Park Service To Enforce Camping Ban On Occupy DC

WASHINGTON — Occupy DC protesters will soon receive civil citations from U.S. Park Police if they continue camping in Washington's McPherson Square, but enforcement of a camping ban will be conducted against individuals and will not lead to a full-scale eviction of demonstrators, a top federal official said Tuesday.

Appearing before a House oversight subcommittee, National Park Service director Jonathan Jarvis fielded pointed questions from Republican lawmakers about why camping has been allowed since early October in the small park near the White House.

He conceded that protesters have been sleeping in tents and that no one has been cited for it, reflecting a cautious approach by park police to bringing Occupy DC in compliance with all regulations.

"Each of our First Amendment demonstrations (is) a little bit unique. And this one is, let's say, unprecedented. The core of their First Amendment activity is that they occupy the site," Jarvis said. "We felt that going in right away and enforcing the regulations against camping could potentially incite a reaction on their part that would result in possible injury or property damage."

The park service contends that protesters are allowed to maintain a 24-hour vigil in the park as long as they're not sleeping there, and Jarvis cited several examples over the past few decades of long-running vigils on park service property in the nation's capital.

Lawmakers including House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said they were concerned about selective enforcement of the camping ban. They suggested that the park service was bowing to pressure from the Obama administration by allowing the protesters to remain.

Jarvis said he was not acting on orders from superiors and that he is "ideologically neutral" about the protests, which are intended to draw attention to a variety of issues including income inequality.

The hearing did not address whether the park service would also enforce the camping ban at Freedom Plaza, home to a similar protest. Jarvis said the park service doesn't plan a wholesale eviction of protesters similar to what's occurred in New York and at Occupy camps in other cities.

District of Columbia Mayor Vincent Gray has suggested that the protests be consolidated in Freedom Plaza to allow for a cleanup of McPherson Square, which sits in the heart of downtown and which city health officials say has become infested with rats. The city does not have jurisdiction over either site.

Occupy DC said in a statement that participants would be happy to work with the park service and other officials to improve the health and safety of the park.

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Comments

[Stephen R Concklin]

02:44 PM on 01/26/2012

The capitalist class, represented by Darrell Issa, is very much opposed to the concept of "the commons." Rather, the only alternative for the ruling elites is" the privatized." The occupy movement challenges this major operating premise of capitalism, e.g., the propertied have rights, the property less are given rights controlled selectively by the capitalist class. Class consciousness is the crux of the entire issue. The longer the occupy movement highlights the issue of class consciousness, the more the capitalist class will endeavor, by whatever means, to silence the 99%.

[billtmore]

05:32 PM on 01/25/2012

Do not agree with camping bans...Hoover took a beating politically fire hosing and shooting at the bonus marchers in the 30s. I do know if we ever have a president and administration that is PUSHING with a woody to go to war we need to storm the fence of the white house. Wars based on lies ...NEVER AGAIN

[Keolweol]

12:58 AM on 01/25/2012

This article left out the most important quote from the hearing.
At one point Jarvis states that the first priority of the park police is to "defend freedom of speech".

But then Issa breaks in and says "but you also have to enforce the law", refering to the camping ban. And now we see the problem, that he does not consider "freedom of speech" to be the law, having forgotten that it is part of the highest law of the land.

Imagine the effect on police violence natonwide if all police officers had "Defends Freedom of Speech" in their annual performance review!

[Esther21072011]

05:15 AM on 01/25/2012

And you missed that there are reasonable restrictions in the exercise of our Constitutional rights - like you can't yell FIRE in a crowded theater and you can't publish child porn. But then again - lefties rarely ever actually understand the Constitution.

[keene]

01:10 AM on 01/29/2012

Oh such superior knowledge you possess

[iriemeditation]

11:50 PM on 01/24/2012

American citizens have the right to peaceably assemble ....... so what's next?
makes me think of JFK:
‎"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."

[Esther21072011]

05:16 AM on 01/25/2012

Of course they do - they don't have the right to camp wherever they wish though.

[iriemeditation]

04:02 PM on 01/26/2012

unless they own the land, or buy it? i'm really sick of all these shallow money worshippers thinking they get to make the rules around here.

