The tense standoff between police and Occupy Denver protesters was resolved without serious incident over the weekend, which is a credit to both sides.
When we last weighed in on the topic, protesters had erected dozens of tents in Lincoln Park just west of the state Capitol, in violation of state law prohibiting camping in the area.
A promised, enforcement of the park’s 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew was delivered early Friday with only a handful of arrests and little if any serious damage to property or people.
For that, we credit officials with the Colorado State Patrol and governor’s office, who were regularly communicating with protesters prior to the pending crackdown. Many of the protesters deserve credit as well, as they reportedly scoured their “camp” beforehand, removing rocks, sticks and other items that might have been used to take up arms.
But a bulk of the credit goes to law enforcement and their superiors who, having learned from their experiences during the 2008 Democratic National Convention, responded with appropriate and professional force.
Rather than rounding up campers for the purpose of arrest, for example, the authorities removed them from the camping area and gave them the choice of walking away peacefully.
But as calmly as the Friday morning effort to clear Lincoln Park of tents and protesters went, Saturday proved to be a bit more difficult.
Twenty-six people were arrested when they refused orders to abandon a sit-in on Broadway. As a result, traffic was redirected from a downtown artery for several hours.
Police action to date has resulted in 49 arrests. As of this writing, all but two of the protesters, both of whom had warrants out for their arrests, had been freed on bond.
By Monday, the tents, tarps and teepees that populated the area last week were nowhere to be seen. In their place were a couple of State Patrol cars.
The “occupation” itself had dwindled to a few dozen protesters scattered on the sidewalk across Broadway from Lincoln Park. Several spent the night in sleeping bags atop cardboard on Sunday night, but the scope of the protest had clearly dwindled. Their numbers may continue to dwindle as cool and wet weather descends on Denver.
But more than weather challenges the group in Denver, as well as those with the occupation protests elsewhere, moving forward.
Primarily, it’s coming up with a coherent agenda.
In Denver on Sunday, a “general assembly” of about 40 protesters could not agree whether to refer to their talking points as demands, grievances or an agenda. According to The New York Times, organizers in New York City have struggled with efforts to come up with demands (though a lengthy Declaration of the Occupation of New York City outlines their grievances).
Regardless of the difficulty, focusing on mission and message strikes us as a better effort than pushing for confrontation.
The performance of both authorities and protesters in Denver should serve as a model of how the sides can work, if not together, then with understanding that laws can and will be enforced.
