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Gerald Herbert / AP
An Occupy New Orleans demonstrator gathers his possessions as New Orleans police clear out the encampment in Duncan Plaza across from City Hall in New Orleans, on Tuesday.
Scores of police officers marched into an encampment of protesters and homeless people across from City Hall in New Orleans before dawn Tuesday, forcing the dozens of occupants out and removing tents in a peaceful eviction that drew loud, sometimes raucous complaints but did not result in violence.
"You people are treasonous!" one protester shouted as more than 100 uniformed officers moved through the makeshift camp grounds at Duncan Plaza, a city block of green space that has been home to the loosely knit Occupy New Orleans movement since Oct. 6.
City officials had accommodated the protesters for weeks, allowing the tents — some nothing more than tarps or sheets of plastic thrown over ropes strung between trees — to stand unmolested and even providing portable toilets. But New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu had warned Friday that it was time for the around-the-clock encampment to end. Police had been distributing flyers warning that the park could no longer be used as a camp ground and, on Tuesday around 4 a.m., began ringing the park with barricades in preparation for the eviction.
"This was a display of a very well organized, well thought out, and now well executed effort," Landrieu said at a Tuesday morning news conference.
Landrieu said police and representatives of the city had gone through the camp several times a day since Friday telling people they must leave and handing out flyers telling them to leave.
He thanked the police and the protesters for the peaceful resolution.
"You can see from the way this was conducted it was very different from what happened around the country," Landrieu said, referring to recent violent clashes between police and protesters in other cities.
The move by police came ahead of a hearing later Tuesday during which a federal judge was to consider a request by protesters to issue a temporary restraining order blocking the city from evicting them and an injunction that would allow them to continue their around-the-clock occupation.
Elsewhere around the country, housing activists and "Occupy"protesters were gearing up to take over foreclosed homes and empty lots and help defend families facing eviction in at least 25 cities as part of a bid to re-energize the grassroots movement and put the spotlight on the ongoing housing crisis.
From towns such as Southgate, Mich. and Lake Worth, Fla., to cities like Portland, Ore., and Chicago, activists were planning to disrupt auctions on foreclosed homes, hold candlelight vigils and join families battling eviction in their residences.
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The police had to clear them out, the homeless people were complaining about the hippies stinking up the place.
More compassion and understanding from the left led municipalities....Perhaps if the protesters would promise to donate generously to the next Landrieu family election fund they would get to stay.
They are harmless. Blows my mind that we live in a supposed "free" country and yet we are unable to protest. Almost like watching the news in Egypt.
They weren't kicked out for protesting. They were told they couldn't camp in the park anymore. Protesting and camping...two different things.
Sparky, if this is supposed to be 'ironic', it doesn't quite cross the line into irony. If you are serious, what part of 24/7 "protesting" is difficult for you to understand? And if there are people there who have been displaced from any kind of shelter by the very reason for the protest, what better use of a park since clearly the locals are not providing any support to such unfortunate folks? And, yes, Diverdown1, it is like watching the news from Egypt and will be even more so if We, the American People, finally get off our fat duffs to take back our Democracy. The police will eventually shoot to kill. We are not immune from either our delusional "Human" history, or, the constant repetition of the same behavior we see in our species, the humanzee, over and over again across the 250 or so generations of accreted recorded events and, almost certainly, thousands of generations before that. Our murderous elite has become deranged and we either erase them or suffer their rapaciousness and enslavement. All that OWS is teaching us is that Gandhi requires a sentient population. It will never work here.
I'm surprised the NOLA cops didn't just shoot them all.
Toasty: sure, tell them how much you love that sickening display of Santa's bones on a cross. Then, never, never expect them to love you ever again, no more love of parents, no more love of Jesus until they find it on their own, and they will raise their own kids to believe in Santa, don't kid yourself. Just don't expect your own kids, or younger sisters and brothers, whatever, to see you in the same light as before you championed the vile scene. They will still decide, on their own, to go to church some day, and you won't ever even be on their minds again. Ever.
Isn't this time of the year really about children and their right to believe in miracles? Aren't they more important than a so-called adult opinion which would rob them of this at this time of the year? Shameful and childish!
The very best thing about Santa is that it teaches children at a very early age that sincere belief in 'beings' with supernatural powers (knows all, sees all, has the power to punish or reward behaviors) will make one the object of ridicule or, at the least, must be accepted with reservations. It also weakens respect for Authority because Authority first insists that this (apparent) god is real and then not long after (and with much personal investment by the child) insists that it was all a lie... I love Santa. The sceptical child is a boon to us all.
But, I was in Costco the other day and they were offering a full, lifesize, Soldier of the Nutcracker pedigree. I know the story. The story doesn't matter. Since then, I have had the impression that I am seeing less of the jolly conditional gift-giving symbol of greed, Santa, and a lot more of the militaristic symbol displayed in the various such milieus. I have mentioned this elsewhere. Symbols are important to all peoples. In America, for many people the 'flag' is more important than the People themselves who actually constitute our country. When a symbol shift occurs in a people, either it is driven from an external source (e.g. propaganda), or there is a change in the internal value set driven spontaneously by various possible forces. If, indeed, I AM seeing a displacement of a symbol of greed for a symbol of militarism, might I not expect to see also, for instance, a change from the Stars and Stripes to the Jolly Roger? Or, savings accounts into debt accounts? Oops. Well, maybe Santa is safe for now and we can maintain the usual war of the elite upon just us without involving too many other innocent societies. But, the Soldier is the Santa Claus of the elite, and if it becomes our Santa too, maybe just "Time to Die" cuz living as an American would become too evil...