Occupy OKC, the local appendage of the global Occupy protest movement, faced a new hurdle as it marked its 50th day in existence on Monday.
Oklahoma City officials said that the small core of protesters that have made Kerr Park in downtown Oklahoma City their home for over a month and a half would no longer be allowed to stay there.
The city denied protesters their permit to protest in Kerr during daylight hours, and said that they would no longer be allowed to stay overnight. According to Outreach moderator Beth Isbell, however, the original permit did not cover park use during closing hours.
On Nov. 19, Oklahoma City Police Captain Pat Byrne visited the Occupy OKC camp during their General Assembly to talk about plans to evict the protesters on Monday.
“There has been a lot of discussion that has gone on between the City of Oklahoma City, the police department and SandRidge Energy,” Byrne said. “SandRidge Energy actually does have the permit to take this park over on the 28th, and they’ve had it for months.”
He said that SandRidge, due to negotiations with the City, was not going to take over the entire park; only a small section on the west side.
“Your little camp in here will not be affected,” he said.
However, that story changed after Thanksgiving weekend, when Assistant City Manager M.T. Berry told the Associated Press that “an ongoing construction project at SandRidge, and an incident between transients staying at the campsite led officials to re-evaluate the agreement.”
Protesters prepared to peacefully defend their occupation on Monday as a rumor that the camp was to be evicted that night spread via word of mouth, Facebook, and Twitter.
Over 100 people gathered to defend the occupation in the face of the rumored police raid and several protesters signed up to get purposely arrested.
“Pretty much, I’m planning on getting arrested, if it resorts to that,” Jayme Johnson, a protester who was originally part of the Oakland occupation, said. “For the simple fact that they said that they weren’t going to make us leave.”
One man, Thomas Frasier, traveled from the occupation in Los Angeles to participate in Occupy OKC.
“I was surprised that Oklahoma City even had an Occupy movement,” he said. “I knew I had to come out when I heard about it.”
Frasier gave protesters advice on how to nonviolently deal with the police.
“We don’t hold hands,” he said. “We wrap our arms around each other. The reason why is if they (the police) want to come through, you gotta let them through.”
Protesters marched around the park in anticipation of the raid, chanting “Whose park? Our park!” and other slogans.
Occupy OKC organizers encouraged media personnel to have press credentials visible in the event that the raid took place, citing several instances of reporters getting arrested in the midst of police actions on other Occupy camps nationwide.
The new date for the eviction has been set for 11 p.m. tonight, when the park enters closing hours.