Occupy Atlanta | Protesters vow to stay in park

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By Christian Boone and Jeremiah McWilliams

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Occupy Atlanta protesters vowed Wednesday to remain in Woodruff Park even under threat of arrest.

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John Spink, jspink@ajc.com Occupy Atlanta activists continue to occupy Woodruff Park on Wednesday morning.

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As about 150 protesters stood outside the Bank of America on Peachtree Street on Tuesday afternoon, a security guard escorted employees from the building. Scott Brown of Duluth was among the marchers, who say they are protesting corporate greed.

Curtis Compton, ccompton@ajc.com As about 150 protesters stood outside the Bank of America on Peachtree Street on Tuesday afternoon, a security guard escorted employees from the building. Scott Brown of Duluth was among the marchers, who say they are protesting corporate greed.

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A group of more than 100 calling themselves Occupy Atlanta protesters set up a barricade around their tent city as they gathered in Woodruff Park in Atlanta on Monday, Oct. 10, 2011.

Curtis Compton, ccompton@ajc.com A group of more than 100 calling themselves Occupy Atlanta protesters set up a barricade around their tent city as they gathered in Woodruff Park in Atlanta on Monday, Oct. 10, 2011.

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"We will occupy this park at the cost of being arrested and put into jail," a spokesman for the group said at an 11 a.m. news conference. "We will not commit any acts of violence."

The "occupation" was in its sixth day Wednesday with no sign that police were preparing to take any action.

Police maintained only a low-key presence, both at the park and during a late afternoon march to the Midtown offices of the Bank of America, which drew about 50 people from the park and perhaps 100 who joined en route. By 5:30 p.m., the marchers had dispersed, with some heading back to the park trailed by about six police officers on motorcycles.

Robert Derenthal, 21, of Marietta, a student at Kennesaw State, told the AJC Wednesday he had been at the protest since Saturday in the hopes that "others will start to make their voices known about the abusive practices of Wall Street and investment banking and banking throughout this country ... that people need to start to realize there are reasons why we have such high unemployment in this country, underemployment, why people are being thrown out of their homes, why there has been no recovery and it's time for that frustration to get out into the streets."

Meanwhile, Mayor Kasim Reed told members of the City Council’s public safety committee that, while the city wants to respect the demonstrators’ right to express their views, they cannot be allowed to camp in the park indefinitely.

“This has got to got to come to a close at some point,” Reed said. “At some point, we have to act.”

Reed said the group calling itself Occupy Atlanta is damaging the public park and violating Atlanta’s laws, and to ignore it opens the door to more law-breaking in the future.

“I do worry that we are setting precedents,” Reed said. Giving exemptions to the law “is creating a real problem for us.”

Committee chair Ivory Lee Young Jr. said he appreciated Reed’s concerns, but he suggested that arresting protesters might be unwise.

“Arrests, at this point, don’t serve any of our purposes,” he told Reed during the meeting.

Reed said his staff had conducted a detailed review of how other cities had dealt with the Occupy Wall Street offshoots, and would be ready to brief the City Council on Wednesday.

Boston police made national headlines Tuesday morning by arresting more than 100 protesters who were attempting to expand their encampment from a park to an adjacent roadway greenbelt. Video showed black-clad officers hauling away protesters who chanted, “We are veterans of the United States of America!” An American flag that had apparently been knocked from the hands of one protester lay on the ground as those nearby chanted, “Shame, shame, shame!”

In Atlanta, meanwhile, a spokesman for Reed said the city will not immediately try to break up the protesters’ encampment, which on Tuesday afternoon numbered about 30 tents. “As long as they’re there peacefully, for the time time being, we’re going to allow them to stay,” said Reese McCranie, the mayor’s deputy director of communications. “That may change in the future or may not change.”

One camper applauded the decision. “I think it’s great,” said Phil Aliff, 25, a student at Kennesaw State University. “I hope they let us stay here indefinitely. Our side can win if we continue to bring people out.”

Occupy Atlanta, rallying against corporate greed and the war in Afghanistan, set up stakes in the park Friday night. The crowd’s size varied through the weekend.

Reed said the protesters have presented him with a list of demands. They want the park renamed for Troy Anthony Davis, the man executed last month for murdering a Savannah police officer. Second, the protesters want Reed to camp with them overnight in the park. Third, they want assurances that they won’t be arrested.

Reed said he was praying about whether he should sleep in the park. But he refused to give assurances that no one would be arrested.

As for renaming Woodruff Park? “That’s not going to happen,” Reed said.

Staff photographer John Spink contributed to this article.