At 3 a.m. Wednesday, a visitor Christine Frazer was dreading showed up at her home of 18 years -- DeKalb County Sheriff Thomas Brown, accompanied by 25 deputies.
The law enforcement officers expected to confront a phalanx of Occupy Atlanta activists who had been camped out in Frazer's front yard since early March to try and save the foreclosed Wellhaun Road home. But only one protester was on site Wednesday morning, overwhelmed by the show of force a DeKalb sheriff's office spokesman said was brought in to ensure the eviction of four generations of Frazers was carried out "safely."
"Grab your stuff like there was a fire," Frazer, 62, said she was told by deputies. Her 85-year-old mother, daughter and grandson were ordered out of their home.
Wellhaun Road had been blocked by deputies, preventing Occupy members from reaching the southeast DeKalb residence. Eventually they were allowed in to help the family collect their belongings and, despite a tense standoff between Occupy's Tim Franzen and deputies who had surrounded him, no one was arrested.
"There was some verbal confrontation that we were told not to respond to and our officers did not," sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Adrion Bell said. "We pulled back just to avoid any further confrontations."
By 9 a.m. all of the family's possessions had been cleared out. Their dogs were taken to the pound.
"I've been here 18 years," Frazer said. She lost her job in pest control in 2009 and had been struggling to make ends meet since. "My daughter was raised in that house. My husband died in that house."
Frazer filed suit in federal court fighting what Occupy activists called an "illegal eviction."
"Once again, it is clear that the government and our law enforcement officials are being used to serve and protect the interest of the 1 percent and not of ordinary people or even the laws that they have put in place," Occupy Atlanta said in a statement. "Sheriff Thomas Brown and the DeKalb County political system showed their true colors today, and made it known where their loyalties lie."
A press conference is scheduled for 1 p.m. Wednesday on Welhaun Road to be attended by John Evans, president of the DeKalb NAACP, and former Democratic congresswoman Cynthia McKinney.
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