Officials hear 'death knell' of Occupy Charlottesville

Charlottesville officials said Thursday that there will be no more camping for Occupy Charlottesville after 18 protesters were arrested late Wednesday night for refusing to leave Lee Park when police moved in to resume enforcement of the 11 p.m. park curfew.

“What you saw last night essentially was the death knell for occupation in Charlottesville,” Mayor Dave Norris said in a Thursday interview. “Because I can’t imagine that the city, the university or the county or any private property owner are going to give this group permission to start an encampment somewhere else in the area knowing that they’re not going to leave peacefully, knowing that you’re going to have to drag them out.”

The occupy group reconvened Thursday night for a meeting at the First Amendment monument on the Downtown Mall, where the city had posted notices that camping was not allowed. No tents were pitched, and the group spent much of the meeting swapping stories and experiences from the previous night.

Many in the group were still angry about what they perceived as unexpectedly harsh treatment from the city, but some said they were upset that a few in the group had yelled and cursed at police while the arrests were taking place.

Norris said the city had done plenty to accommodate the occupy group, including extending their permit a week beyond a previously decided Thanksgiving deadline in order to work with the activists to find a more suitable location.

“The city of Charlottesville bent over backwards over the last couple of months in supporting the Occupy Charlottesville effort and took a whole lot of heat for it,” Norris said. “…The decision they made on Tuesday night... a majority of them agreed to work with the city on finding another venue, but obviously a significant number decided to poke the city in the eye on the way out of Lee Park and provoke a confrontation with the city.”

Norris also criticized some in the occupy group for “haranguing police with all kinds of nasty invectives” on Wednesday night.

“To have treated those officers in that manner was really despicable,” Norris said. “I don’t mind if you want to call me a Nazi or a fascist or whatever for insisting that the city’s laws be upheld, but you don’t take that out on the police who are just doing their jobs.”

Despite the confrontation in Lee Park, Norris said he does see a future for Occupy Charlottesville, but he hopes the activists will channel their energy toward addressing local issues related to economic inequality rather than camping.

City police Lt. Ronnie Roberts said early Thursday morning that 16 protesters were taken to the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail on trespassing charges while two were issued summonses and released.

After giving the occupiers multiple warnings to vacate the park, more than 20 police personnel moved slowly and methodically to remove the remaining protesters one-by-one. Some walked out in handcuffs while others were carried, but the park was completely cleared of occupiers by approximately 1 a.m. Thursday.

The occupiers chose to make their stand around a campfire just off of Market Street, with the largest group of arrestees sitting and locking arms in a circle before police pulled each protester out individually.

City police released the names of the arrested protesters on Thursday, most of whom had Charlottesville addresses. All 18 were charged with trespassing for violating the city ordinance establishing the curfew in Lee Park.

Occupy activist Veronica H. Fitzhugh, 32, earned an additional charge for indecent exposure after she stripped naked on Market Street shortly after 11 p.m. then crossed the street to sit among the protesters remaining in the park. Officers covered Fitzhugh with a blanket, and she was the first to be led away in handcuffs.

Police identified Fitzhugh, Kali A. Cichon, 25; Ryan L. Whitcomb, 22; Derrick Shanks, 23; Jon Grainger, 57; Frank Richards, 56; Earl Flansburg, 54; Chelsey R. Weber, 23; Bailee E. Hampton, 31; John H. Haines, 20; Bruce C. Hlavin, 51; Shelly S. Stern, 56; Lee A. Kinkade, 38; Megan M. Renfro, 23; Kaitlin A. Johnson, 21; and Sara M. Tansey, 23 as the 16 protesters taken into custody.

Mario G. Brown, 23, and Donna J. Carty, 60, were the two protestors who were issued summonses and released, police said.

A large crowd gathered on Market Street to watch the proceedings, with some occupy activists and supporters loudly criticizing police for what they perceived as a violation of free-speech rights while spectators heckled the occupiers from across the street.

The occupy group chanted “This is what a police state looks like” as officers stood in a line between the Market Street sidewalk and the spot where the arrests were taking place.

Some spectators cheered the arrests, with one man shouting across the street: “Go home you brats!”

After police finished making the arrests, Jeff Fogel, an attorney who served as a legal advisor to the occupy group, criticized the Charlottesville City Council for hypocrisy for its treatment of the protesters.

“My impression was, they were patting people on the head and stabbing them in the back,” Fogel said.

Councilor Kristin Szakos, who was perhaps the occupiers’ most vocal defender on the council, came down to witness the events Wednesday night.

“I personally, as a councilor, feel very strongly that this is part of the speech that should be protected by the Constitution,” Szakos said. “And I personally disagree with us ordering them out.”

Tom McCrystal, a Charlottesville resident and former Republican candidate for the House of Delegates, was among the spectators who were glad to see Lee Park returned to its former state.

McCrystal commended the police for their self-control despite what he saw as “provocation” from the occupiers, and criticized the occupation as a “silly, self-indulgent, non-protest.”

“It’s not bravery when there’s no cost. They’re making essentially an empty statement,” McCrystal said. “There are other parts of the world where getting arrested is a dangerous thing.”

At the occupy meeting Thursday night, the group discussed plans for making another appearance before the City Council at the Dec. 5 meeting.

The group had not made a decision by press time about where to occupy next, and there seemed to be some disagreement about whether or not there should even be another encampment.

Hampton said she had burned out on the camping strategy, and that the focus on physically occupying space pulls away the group’s energy from “doing political good.”

“There’s nowhere we can go without a risk of getting arrested at this moment. Period,” Hampton said. “…It’s a joke for us to call ourselves Occupy Charlottesville at this point. Because we’re not occupying [expletive].”

Tansey disagreed, saying she felt the physical space was important because it created an alternative to a world that doesn’t work.

“I think there’s something to the community that we’re creating. To the way we’re taking care of each other. To the power that we lose without the physical space,” Tansey said. “I’m not going to be very excited about just doing a bunch of political actions. I don’t think we’re going to win that way.”

The 18 arrested occupiers are due in Charlottesville General District Court on Dec. 16, police said.