside the building apparently unwilling to move.
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.
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.