[iriemeditation]

04:06 PM on 01/26/2012

ps. if you're so proud of being one of the 53% who pays taxes, than you probably have more than you need and are therefore greedy, selfish, or gluttonous, which one are u?

[LeFlaneur]

10:56 PM on 01/24/2012

i think Wilford Brimley means it this time.

[shirley thomas]

10:38 PM on 01/24/2012

police dept and right wingers across the world do not get it. ows is more than a couple hundred people camping out in front of some business or in a park . it is a movement, kinda of like the civil rights movemen wheret u can jail peolpe, but that only makes the spirit of the movement even stronger. all we libs have to fight the powers that be, and the right wing is our enthusiasm, something that was missing in 2012. but wer'e back and we are mad as hell and we aren't going to take it anymore. pres obama 2012

[A voice in the crowd]

12:42 AM on 01/25/2012

If it were a movement, there would be more than a couple hundred people defecating on camera involved. There would be a message. OWS is nothing more than children acting like children. Nothing to be taken seriously.

[Esther21072011]

05:16 AM on 01/25/2012

All great - except - it's only a few hundred people - nobody else cares or supports it.

[T-Haight]

07:57 PM on 01/24/2012

It begins. Let's see who ends up holding the bag when they get evicted - won't that be a fun game of hot potato(e) to watch unfold?

[army193]

07:39 PM on 01/24/2012

The hearing today was going after individuals that have slept on federal grounds while protesting there Government while the law breakers on Wall Street able to sleep in there mansion as result of there fraud perpetrated on the American people . We can see that it's more important to the Republicans to protect the money class.

[Esther21072011]

05:17 AM on 01/25/2012

If they broke the law and committed fraud - get them arrested. The problem is - they didn't actually do anything they can get arrested for - and the left wing thinks if they don't like what someone does it makes it illegal.

[TheIndependentView]

05:23 PM on 01/24/2012

Uncle Jesse from Dukes of Hazzard is head of the National Park Service?

[KarasudaJay]

05:54 PM on 01/24/2012

It would be a lot of fun to hear Waylon Jennings narrate the Occupy fiasco.

[nypoet22]

05:03 PM on 01/24/2012

the nationwide occupy movements really ought to organize a larger, national protest for this summer.

[desertdreamer]

05:06 PM on 01/24/2012

It'll be happening in the Spring!
http://www.facebook.com/events/119446728166304/

[KarasudaJay]

03:50 PM on 01/24/2012

These goofballs don't know what they're protesting, maybe they just want attention, but the fact remains that peaceable assembly is still legal on public property. As long as they're cleaning up after themselves, I don't have a problem, but they're a rather filthy lot and that can be addressed. They shouldn't just help themselves to the Starbucks bathroom though, they're tearing it up and not buying anything.

[bigjakeIII]

05:37 PM on 01/24/2012

they're entitled to - just ask them.

[iriemeditation]

11:53 PM on 01/24/2012

damn right they are, just like you are.

[Esther21072011]

05:18 AM on 01/25/2012

-peaceable assembly is still legal on public property. -

yes it is

public camping is not though

I agree with the rest of your post

[alfatu]

03:20 PM on 01/24/2012

I wonder if Congress got what they wanted to hear. That the Obama White House had influenced the National Park Service to allow Occupy to camp indefinitely at McPherson Square? These people are so desperate, they'll stop at nothing. They want First Amendment Rights to work only when it's beneficial to them and they cause and supporters.

[Katie Colling]

03:40 PM on 01/24/2012

When did Occupy try and suppress OTHER people from having the right to speak? Not once. They want the right to free speech for everyone. Sounds to me like you just dont want them to have it. Not the other way around.

[alfatu]

03:47 PM on 01/24/2012

Hey Katie, we're on the same side. I was referring to the Republicans/Tea Party who want the First Amendment to work only for the them. I have even gone out there to stand with them. I'm just saying that the Chairman ISA was looking for dirt on the White House because he thought they were in a deal to allow Occupy to stay out there so long. So cool your heels lady, I'm with you.

[bigjakeIII]

05:39 PM on 01/24/2012

how about other peoples rights to drive home, walk in the park, etc.