'Occupy Denver' Protesters Must Vacate For 11 p.m. Curfew
DENVER (CBS4)- Protesters demonstrating near the state Capitol are allowed to congregate during the day, but when 11 p.m. arrives, they need to disperse.
That's the word from Gov. John Hickenlooper. He said camping on state property is illegal.
Although he wants to guarantee First Amendment rights, plans are being made to close the camp for security and sanitary reasons.
"If we had gone there when there was just one tent, I think there were actually two tents that day, it might have turned out differently. I think there's a legitimate argument that maybe we should have acted more radically, or more rapidly. We are where we are," said Hickenlooper.
"Occupy Denver" set up camp last week. The movement started in New York with people protesting Wall Street greed. The crowd has grown considerably since Monday. There are more than 70 tents with dozens of protesters. They are vowing not to leave without a fight.
"They can bring the riot police. We're not leaving this. We're going to feed people. They can drag me out of here," said Occupy Denver organizer Corey Donahue.
"So now we're going to have to put our troopers and some people down there at risk for harm because we had failure of leadership to deal with this problem up front can't continue take pass on hard issues like this governor doing," said Rep. Greg Brophy, R-Wray.
Hickenlooper asked the protesters to disperse today, but they said they aren't going anywhere.
The U.S. Naval Reserve has a permit to conduct an event at Lincoln Park on Saturday.
