When I first arrived, there were about 300 people, in a large crowd, at the front of the Plaza. There were more police than usual-- plain-clothes and uniformed. There were also a slew of local news vans, the ones with the big antennas on the top.
I'd headed down to Occupy Philly with the intention to cover what was happening as a journalist, but knowing that across the US, journalists have been arrested along with the protesters and occupiers they were covering. So I stopped on the way at an automatic teller machine and withdrew $200, in case I needed bail. You never know.
Once I arrived and started finding and talking with the people I'd met, interviewed on my radio station and hung with, it seemed pretty clear that the police were expected to wait out the occupiers and wait for attrition to wear them down. It was working. Already, many of the homeless occupiers had moved to Port Richmond. The number of tents on the plaza was already way down. By midnight, there were about 100 people grouped together on the steps where those who were going to resist eviction had resolved to stay. The food working group was handing out all kinds of food and beverages. The safety and medic working groups were there in strong numbers. People were singing, playing drums, literally celebrating.
Food working group sends food to a newly developing encampment for the homeless. photo by rob kall
A contingent of supporting occupiers from Occupy Wall Street, Zucotti Park New York joined the crowd and started dancing, playing drums and singing, really raising the energy of the group. They exultantly spoke of how beautiful it was, that Occupy Philly could go out celebrating, dancing and that they hadn't had a chance to do that at Zuccotti Park.
Occupy Philly people raised questions. Should they be putting themselves at risk for noise violations? The crowd voted to keep it going. They were going to be arrested anyway. Cheryl speculated observed that it would be ironic if, after all the time the occupiers had spent sleeping in tents, occupying the site, they were arrested for making noise, instead of engaging in the civil resistance of holding their ground.
One plainclothes cop was clearly heard saying he wanted to "arrest the bastards now." But another officer had told me it wasn't happening tonight. I've had enough experience with these police misleading activists so I didn't buy it. It seemed that, if the police were going to do arrests at Occupy Philly, it would be in the wee hours of the morning, enough before dawn so arrests and cleanup would not affect business traffic in the nearby vicinity. So we resolved to stay until 5:00 AM, since any later, it would affect morning traffic.
OEN former managing editor Cheryl Biren and I talking with Lt. O'Brien. We asked what he thought of the UC Davis use of Pepper spray. His response-- a mistake. Image a screen grab from live feed.
The police shift change was coming at 3:00 AM. We speculated that then, with double the number of police present, that might be when the eviction might be initiated. The time came and went quietly.
By 4:00 AM, there were under 50 occupiers visible at the Plaza. Some had gone off into nearby tents. Some were sleeping out on or in front of the steps. It seemed that this time might be when the police would come, but no. Things were very quiet. We had reports from LA from our correspondent, Linda Milazzo, that there were thousands of people supporting the Occupy LA encampment.
Occupy Wall Street allies from NYC Zuccotti Park train Occupy Philly people in peaceful, non-violent civil disobedience-- at about 4:00 AM. photo by rob kall
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