TRI In The News

Deadline Coming for Lee Park Occupiers

From The Daily Progress

Original article available here

Occupy Charlottesville protesters will be forced to decide tonight whether to risk arrest by entrenching at Lee Park or heed the city’s request that they vacate the downtown park in favor of a more suitable but less prominent location.

City officials said Monday that they’ve made it clear that staying in the downtown park is no longer an option when the current permit expires, and the occupy group will hold a meeting in the park tonight at 6 p.m. to decide how to react.

“If they decide tomorrow night that the battle they choose is to stay in Lee Park, then we’ll have no choice but to enforce the curfew, which obviously would mean that Occupy Charlottesville is no longer a 24/7 encampment,” Mayor Dave Norris said in a Monday interview.

The group’s special-event permit, which has allowed both political activists and the homeless to camp in Lee Park past the normal 11 p.m. curfew, is set to expire today, but Norris said the group will be granted a one-day extension to allow today’s meeting.

McIntire Park appears to be at the top of the list of alternative locations proposed by the city. Norris said the occupiers could be given more time to properly vacate and clean Lee Park, but staying at the location that the local offshoot of the national Occupy Wall Street movement has called home for nearly a month and a half is not a viable long-term option.

Norris said both the city and the occupiers failed to adequately consult Lee Park’s neighbors about having a homeless encampment in the middle of their neighborhood.

“I would say the neighborhood has been very patient, but that patience is wearing thin and they want their park back,” Norris said. “And the city has promised them that on or around Thanksgiving we would restore the park.”

Occupier Bailee Hampton said the activists are currently brainstorming other locations, but it’s possible the group could decide to stay put in Lee Park.

Norris said a few occupiers had suggested McIntire Park as a possibility, but it became clear that not everyone supported the idea of moving there when he met with the group Sunday.

According to minutes of the group’s Sunday meeting posted online, occupiers voiced concerns that McIntire would be less accessible to those without cars, place them further away from homeless shelters and soup kitchens and not offer the same access to wireless internet that’s available downtown.

“The issue is not whether or not we can occupy parks. That has been agreed on at City Council,” reads one bullet point that came up during the group discussion. “The issue is which park. Lee Park is the best and that’s why we chose it. Let’s dig in our heels here!”

At a Nov. 19 meeting, a majority of city councilors expressed a desire to see an end to the camp in Lee Park, but they also showed willingness to work with the activists to find a better location. Councilor Kristin Szakos emerged as the most vocal defender the group’s right to continue the occupation in the name of free speech, and she reiterated that stance Monday.

“To me, I really feel that the occupation part of it is part of the speech,” Szakos said. “I do believe that in my heart, the speech would not have been the same if it would have been done in a rally and people would’ve gone home. The core of what they’re saying is said by the occupation. To me, the right to have that free speech is guaranteed by the Constitution whether I’m comfortable with it or not.”

If the situation does result in police moving in to clear the park, Szakos said it will be done peacefully.

“I am confident that our police are not going to behave in a violent or aggressive manner and I really hope it doesn’t come to that,” Szakos said.

Norris has highlighted the possibility of a solution coming from the Rutherford Institute, a civil liberties group based in Albemarle County and headed by constitutional lawyer John W. Whitehead. But Norris said Monday that while Whitehead’s proposed “free speech forum” is an idea worth exploring, it’s not an immediate solution to the situation surrounding Occupy Charlottesville.

On Monday, Whitehead sent a memo to Norris outlining the details of his proposal, suggesting the Downtown Mall and a potential “cyber free speech forum” that would take place via TV and internet as possible venues.

The memo makes no mention of the occupiers’ preferred tactic of camping out overnight, but adds that McIntire Park would be an ineffective site due to uncertainties about visibility for the protesters.

“To place such a forum away from the seat of government would effectively nullify the space’s purpose,” Whitehead wrote. “To this end, we have concerns about McIntire Park as a proposed venue.”

Norris said the minority of activists who would “go down fighting” to stay in Lee Park are not necessarily representative of what the national occupy movement represents, and in some ways take away from the broader issue of economic inequality.

“When you’ve got a community like Charlottesville that is willing to work with a group of our citizens to allow them to exercise their rights, there’s no need to make the city, the neighborhood, the community the enemy,” Norris said.

Even though the occupy group has been good stewards of the park and many neighbors support the movement’s goals, Norris said, it’s time to find another venue.

“I don’t think Charlottesville is the kind of town where you’re going to see people clamoring for the police to come in with riot gear at two in the morning and crack down on a peaceable assembly, but we’re in the business of balancing public interests,” Norris said. “And for almost two months now we’ve allowed the interests of this small group of protesters to trump all other uses and interests regarding Lee Park.”