“Occupy” Comes to an End in BTV
Over the past few weeks, protesters have been camped out in City Hall Park in solidarity with the “Occupy” movements taking place in many cities and modeled after the New York City Occupy Wall Street protest. Tent numbers grew from few to more than a dozen since the occupation of the park began on Oct. 28th. At that time, the city announced that it would take a wait and see approach to enforcing the a law on the books that prohibits being in the park after midnight and camping in the park.
It seems as if the city has seen enough. Following what authorities suspect was a suicide, and a heated exchange between protestors and law enforcement on Nov. 10, City Hall requested yesterday, Nov. 14, that protestors take down their tents and vacate the occupation. City officials have cited, in addition to the shooting, the fact that there have been repeated drug and alcohol violations and noted their increasing effort to keep the protest safe for everyone.
The occupation of City Hall Park lasted 18 days. During the protest, Mayor Kiss sent a letter to occupiers requesting that they follow basic laws that were being broken and Seven Days reported that upwards of half of the protesters at any given time may have actually been homeless.
