Some 150 "Occupy" movement protesters who have been camped at a park near the White House since October peacefully removed gear on Saturday after police moved in at dawn to enforce a no-camping rule. The US Park Police said there had been no arrests of the protesters, who are targeting the growing income gap, corporate greed and what they see as an unfair tax structure favouring the richest Americans.
The US National Park Service had put the protesters on notice that it would start enforcing a ban against camping in McPherson Square, a park located just blocks from the White House. "This is not an eviction," Park Police Sergeant David Schlosser said at a brief news conference at the park. "We've got a great deal of co-operation from folks that are in the park and right now we have no arrests."
While similar "Occupy" protests against social and economic inequality in other US cities have been shut down by police, the demonstrations in the capital have survived an unusually warm winter and a permissive approach by federal authorities reluctant to provoke confrontation. The number of protesters in the Occupy DC camps fluctuates, but city officials estimate there generally are fewer than 100. The demonstrators had set up tents and were sleeping in the park.
Despite their small numbers, the Washington protesters have received outsized media attention because their camps are just blocks from President Barack Obama's official residence. The National Park Service forbids camping on federal land not designated as a campground. City officials have complained about squalor, rats and trash. A protester who said she had been at the camp since October said police said they could have tents, but not the camping materials inside and could not sleep in the park. Asked what she was going to do now, Brittney Steer, 20, of Minneapolis, said: "Same thing we've been doing. This is just another day in the square."
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