Occupy Bloomington given 24-hour extension to remove belongings

UPDATE: As of noon Friday, a handful of protesters and tents remain in Peoples Park. Two protesters wearing top hats greeted passersby, telling them that no police had stopped by.

Occupy Bloomington protesters received a 24-hour extension until noon Friday to remove their belongings from Peoples Park, said Bloomington Parks and Recreation Department Director Mick Renneisen. The protesters are still not allowed to sleep in the park.

Bloomington Police Department officers pinned eviction notices on poles around the park at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday informing the protesters that their belongings must be gone by noon Thursday. When noon arrived, many of the tents and belongings were long gone, including a 50-foot-long military tent that was raised less than a month earlier, but no police officers were in sight.

“I think our request for them to be out by noon, they made a considerate effort to do that,” Renneisen said. “A few tents were left that maybe people were out of town and not able to move and they needed to make contact with, so we extended the deadline for another 24 hours.”

Only six tents remained standing as protesters awaited their noon deadline, with no one attempting to take them down. By sundown, the tents still stood and about 30 people continued to play music and make signs in the park.

While many of the protesters and bystanders left when the police did not arrive, the remaining few said they were sticking it out to the end.

“We’ll evaluate again what’s going on tomorrow,” Renneisen said. “If they’re not out at 12:01, we’ll continue the discussion with them and decide the next best course
of action.”

The decision to ask occupiers to leave was not based on one event, Renneisen said.

While he said the New Year’s Eve arrests were most likely the last straw, the protesters also abused Mayor Mark Kruzan’s conditions that they protest peacefully and remain mindful of their surroundings, not interfering with the rights of local businesses and other community members.

“Over the course of their occupation, we have experienced multiple incidents with the occupiers that occurred inside the area,” Renneisen said. “Public safety issues, such as breaking into the panel box and tripping breakers.”

At one point, Renneisen said, occupiers hard-wired their own extension cords into the park’s electric box. After being told to stop, the parks department shut off the electricity, which has remained off for the last few weeks.

Though the Occupy Bloomington protesters peacefully removed many of their belongings, they did not leave without speaking out. At the Bloomington City Council meeting on Wednesday, an hour after the eviction notices were posted, about 20 protesters spoke before the nine council members.

“After the stakes are out of the ground, they will still be stuck in me and, I think, in a lot of these people,” one protester said.

Nicole Johnson spoke of one of the protesters’ main concerns.

“One gentleman spoke in front of (General Assembly) and asked if anyone could foster his dog, because he would have to go to the homeless shelter when they took us out of the park tomorrow, and he couldn’t go there with his dog,” she said, her voice breaking.

“And about New Year’s, I would like to say,” she paused, then let out a sigh. “The Bloomington Police Department waited patiently for our party to end, even tolerating a stellar firework display.”

Johnson continued to say that somewhere between Fourth Street and Kirkwood Avenue, someone allegedly threw a bottle at a building. A BPD officer arrested Alexander Cookman, 36, for throwing the bottle. The charges were later dropped.

At 11 a.m. Thursday, protesters spent their last hour making signs, playing music and awaiting their next step.

But not all protesters thought leaving the park would hurt their cause. Sophomore Peter Oren, a member of Occupy IU, said while some Occupy Bloomington members did create working groups to protest outside of Peoples Park, the group’s reliance on occupying the space gave them a bad image.

“The point of occupying is it’s a tactic to draw attention to the issue,” said sophomore Nick Greven, also a member of Occupy IU. “I’ve already heard people talking about having General Assembly elsewhere.”

Greven said he agreed with Oren that it was time to move on with other ways to spread the message.

“It’s forcing us to evolve,” Oren said.