Park Police Assemble At Freedom Plaza Occupy Camp; Barricades Set Up As Officers Inspect Tents

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Park Police officers assembled at Freedom Plaza's Occupy Wall Street-inspired tent city on Sunday, a day after the federal agency largely cleared out the nation's capital larger Occupy encampment in McPherson Square in a daylong enforcement action that saw the removal of scores of tents and a handful of arrests.

According to livestreaming video from Freedom Plaza, officers conducted an "informal" walk-through of the encampment shortly after noon, checking for compliance with National Park Service regulations that prohibit camping in the federally controlled space.

Barricades were also set up by the Park Police on Freedom Plaza, a block-long space fronting Pennsylvania Avenue. In an adjacent space, Pershing Park, officers examined "abandoned" materials apparently deposited there by Freedom Plaza activists for safekeeping.

Around 1:30 p.m., work crews in white biohazard suits, similar to those who inspected McPherson Square on Saturday, inspected tents on Freedom Plaza, along with U.S. Park Police officers who were seen documenting the interior of tents with cameras. Tents that were found out of compliance were disassembled and removed from the plaza.

The Washington Post's Katherine Driessen estimates that "at least" 25% of the tents in Freedom Plaza were taken down by mid-afternoon on Sunday.

@KatDriessen
Katherine Driessen

Bags of clothes, bedding being loaded into trucks. Rough, unofficial estimate: At least 1/4 of tents at Freedom Plaza taken down.

February 5, 2012 8:14 pm via web Reply Retweet Favorite

The National Park Service was due to begin enforcing its no-camping regulations on Jan. 30. NPS is facing pressure from congressional Republicans and District of Columbia officials who question the agency's seemingly ad-hoc enforcement of its no camping rules against Occupy protesters in the nation's capital.

Occupy Washington DC -- previously known as Stop the Machine -- has been set up in Freedom Plaza since Oct. 6. The group is technically separate from the protesters at McPherson Square, who initially gathered in the downtown park near the White House on Oct. 1.

After Saturday's action by the Park Police in McPherson Square, roughly 25 tents were left standing. Scores more that were found to be out of compliance were removed.

D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray, whose health director compared the conditions at the McPherson Square site to refugee camps he's seen in the Middle East and Africa, recently suggested that the city's two Occupy camps consolidate at Freedom Plaza.

Compared to McPherson Plaza, where Occupy activists had been camping largely on grass and dirt, the space at Freedom Plaza consists primarily of stone pavement.

In January, one Freedom Plaza organizer told The Huffington Post that D.C. health inspectors gave the camp high marks for sanitation -- 98 out of 100. "I suspect we did as well, or better, than many restaurants in the District," organizer Kevin Zeese said at the time.

At the same time, McPherson Square's kitchen was closed over sanitation concerns. D.C. health officials also pointed to rat infestations and other public health issues as justification to have the McPherson Square camp closed.

Since both properties are under federal jurisdiction, the D.C. government could not take direct action to address their concerns about the Occupy camps.

The McPherson Square activists are gathering the remains of their camp on Sunday for a general assembly meeting to discuss the future of their group.

This is a developing story ...

Earlier on HuffPost:

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Comments

[Naimamac]

10:55 AM on 02/13/2012

This is ridiculous. I have lived in DC all my life. What people may not know about DC is that it is over run with rats and feral cats. This was an excuse to remove an uncomfortable eyesore from the view of the wealthy elitists that work on K st.

[Kevin Rayburn]

08:24 PM on 02/07/2012

the hazmat suits are a nice touch.

[Jerry Bourbon]

03:44 PM on 02/07/2012

There are SO MANY benefits that one attains by bathing on a regular basis, and paying attention to personal hygiene.

[Jerry Bourbon]

03:33 PM on 02/07/2012

I am not sure how the right wing fascists in the Tea Party do it, but they seem to have figured out how to hold a political protest without rat infestations and hazmat workers in moon-suits.

[allengoldchain]

01:00 PM on 02/07/2012

The photos of DC workers in hazmat suits says it all; occupied mess!

[williamg]

05:54 PM on 02/06/2012

How disgusting.

[timiam]

01:03 PM on 02/06/2012

This protest was led by a Medical Doctor and a lawyer. The fascist right wing hates anyone that wants to express disdain for the direction of the country. The status quo seem to be content with perpetual wars, military murders of innocents, meddling in sovereign nations affairs, drone killing of innocents, assasinations of civilians, environmental destruction, ignoring health care, wealth desparity, vast poverty and unemployment, police brutality, bank fraud, vast criminal incarceration, racism, poor education etc. They seem to want to talk about abortion and taxes and dont care what the rest of the world thinks.

[Mac Donald]

05:30 PM on 02/06/2012

It seems the "Status Quo" (most Americans) have spoken and you lost. Nuff said.

[TiredOfOC]

11:19 AM on 02/08/2012

If you don't like our nation, please feel free to leave. Most of what you are talking about is leftist opions without out understanding the facts. Just take out a visa, get a passport and head to Iraq for a while.

[Henry Jumkins]

12:22 PM on 02/06/2012

should've called billy the exterminator... at least he would have brought some humor to the whole thing...

