An Occupy protester sits at the McPherson Square Occupy encampment in Washington, DC, on January 30, 2012.

Occupy protesters chanting "let us sleep so we can dream" set up a large, blue tarp with the words "tent of dreams" in the nation's capital as a noon deadline to end camping at some of the movement's last remaining large encampments passed.

The National Park Service said in a flier released Friday that it would begin enforcing regulations prohibiting camping and the use of temporary structures for camping at McPherson Square and Freedom Plaza. Individual violators may be subject to arrest and their property subject to seizure as evidence, the flier said.

Washington Post live-blogs Occupy D.C.

Justin Jacoby Smith, a 25-year-old activist with OccupyKSt and member of their media team, said the protesters at McPherson Square had plans for the deadline but noted: “We’re still sorting of keeping the specifics under wraps … we like to have surprises when we can.”

Still, by noon the blue tarp, also decorated with the words "dream together" and yellow stars and a moon, could be seen in the square via a video livestream. "This is what democracy looks like," protesters chanted.

“Today what we’re trying to do is make sure that everyone knows that when you enforce a regulation against sleeping then you can’t dream of a better world, either … when you can’t sleep, you can’t dream," he said. "We’re going to make sure that we still have the opportunity to dream and that the people in this demonstration that have no place else to go are kept safe from the criminalization of homelessness that this order effectively creates.”

Officers would be on site to monitor the situation and try to get protesters to comply, Carol Johnson, a Park Service spokeswoman, told msnbc.com on Friday. Compliance entails removing all camping materials and leaving one side of all temporary structures open.

“People can be there 24 hours a day, but they can’t live there, they can’t sleep there,” she said.

“We still do back the First Amendment, and it is their right. It is not their right to camp. And ... we would, you know, support them if they came into compliance and they had a vigil and they had tents that were there for logistical or symbolic purposes,” she added. "They can occupy as a vigil but not camping."

More than 80 arrests have occurred at the two sites, including for public urination, drunkenness, assault and drug use, she noted.

On Sunday, a protester at one of the camps -- in McPherson Square -- was Tasered and arrested following a confrontation with law enforcement, according to NBCWashington.com. A video of the incident, posted on YouTube, shows the man yelling at officers, "We all know you're coming tomorrow."

Many of the Occupy camps were closed across the country last fall and early winter, and the sites in the nation's capital were two of the bigger outfits remaining.

The Park Service noted that two "compliant" 24-hour First Amendment vigils have been running in Lafayette Park and near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial since the early 1980s. Johnson said they were "very small" vigils and also noted that they were not evicting the Occupy protesters.

But the McPherson Square camp said it was a de facto eviction: "Rather than own up to the fact that they're evicting us, the 'camping ban' allows NPS to pick us off one by one. Death by attrition," read a tweet from the OccupyKSt twitter account.

The action by the Park Service also comes after the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and Subcommittee held a hearing last week about the McPherson Square encampment.

"Late is better than never," Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., chairman of the subcommittee on the District of Columbia, said in a statement after learning of park authorities' notice. "I continue to wonder whether others who are 'camping' in national parks would have been afforded a 100-day grace period before the law was enforced."

Occupy groups across the country continue to assemble and organize protests, with about 400 demonstrators in Oakland arrested late Saturday after authorities thwarted their attempt to take over a vacant convention center for a new camp site. Some protesters broke into City Hall and smashed glass display cases and burned the U.S. and California flags, while others ran into a YMCA to evade police.

At least three officers and one protester were injured. Mayor Jean Quan said the cost to the city related to the Occupy Oakland protests is about $5 million.

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Preston Rescigno / Getty Images

Occupy Wall Street activists scale a wall to get into Duarte Square after police removed the protesters early in the morning from Zuccotti Park on November 15, 2011, in New York City.

NEW YORK, NY - Occupy Wall Street’s next big direct action will strike at home – literally, a potential new camp for the flagship of the grassroots movement.

Protesters plan to try and occupy a nearly half-acre plot about one mile northwest of their former camp at Zuccotti Park on Saturday, the three month-anniversary of the movement. The land is owned by Trinity Church, whose operations include an Episcopal parish, a commercial realty business and a grant-making organization.

“We’re calling it Occupation 2.0,” said Mark Bray, of the OWS public relations working group. “It’s been a vacant lot for years and will continue to be a vacant lot for years. There is no indication yet as to how they’ll respond when the time comes, so we’ll see.”

But even though the church has assisted Occupy Wall Street by providing them meeting rooms and use of their neighborhood center, it is opposed to having them stay at the Duarte Square lot. An attempt to move in there on Nov. 15 -- the day protesters were evicted from Zuccotti Park – was rejected by the church.

“We disagree with those who argue that Trinity should -- indeed, must as a matter of conscience -- allow Occupy Wall Street to liberate its Duarte Square lot … for an open encampment and large scale assemblies. In all good conscience and faith, we strongly believe to do so would be wrong, unsafe, unhealthy and potentially injurious,” its rector, The Rev. Dr. James H. Cooper, said in a statement dated Dec. 9 and posted to the church website. “The health, safety and security problems posed by an encampment here, compounded by winter weather, would dwarf those experienced at Zuccotti Park. Calling this an issue of ‘political sanctuary’ is manipulative and blind to reality.”

Linda Hanick, a spokeswoman for the church, said Tuesday that their position would not change.

The Occupy Wall Street plan comes as authorities have shuttered many 'Occupy' camps across the country.

"Occupations create space for community, values, ideas and a level of meaningful dialogue absent in the present system," Occupy Wall Street said in a statement for the Dec. 17 action. They have allowed us to realize that we cannot fix our crises isolated from one another.  We need collective action, and we need civic space. We are creating that civic space."

Protesters will bring musicians and others with them in their bid to pressure the church to let them take the space. They say they’ll do things differently this time to prevent problems -- such as a few assaults -- that tainted their efforts at Zuccotti Park. There won’t be personal tents, for example, only large ones for group meetings, said Brendan Burke, 41, of Brooklyn, who helped start the Occupy Wall Street security team.

“You’re coming here to build a community,” he said. “It’s all about a different vibe. It’s not just, ‘come here and crash.’ It’s, ‘come here and work.’”

A television show that had re-created the Occupy Wall Street camp in New York apparently to film an episode did not have a required permit to set up before shooting began Friday morning and was asked to stop the crew's preparations for safety reasons, the mayor's office said.

Dozens of Occupy protesters converged overnight Thursday on Foley Square -- not far from their original camp, Zuccotti Park -- to check out the reproduction of their camp -- which they dubbed "Mockupy" or "Fauxcotti" -- made for a “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” episode.

“Overnight a crowd gathered at Foley Square, where ‘Law & Order: Special Victims Unit’ was scheduled to begin filming this morning. The production did not have the required rigging permit to begin set up prior to its filming this morning at 8am. For safety reasons, the production was asked to stop their preparations last night while the crowd dispersed. The Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment is working with the production as they film today," the office said in a statement.

The long-running crime series often films in New York and touts its episodes as ripped from the headlines. Sharon Pannozzo, publicity director of East Coast Entertainment for NBC, said the company would not comment at this time on the incident. (The television show airs on NBC. Msnbc.com is a joint venture of NBC Universal and Microsoft).

Protesters had gathered at Foley Square close to midnight and appeared to disperse a few hours later when it appeared that a production crew was breaking down the set and protesters said they were told by police they had to leave or face possible arrest.

A police spokesman said there were no arrests or incidents at Foley Square.

For more on the protesters venture onto the set, check out our earlier story

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