This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Nov. 13, 2011 - Members of Occupy St. Louis meet in Kiener Plaza shortly before the 3 p.m. deadline when the city said it would begin enforcing laws related to the occupation. Police moved in shortly after midnight, after a judge declined to issue an order blocking such action.
Shortly after midnight Friday, St. Louis police removed the people remaining in the Occupy St. Louis encampment in Kiener Plaza.
Soon after, city parks personnel cleared out the tents and other belongings of the protesters.
Authorities were enforcing the city's ordinances imposing a 10 p.m. curfew on people, and no tents.
An undetermined number were arrested when police moved in shortly after federal Judge Carol Jackson had denied a request for a temporary restraining order.
Eyewitnesses reported about two dozen arrests.
(Click here for a videoof the removals and arrests, put together by Occupy allies. Click herefor Occupy St. Louis' Facebook coverage of the removal. )
A group of lawyers working for free had sought the temporary order, as well as a hearing next week.
Although Friday is a federal holiday, a federal judge is always on call to handle such requests.
UPDATE: A court hearing is set for Tuesday.
One of the lawyers, Maggie Ellinger-Locke, told reporters earlier Friday that she and two other lawyers had signed up 24 plaintiffs late Thursday from among the people camping in Kiener.
(Ellinger-Locke is the daughter of state Rep. Rory Ellinger, D-University City.)
Ellinger-Locke had said the city's efforts to remove them was "chilling their free speech rights."
Jeff Rainford, the mayoral chief of staff, had said earlier in the evening, "We will follow the law."
Sources close to the mayor's office had said city lawyers were confident that the removals were legal, citing previous court cases backing up park curfews.
The city's deadline for protesters to remove their tents voluntarily had expired at 3 p.m. Friday -- 24 hours after the mayor's office had announced the deadline.
By nightfall, though, authorities had yet to show up. And word began to spread among the Occupy camp that police were not going to show up until after the 10 p.m. curfew when people also would be required to be gone.
Under the city parks ordinance, no one is allowed in a city park between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. The city had been making an exception for the Occupy St. Louis encampment for more than a month. But Slay said a week ago that it was time for the campers to fold up their tents.
As an alternative, city officials are working on a proposal to set aside some sort of public space -- but not in Kiener -- for what would be a 24/7 spot for people to speak or protest. The city of London has such a designated space.
Stories, Signs and Souvenirs
As they waited for court action or police earlier Friday, Occupy participants sat in Kiener's amphitheater, biding their time listening to an array of speakers -- some using bullhorns-- who proposed how they should respond when authorities moved in.
One speaker advocated violence, but was shouted down by others who said that the group was committed to nonviolence. A later speaker asserted that any pro-violence talk was coming from tea party activists trying to stir things up.
Several speakers did exhort the participants that if they wanted to preserve their tents they ought to take them down. They had been warned that the authorities would tear them down.
During the late afternoon, some supporters and onlookers showed up with video cameras, joining the TV and radio crews in waiting to see what would transpire. People were picking through a pile of signs from various marches, apparently for souvenirs.
The scene added a poignant note to what had been a high-profile encampment, inspired by New York's Occupy Wall Street, to protest economic inequality and what protesters view as corporate greed and government failures.
J.J. Medina, of St. Louis, said he's been camping out at Kiener Plaza "since Day One." He said it's important to keep the encampment to preserve the symbolic aspects of the movement.
"We are just starting this, we are just recognizing the fact of the power that we have submitted to other people," Medina said. "And we need to get that power back. We have just woken up and opened our eyes.. And now that we are reaching not only across the country, but across the globe, it's time to understand to take that power back."
Medina said Slay is in a difficult situation "trying to do his job to the best of his ability" and "trying to appease two types of people." But he added that the mayor needs to remember that "this is not a kegger."
"This is not some over-thrown barbecue party," Medina said. "This is an exercise of our First Amendment rights. If it were something like a college kegger or a birthday party gone too long, I can understand enforcing those ordinances and asking for those structures to come down. But when it comes to our amendment rights, our amendment rights supersede any law, any ordinance. That is our permit."
In a speech to the protesters, Patti March - a former St. Louis County police officer - said Friday she was prepared to get arrested.
"We're ready to fight aren't we St. Louis? By that, I am not condoning any violence," March said. "I don't want. But I'm just saying if they come and arrest me, then they come and arrest me. But they can do that in violation of my First Amendment rights."
But Andrew Jensen, an unemployed architect who showed up at Kiener Friday for the first time, addressed the crowd to propose that it take down the tents voluntarily. "I'm just proposing that they be a mobile occupation instead of trying to resist being forced by the police to leave,'' he said.
John Burns, a young veteran who served in Afghanistan, has been an Occupy participant "since the third day,'' he said. "Basically, I'd seen it on the news and thought, 'There's a cause I can get behind.' "
Burns is protesting the United States' "occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan," which he contends are illegal. He also is upset with banks, the Federal Reserve and big corporations.
As the sun fell Friday evening, Burns scaled Kiener's stone and steel pavilion to hang a banner from the top that declared, "Dictators (heart) curfews."