[strangegal]

10:30 AM on 02/06/2012

ON FRIDAY PLAYWRIGHT LARRY MYERS (fascinated by what he discovered doing onsite research continues with a cycle of "occupation" plays) He penned cycle of "Occupation Preoccupation" & is intrigued by al the comments on these various sites & blogs. Quitely frankly there wouldnt be room for what the media claims was found there! Dead rats! Nope.There were however the disenfranchised outsiders handicapped peole in wheelchairs with little hope no food no insurance no support sytem of blood family despearet needy folks who are outcasts & whose voices are not heard some need to ahve mediacl attention some need meds some need counseling desperately. Maybe there are paid agistators or crooks or juts the undiagnosed but what was seen was desperation desolation grief loss and all in front of THE NATIONAL THEATER!!!! on cold huge stones as freezing as the graves they may soon be buried in! the costuming of the astronaut Anthrax searcher getups only adds another theatrical touch...I think alot of folks have been tasered not just one energetic confused demonstrator... the news and the media nd reality tasers all of us!!!!! right and left patriotic and non patriotic sad sad sad sad sad

[TiredOfOC]

10:49 AM on 02/06/2012

Somebody is spouting unrealistic opinions rather than facts.

Fact: The rats were there.
Fact: Dead rats and Live rats were there.
Fact: The rats have fleas
Fact: The Occupiers have fleas
Fact: What is sad is the victim mentality and the lack of ownership for misdeeds from the occupy movement. The Preoccupation for the occupiers is selfishness, lack of integrity and narcissism with gang mentalities.
Fact: There are places for the handicapped, the mentally ill and the physically ill to go. The philanthropists that you call the evil 1% has provided a lot of that.
Fact: The one person we all saw got tasered was resisting arrest in his PJs. Shame, the whole world can watch it over and over again.

Bad behavior is not excused nor warrented.

[Fizzligg]

01:27 PM on 02/06/2012

Excellent post.

[Jerry Bourbon]

03:35 PM on 02/07/2012

Bad behavior (to say nothing of bad body odor) is not excused but it IS expected from the occubaggers.

[quadsfather]

09:57 AM on 02/06/2012

This is such an irony. The current administration is figuratively and literally have to wear protection and step lightly not to get occupy's noxious waste and negative presence smeared all over them. Watch Rahm get bit by a rat in Chicago this summer. Figuratively and if not careful literally as well. Of the 2% that must b flipped to send president Obama home occupy has handed us half. Thanks for that one percent guys you are a priceless asset to the cause of constitutional conservatism!!!

[Joe Padilla]

01:57 PM on 02/06/2012

It's time we break down the 1% into two groups. The group that Bill Gates is in and the group that Jamie Dimon is in.

They are not the same. One produces something, the other is part of a political- corporate-welfare scheme that doesn't produce anything.

Stop supporting government welfare to millionaires.

[quadsfather]

03:09 PM on 02/06/2012

Well, Joe you do have a point there. Indeed there are some that have bought sweet little loop holes and there are others that are LLC's Type S and such. The lobbyist,grafted politician to tax law connection is at the root of many of our issues and should be cut out and burned!!!

[TiredOfOC]

08:42 PM on 02/05/2012

Ha! The kitchen score? 98/100 is totally irrelavant since cooking in the park and sleeping in the park are both illegal.

[fishin4u]

07:36 PM on 02/05/2012

Authorities say 11 people have been arrested in Washington's McPherson Square since Park Police began clearing away tents from one of the nation's last remaining Occupy sites. 2/5/2012

David Schlosser, who is a spokesman for the U.S. Park Police, said Sunday that one of those arrested was charged with felony assault on a police officer and assault with a deadly weapon. That person is accused of hitting an officer in the face with a brick Saturday evening. The officer was treated at a hospital.

FISH...........

[lqw]

06:26 PM on 02/05/2012

Were they burning American flags too ?

[Jerry Bourbon]

03:36 PM on 02/07/2012

Or reciting anti-Semitic "pledge of allegiences"?

[TiredOfOC]

11:27 AM on 02/08/2012

Because the idea behind Arab Spring (the template for Occupy) is to overthrow the government in anarchy. It is backed by anti america sentiment and mal-using the constitution as a excuse to break the law. It is why they have worked in two ways... to cause a divide by creating the myth that the 1% is evil by causing an economic division in our country. This approach was used to put Hitler in office.

This movement is backed by anti-americans, anti-believers in democracy such as the American Nazi movment, American Islamic extremists and finacially back by the AFL-CIO and other labor unions. They are the puppets for these movments. The goal it to radically take over America. Of course it is interesting with all of this how the Democrats have endorsed the behavior and backed the rhetoric

[lqw]

06:23 PM on 02/05/2012

"one of those arrested was charged with felony assault on a police officer and assault with a deadly weapon. That person is accused of hitting an officer in the face with a brick Saturday evening. The officer was treated at a hospital. Three others were charged with assault .

[lqw]

06:13 PM on 02/05/2012

What's with the yellow coveralls and masks ?

[gmb007]

06:31 PM on 02/05/2012

Ministry of Propaganda - HAZMAT Division uniforms.

[Beef Wellington]

06:54 PM on 02/05/2012

the tents were on pallets. the pallets contained dead mice and rats, and people were using the place as a porta-potty.