No arrests after tranquil Occupy Austin regroups at City Hall
ByBen Wear and Patrick George
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
About 120 Occupy Austin protesters rallied peaceably Saturday evening at Austin City Hall plaza to decide how to proceed now that Austin police at the city manager's direction have ended the group's nearly four-month outdoor sleepover.
This time there were no arrests. A silent march across downtown to the Austin Resource Center for the Homeless on East Seventh Street commenced about 45 minutes before a newly imposed 10 p.m. curfew arrived. At 10 p.m., about two dozen police officers were at the plaza, where a few remaining protesters left peacefully.
Before the march, the group spent two chilly hours on the steps of City Hall in the elaborate rituals of the movement's trademark "general assembly," at which they decided to target high-ranking city officials for political action.
The group, voting with a show of "sparkle" hands raised in the air, agreed to "Occupy" City Manager Marc Ott, who on Thursday decided to change city policy and ban overnight stays at the plaza. What form that personal occupation will take, other than the appearance of many protesters at the next council meeting Thursday, was unclear.
When one protester asked those present if they knew who on the Austin City Council was up for re-election, very few hands went up. A similar query about the date of the May 12 election likewise produced a light response, and incorrect information about the actual date.
"We feel these unelected officials are creating administrative decrees that are in direct contradiction of city ordinances," said protestor Brian Overman. At Overman's suggestion, the group agreed to come back Monday with more concrete proposals for action.
"This isn't a park," Overman had said earlier. "That means it's not eligible for the 10 p.m. curfew. They bypassed that entirely."
Earlier Saturday, Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell said Occupy Austin will still be able to stage protests at City Hall, and that he agrees with Ott's decision.
"We support their right to protest," Leffingwell said. "We just don't support the right to camp there. We have to remember, it's a public space for all the people of Austin."
Council Member Kathie Tovo said she likewise supports ending the camping, but she would have preferred that occupants been given more notice before police moved in late Friday to enforce the curfew.
"Ideally I would have liked to have seen at least" a week's notice, said Tovo, who had expressed that to police officials in a meeting Friday. Police told her that moving in quickly was a better approach.
"I guess they felt, as I understood it, that they were minimizing the level of conflict," Tovo said.
Austin police on Friday evening evicted Occupy Austin protesters and others who since Oct. 6 had turned the plaza on City Hall's south side into a semi-permanent campground, covering its row of large steps with an array of sleeping bags. Police arrested seven people Friday, all of whom were released Saturday.
The police were reacting to a "notice of change to City Hall building use policy," issued by Ott on Thursday. That policy says, in part, that "the plaza, amphitheater and mezzanine continue to be designated as free speech areas." But it then lays out limitations, including that those areas "may not be used for non-city business or activities before 6 a.m. or after 10 p.m." Sleeping, camping and the use or storage of sleeping equipment are prohibited, the policy says.
Leffingwell said that Ott told him of the new policy Friday afternoon, but that the action did not come out of the blue.
"There's been a lot of discussion by myself, and others I assume, about the sustainability of it, and that something had to be done," Leffingwell said. "I think that all the steps that were taken were reasonable and necessary. ... When I spoke with the city manager, I said it was important that all necessary restraint be used and that no one get hurt. I think it's really remarkable that it was carried off as well as it was."
http://www.statesman.com/news/local/no-arrests-after-tranquil-occupy-austin-regroups-at-2150022.html