PORTLAND, Maine —With the passing of a second deadline to decamp, city workers moved into Lincoln Park on Friday to remove the remnants of OccupyMaine, bringing the four-month-old encampment to an end.
Demonstrators vowed to continue to call attention to corporate greed and economic inequality.
Six tents remained in place as Friday’s 8 a.m. deadline came and went, but only two tents were still up by the time city workers arrived at 1 p.m. with a front-end loader to remove debris and belongings that were left behind. Four police officers were on hand, but there were no arrests.
“We’re pleased that there was a voluntary end to the encampment and that it resolved itself peacefully,” city spokeswoman Nicole Clegg said.
OccupyMaine has touted itself as the nation’s longest-running Occupy encampment, starting two weeks after the Occupy Wall Street movement began in New York.
Last week, a judge denied an injunction that would’ve allowed the demonstrators to stay. They were supposed to leave Monday but received a four-day extension from the city.
Other Occupy-inspired encampments already have dissolved. A group camped out at Augusta’s Capitol Park lost a fight in federal court, and a group at Bangor Public Library and Peirce Park voluntarily left the grounds.
In Portland, the campers have been in Lincoln Park since Oct. 3, with as many as 70 tents at one point. On Friday, six tents, a plastic table, several signs and a snowman were all that remained as day broke.
At one point, a man shouted at the demonstrators and criticized an activist for burning a U.S. flag in the park on Monday. Some passing vehicles shouted at the demonstrators, with one motorist exclaiming “Move it out!” and “Adios!”
The two tents that remained in place when eight city workers arrived Friday afternoon were being used by homeless people who scrambled to remove their belongings.
OccupyMaine, which has a website, weekly television show and office space in Portland, plans to continue getting its message out through other means.
“This ain’t stopping us,” said Deese Hamilton, who watched Friday along with a half-dozen other demonstrators as the encampment was dismantled.
In ordering the demonstrators out of the park on Dec. 15, Portland officials cited concerns about disturbances, public safety and sanitation. OccupyMaine insisted that the demonstration was constitutionally protected free speech but failed to convince a judge to let them stay while a lawsuit plays out.
At least one of the demonstrators, Jen Rose, planned to skirt the city’s order to vacate the park, which is supposed to be closed between 10 p.m. and 6:30 a.m.
Since it’s legal to pass through the park, she created a mobile tent consisting of a dolly with a plastic box and a wooden frame topped by a tent. Rose said she would roll it through the park, but she wouldn’t characterize it as civil disobedience.
“Technically, it’s more like civil annoyance,” said Evan McVeigh, another of the demonstrators.
McVeigh acknowledged that the park was in rough shape after months of camping and said the group has plans to plant grass and to plant flowers. Clegg said the city delayed replanting the park last fall and welcomes the group’s help in the spring.
I wonder if tent and tarp manufacturers are within that greedy 1%?
I’ll prove there is economic disparity and corporate greed in America by becoming an urban camper! Hello, hello anyone out there? Anyone listening? Well, I guess I should have done something relevant to the message instead of a juvenile stunt that irritated everyone! Sometimes even the best intended messages are lost in the presentation, but smart people fix the problem rather than continuing to do the same thing over and over expecting different results! At least you died a quick death OccupyMaine!
You know it’s over when there are 3 comments all morning. I checked in on Occupy for the first time in a month to see if my suspicions were correct. Yup. Time for Taps…
time to send them on their way you have the courts approval just do it and be done.
Stand your ground, 99%! No court can shut down the truth nor silence our cause!
Don’t need them to silence your cause. We just want them to evict your cause.
Buh Bye
Portland Police, Grow Some and arrest them.
You know if I ever get caught speeding or something, I will say that it is part of an ocCUpy protest and that they cannot give me a ticket.
A temper tantrum for the record books.. It’s the new way: Don’t upset the upset because you’ll cause an upset.
And since they compare themselves to those simple farmers and tradesmen who stood on Lexington Green in the face of what was the most powerful army on the face of the earth, I mean, what can you do? There’s no reasoning with the righteous..
Maybe time for a portable jail cell festooned to a pallet with wheels.
When the spring comes make it about the message, not where you sleep at night. You might get some support, not mine, but perhaps more than right now. I respect your right to gather-breaking the law kills the message for much of the middle class you say that you want to help.
Occuwho?
“OccupyMaine has touted itself as the nation’s longest-running Occupy encampment, starting two weeks after the Occupy Wall Street movement began in New York.”
This something to brag about? It seems everything arrives in Maine a long time after the rest of the country. I hope the Democrats can fire this group up again before the Fall elections. The Republicans can always use the help.