LITTLE ROCK — To avoid violating city ordinances and antagonizing city authorities, participants in the Occupy Little Rock movement took down their tents early Tuesday afternoon and moved out of Clinton Presidential Park.
The group - whose members are protesting a laundry list of issues, including the disparity of wealth in the U.S. and the impact of money on politics - had been camped at the park since Friday night, but after getting a 24-hour ultimatum from Police Chief Stuart Thomas to move or face citations, it chose to comply and relocate.
Occupy Little Rock activist Thomas Hudson said the group’s general assembly debated until about 11 p.m. Monday the idea of moving to a city-owned lot just east of the post office on East Capitol Avenue.
After a series of motions, amendments and preliminary votes, 92 percent of the roughly 40 participants present voted to relocate, Hudson said.
“Solidarity is important to us. We want everyone to be on board with what we’re doing,” Hudson said. “A lot of the opposition, those who voted to make a stand [and stay in the original location] ... they are committed to staying with the group.”
Occupy Little Rock member Aaron Stewart said that much of the resistance to moving was in response to the Police Department’s ultimatum, but that ultimately, cooler heads prevailed.
“I mean [the police] forced our hand. A lot of people had an initial knee-jerk reaction,” Stewart said. “But everyone spoke ... and everyone listened ... and they spoke on the good of the movement and not their own personal feelings.”
The decision to move, according to participant Nikki Scott, wasn’t an easy one. However, she said, she and her fellow participants want their movement to continue to grow. After only a few weeks it claims several hundred members, though only a few dozen are “occupying” on any given night.
Early Tuesday morning,while Occupy Little Rock members slept outside the Clinton Presidential Center, police in Oakland, Calif., fired beanbag munitions to disperse Occupy Oakland participants during a raid that netted 75 arrests, according to The Associated Press.
Scott said the Little Rock participants “did have the opportunity to be disobedient like that.” She said if the Police Department “had said you have to leave and not given [the group] an opportunity to relocate ... we probably would have been 92 percent for staying.”
Police Department spokesman Lt. Terry Hastings said his agency has tried to maintain a “friendly” relationship with the protesters.
“They’re here, they have a statement to make and part of our job is to protect people’s rights,” Hastings said. “They moved, so everything’s good.”
Police have provided portable toilets and a garbage bin at the new location, meaning that participants don’t have to rely on public restrooms anymore or have to load their garbage into the back of a volunteer’s sport utility vehicle.
Police said they will also be providing round-the-clock security at the new site, although the protesters say they are worried about safety at the new location.
The spot in the Clinton Presidential Park was wide open and had a lot of ambient light, said Stewart, who is the movement’s head of security.
He said the new location is not as well lit and that transients frequent the area, raising concerns for the protesters’ safety.
“We obviously have a lot of transient traffic here, and once it gets dark, obviously we have fewer eyes watching out for one another,” Stewart said. “We have to step up our own security procedures and be in constant interaction with the police.”
By early Tuesday night, the group held its first general assembly at the new location. Stewart said that moving to the new spot allows the group to shift its focus from the contention over its location to increasing its numbers and broadening its community outreach efforts.
“There are more ideas and people out there that we want to bring in and talk to,” Stewart said.
Because of the success of the group’s first march on Oct. 15, Stewart said, another march through Little Rock is planned for Nov. 5.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 10/26/2011