Occupy: Should They Stay or Should they Go Now?

Police are telling them one thing, the court and the city attorney said another . . .

Police went to the site this morning telling people they had to leave by noon tomorrow. These signs that were posted a few days ago, before the court hearing:

Clearly, that is not what the court said. These signs were posted before the hearing, but they were not removed. And the police are not telling people anything different. Hopefully the police are getting the word and I think they should take down the signs. When I tried to talk to two officers on site, they had no clue what was going on. They basically said they were low on the ladder and not the decision makers and that they thought people should be out by noon and they could not make any recommendations except to be out by noon. So, clearly the police are not trying too hard to let officers on the street know what is going on.

Here’s what the city attorney’s office is saying the agreement is.

From: “Mainella, Lara”
Sent: Sunday, April 29, 2012 2:51 PM
Subject: RE: Occupy Madison removal deadline

Hello- I tried to call your office with no answer.

The CCAP notes are accurate. The agreement regarding the structures is that if the TRO is denied, the 4 hoops houses (plus two larger structures which we did not say on the record but we are OK with) do not have to be removed until Weds at 12 noon. We did NOT agree to extend camping, other tents, the presence of persons or their things, to Weds. However – we will not take any action to remove / end the campground during the day on Monday, until after the results of the hearing.

I have already communicated with the police on this.

My office represents all of the named defendants and all employees of the City of Madison and Public Health-Madison and Dane County in this matter.

We disagree that your clients cannot rationally plan for what to do – the City has made it extremely clear from day one that the special event campground license ends on April 30 and there would be no extension. I would suggest they continue to plan accordingly, pack up and prepare to leave, but they can safely leave the hoop houses and 2 big structures to be removed by Weds. at noon. This should allow them extra time to find somebody who wants to take them.

Call if you have further questions, 267-4924.

Lara Mainella
Assistant City Attorney
City of Madison – Office of the City Attorney
210 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Room 401
Madison, WI 53703
tel. 608-266-4511
fax 608-267-8715
lmainella@cityofmadison.com
www.cityofmadison.com

I want to believe the police will do what the city attorney says they will do, and that they will follow state law that requires them to remove the “abandoned” property and store it for 30 days and allow others to come get it. Am I being naive? Police are clearly still saying something different.