Mayor's office denies Occupy Atlanta ordered to leave Woodruff Park
By Shelia M. Poole and Brant Sanderlin
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
8:33 p.m. Saturday, October 22, 2011
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reeds office denied an Occupy Atlanta leaders assertion that protesters who have been camped at Woodruff Park had to leave Saturday or face arrest.
There has been no such order, Reed spokeswoman Sonji Dade told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. That is not true.
Occupy Atlanta leader Tim Franzen emerged from a meeting with the mayor several hours earlier Saturday and said a livid Reed had demanded that protesters who have occupied the park for several weeks clear out.
He was very angry, very upset, said Franzen, who added that the mayor began yelling right away after they entered the mobile unit.
Franzen said Occupy Atlanta was given no specific time to clear the park. Hes not being specific. He said the mayor warned that protesters remaining will get their wish to be arrested.
Dade, however, said no deadline was given because none existed, other than a Nov. 7 date included in a recent executive order that allows the group to remain until that time.
Nothing has changed, Dade said Saturday several hours after the meeting between Reed and Franzen.
Dade said the purpose of the meeting with Franzen and promoters of a hip hop concert that was being held in the park was to break up the event because promoters didnt have a city permit.
The mayor's office said promoters failed to pay the $2,500 permit fee for the concert and failed to submit a security plan. It also said a generator, which could pose a fire hazard, was being used in violation of city fire codes.
Seemingly in defiance of the order not to hold the concert, a stage was erected and hip hop artists were performing anyway in front of a crowd of about 150 people. But the music ended shortly after the meeting between the mayor and Occupy Atlanta leader.
Earlier in the week, Reed told Channel 2 Action News the protesters, who have occupied the park since Oct. 7, have cost the city at least $30,000 in police, portable toilet and other expenditures.
Dade insisted the mayors executive order allows the protesters to remain in the park until Nov. 7. The order also suspends a code that would have prevented the group from being in the park between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m.
Dade also said no arrest order was issued for Saturday.
Mayor Reed has not issued any command to arrest the folks in Occupy Atlanta, although he can make that determination at any time, the spokeswoman said.
Occupy Atlanta has joined a national protest against what supporters call corporate greed and a lack of job creation. The group had hoped to expand its support base, starting with the hip hop concert.
We are here until the civic problems that brought us here are changed, Franzen vowed Saturday. I wish he [Reed] would be more angry about the civic reasons why we are here.
Possibly adding to tensions Saturday evening, marchers in the Downtown area protesting against alleged police brutality, made their way toward Woodruff Park and the area near Occupy Atlanta protesters and the police mobile unit near Auburn Avenue and Park Place.
The protesters with the October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation had been in the downtown area nearly all day but had not been connected with the Occupy Atlanta event.
Atlanta police officers and firefighters watched nearby as the 80 to 100 protesters blocked Auburn Avenue, chanting, No Justice! No peace! and Whose park? Our park!
