Occupy Atlanta ordered to clear Woodruff Park

10/22/2011 6:52:17 PM

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed on Saturday issued a second ultimatum to Occupy Atlanta protesters who have camped out at a popular Downtown park: Leave or be arrested.

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Around 5 pm., Reed was huddling with aides and Atlanta police inside a mobile communications unit near Woodruff Park, where Occupy Atlanta protesters have camped for several weeks, vowing not to leave the area. He was later seen leaving the mobile unit, but would not comment.
Occupy Atlanta leader Tim Franzen said he and local civil rights leader Joe Beasley met with Reed in the mobile unit around 3:30 p.m. and the mayor, visibly angry, ordered the group to clear the park Saturday or face charges.
Reed had extended an executive order this week, allowing Occupy Atlanta to remain in Woodruff Park until Nov. 7. Franzen said the mayor did not address that extension, nor did he provide a specific time to vacate Saturday.
“We are here until the civic problems that brought us here are changed,” Franzen vowed. “I wish he would be more angry about the civic reasons why we are here.”
Possibly adding to tensions, around 7 p.m., marchers in the Downtown area protesting against alleged police brutality, made their way toward Woodruff Park and the area near Occupy Atlanta protesters and the police mobile unit near Auburn Avenue and Park Place.
The protesters with the “October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation” had been in the downtown area nearly all day but had not been connected with the Occupy Atlanta event.
Atlanta police officers and firefighters watched nearby as the 80 to 100 protesters blocked Auburn Avenue, chanting, “No Justice! No peace!” and “Whose park? Our park!”
Efforts were continuing Saturday to reach the mayor or representatives from his office for comment.
The order to leave Woodruff Park was the second one Occupy Atlanta has faced in recent weeks to leave Woodruff Park. Reed earlier had given the group until this past Monday to clear out but backed down a few days before the deadline. His office at the time said the mayor never intended the first demand to be set in stone.
The latest developments capped a day of brinkmanship between the protesters and mayor’s office, both bent on standing their ground.
For several weeks, Occupy Atlanta has been camped out in the park, joining a national protest against what critics call corporate greed and a lack of job creation.
To generate more local support for its cause, Occupy Atlanta announced it would join with local hip hop artists for the concert in Woodruff Park.
The on-again, off-again concert appeared to be back on Saturday after promoters, who had originally been denied a permit, proceeded with Occupy Atlanta as a sponsor, since it had been allowed to be in the park.
By 3 p.m., artists were performing on a small stage with few police seen in the distance. Police, however, had positioned a mobile communications command center nearby.
Shortly afterward, a police officer with two officials emerged from the mobile unit and approached the stage. As they tried to get on stage, they appeared to be blocked by those already on stage.
The officer and two officials, a man and woman, then circled the stage and returned to the mobile unit. Shortly afterward, Franzen and Beasley, head of the Rainbow Push coalition, could be seen approaching and then entering the mobile unit.
Franzen emerged a half-hour later and told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the mayor was livid and yelled at him and Beasley, demanding that Occupy Atlanta clear the park.
“He was very angry, very upset,” said Franzen, who said the mayor began “yelling right away” after they entered the mobile unit.
Franzen said they were given no specific time to clear the park. “He’s not being specific.” He said the mayor warned that any Occupy Atlanta members remaining will “get their wish” to be arrested.
Earlier in the week, Reed told Channel 2 Action News the protesters have cost the city at least $30,000 in police, portable toilet and other expenditures.
The mayor told Channel 2: "We're really trying to work this out in a nonviolent fashion that really does not bring dishonor to the city, respects civil disobedience. We're spending some money in order to try and bring this to an orderly conclusion."
After his meeting with the mayor on Saturday, Franzen later told the crowd , “We’re in the fight of our lives.”
Isha Adams of Woodstock said it’s a mistake to drive the group from the park and said she would leave but will return Sunday.
“I guess I would ask why he [Reed] would do something like that because it looks pretty peaceful around here,” Adams said.

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Saturday, October 22, 2011