CMPD Ready To Assist Occupiers
The clock for the Occupy movement to decamp its entrenched hovels on the lawn in front of old City Hall began ticking Monday night, when the Charlotte City Council approved new ordinances that prohibit camping on city property and give police more clout to stop and search people during the Democrat National Convention or any other so-called extraordinary event that could similarly besiege the Queen City.
The occupiers have until Jan. 30 to remove their tents and, judging from their reaction to council’s vote, it’s uncertain if they’ll go quietly. The crowd that cramped council chambers Monday night jeered the vote with boisterous shouts of “Shame” and chants of “Evict us, we multiply – Occupy will never die.”
Across the country efforts to remove Occupy campers have been accompanied by multiple arrests and, often times, marked by violent confrontations with police. While tensions ran high at Monday night’s council meeting, there were no arrests.
Councilmember Andy Dulin, a Republican, credited protestors with keeping the Occupy movement peaceful during its months-long encampment in Charlotte and said he hoped that any response to the new ordinances would allow for “a withdrawl of camp in a peaceable manner.”
Police Chief Rodney Monroe said his officers were ready to help, promising “additional conversations” with the occupiers to “ensure that everyone fully understands what the law actually means and what the requirements of individuals that would be deemed now to be in violation of that law.”
Monroe, in fact, promised plenty of assistance in that vein.
“We then expect to again make sure that no one would be unduly inconvenienced because of the fact that this new law was established and if there is some additional assistance that may be needed with individuals that we would look to support them in that particular area,” Monroe told councilmembers. “And then we would look to set a date beyond that Jan. 30 date where we would look to assist anyone that may need our assistance.
“Our hope would be that we would be met with a voluntary compliance with that new ordinance,” the police chief said. “However, should the need be, or should somebody continue to be in violation, then quite naturally they would be arrested for that violation.”
Council approved the new ordinances by a 10-1 vote, with Democrat John Autry in dissent. And even some councilmembers who voted to support the new rules did so, they said, with qualms.
“If I had my druthers I’d allow the [Occupy] folks to stay until the DNC and then be moved to wherever Secret Service determined that the protest area should be,” said Democrat Beth Pickering. “Beyond that I would like to see a permanent protest, free speech area designated for the city of Charlotte.”
“I wanted to get that idea out there,” she said, “of being a leader in embracing political protest as an identity for Charlotte.”
Autry balked at giving the city manager sole discretion to determine what would be considered an “extraordinary event” – which moving forward will likely include large-scale gatherings like Speed Street, July Fourth, and New Year’s Eve – and expressed concern over how police would establish intent under the new rules that give law enforcement expanded search-and-seizure powers. The ordinances, for example, give police authority to arrest people toting backpacks, duffle bags or coolers during an “extraordinary event” if law enforcement suspects they’re being used to conceal and transport weapons or dangerous substances.
Not to worry, said Deputy Police Chief Harold Medlock, who assured that all law enforcement working the DNC “will do significant training on the new ordinances.”
Medlock defended the parameters of the new rules, including the list of items that people will be prohibited from having at the DNC, everything from helmets, body armor and pepper spray to crowbars, hammers, locks and pipes, as well as aerosol containers, spray guns and soaker devices that Medlock said protestors have in the past “used to house urine and other noxious substances to spray folks that are in the crowd or to spray police officers.”
Coolers and backpacks posed a similar threat, Medlock said, noting that during the 2008 DNC protestors filled plastic bags with feces, rocks and bricks, hid them in backpacks and threw them at police.
“In and of themselves, and by themselves and by an individual carrying any one of these things any one day of the year, does not cause concern,” Medlock said of the list of prohibited items. “When you bring hundreds, perhaps thousands of demonstrators that may be caught up with folks who want to conduct criminal activity, these items begin to cause us great concern for the safety of those folks who are peacefully demonstrating.”
Indeed, most councilmembers emphasized that the new rules were intended for the horde of unruly protestors expected to descend on Charlotte during the DNC, and not for the good and righteous folk of the Queen City.
“When people come here for no other reason other than to be disruptive, when they chain themselves together just to stop traffic, what else can you do as leaders,” Councilmember David Howard, a Democrat, asked rhetorically. “You have to take those types of threats seriously. Safety has to come first as far as I’m concerned.”
City Attorney Bob Hageman said the goals of the new ordinances were two-fold: to provide law enforcement the “tools it needs to protect the public safety and to respect and protect the First Amendment rights of our citizens and our visitors.” Those goals, he said, were “not mutually exclusive.”
Under the previous ordinance, Hageman said, any citizen could exercise First Amendment rights on a city-controlled, traditional public forum – sidewalks and a limited number of parks.
“There is nothing about this proposal that changes that,” he said. “There is nothing that will change it during the DNC.”
The notion that the new ordinances would limit people to protesting exclusively inside government-designated parade routes and free speech zones (what the city is calling a “speaker’s platform), Hageman said, was not accurate.
“It’s false that it’s the only place you could exercise your First Amendment rights in the city,” he said. “Just like now, any sidewalk and city-owned property will be available without prior approval.”
Similarly, a lottery system the city plans to use to assign space and time for demonstrations would apply only for parades and the so-called speaker’s platform. Under the ordinances no public assembly or parade is allowed unless a permit is obtained, and the applicant is responsible for hiring and paying off-duty law enforcement officers, or reimbursing the city for the costs of providing the same, to police street closures. A city permitting official, consulting with fire and police officials, would determine how many officers are needed.
“We’ve been trying to be responsive as possible to some of your concerns and I think you see that in some of the adjustments we’ve made,” Councilmember Michael Barnes, a Democrat, told protestors who crowded the council chamber on Monday night.
Barnes said he was comfortable that the new ordinances struck a reasonable balance of protecting constitutional rights and providing public safety.
“A lot of the people to whom these changes apply aren’t in the room tonight,” he said. “There are people who mean you no good, they mean us no good, and they mean the city no good. They want to disrupt and destroy. The fact of the matter is, it’s our job to do what we can to protect Charlotte and to protect the people of this city.”
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