SFPD Prevents Occupiers From Rebuilding Camp
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) - Occupy San Francisco protesters spent the night unsuccessfully trying to set up tents at the site of their former encampment in Justin Herman Plaza.
About 3 dozen campers huddled in sleeping bags early Thursday a block away in front of the Federal Reserve at the foot of Market Street. Tents were conspicuously absent from their makeshift encampment of pallets and cardboard.
KCBS' Holly Quan Reports:
Police would not allow the Occupy encampment that had been completely dismantled the day before to be re-established. At least 85 were arrested in the raid on Wednesday in which police took down all the tents.
Protesters who returned to the site later that evening clashed with police again, leading to 6 more arrests. Police eventually pulled back after demonstrators would not leave the plaza.
So officers spent that night chasing away campers who tried to pitch tents into the early morning.
Protesters set up four tents only to take them down themselves under police pressure. Another tent that went up around 2 a.m. was confiscated by police.
A police lieutenant said the small contingent of officers monitoring the plaza would not try to remove the group in front of the Federal Reserve, but stressed that no tents would be allowed anywhere in the area.
The police action was paired with an extensive outreach to the homeless people who had come to dominate the Occupy encampment.
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