Future of Occupy Burlington encampment uncertain after police clear City Hall Park to investigate man's death
12:22 AM, Nov. 11, 2011
The city closed half of City Hall Park and put a halt to all camping at the Occupy Burlington site Thursday night while police investigate a shooting in a tent that cost a 35-year-old man his life. Meanwhile, the movement’s participants mourned a member of their community and planned the future of the encampment.
Just a day after the joyful spontaneity of a Gogol Bordello performance Wednesday night at City Hall Park, Thursday’s shooting that police believe may have been self-inflicted spiraled into a tense confrontation between Burlington police and some protesters over access to the park.
The evening culminated in this surreal scene nearly five hours after the shooting: Mayor Bob Kiss, standing hatless and coatless in a cold rain, talking a group of close to 100 City Hall Park occupiers down from a near riot.
Kiss had called a 6 p.m. meeting in City Hall’s Contois Auditorium to talk about modifications to the city’s rules for the encampment following the shooting, and Police Chief Michael Schirling told the large group that the tents would be off limits for at least 24 hours while police continued their investigation into the death of a man whose name has not yet been released.
It had been a good relationship between police and protesters since the encampment began Oct. 28, city officials said, but the death had changed the landscape in the park.
As Schirling began to explain that police would allow those who needed personal items from their tents to get them, after police checked them for evidence, a man rushed in shouting that police had arrested a protester and that police were blocking off the entire park. The crowd angrily pushed outside, chanting, “Let her go! Let her go! Let her go!”
The protesters pushed toward the officers detaining Hayley Mason, 23, of Burlington. It was not clear why she was detained.
Kiss waded into the crowd, speaking softly, trying to explain that the police weren’t ending the encampment but were trying to investigate the crime scene. The protesters began shouting, “Give us Hayley! Give us Hayley!”
One man at the edge of the crowd, asked by a reporter why he was shouting, replied with anger, “Because I can!”
By 6:30 p.m., at least 20 police officers were in the park, prepared with tear gas and other non-lethal devices to control the crowd. “We’re dealing with a large group of people,” Deputy Police Chief Andi Higbee said. “We have stuff available. We have to.”
Some protesters shouted they would fight, but Kiss continued to reason with them. As the crowd’s tone grew angrier, he turned to the police and told them to release the woman, which they did.
The mayor also said the encampment wouldn’t be torn down by the police. That placated the crowd, and what had become a near riot quickly calmed. Several protesters, ignoring some who were urging a confrontation, persuaded the group to march up Church Street to the First Unitarian Universalist Church, which had been opened by its minister to the group.
“We have got to mellow out,” one protester said, his words repeated by the crowd, in the style of the Occupy movement that began two months ago in a park near Manhattan’s Wall Street.
Plans to return
Some protesters vowed to return today in greater numbers to reclaim their encampment.
Kiss said he had asked the police to release the young woman in the interest of public safety.
“The bigger picture,” Kiss said as the protesters left, “is we’re in this together. I hope we can work our way through it tomorrow and in the days ahead. Violence isn’t the solution. I think we can work our way through it.”
Police reopened the northern half of City Hall Park to the public, but the southern half, where the tents and belongings of Occupy Burlington sit, remained cordoned off Thursday evening. A police cruiser idled in the middle of the park, with an officer inside watching the tents. At least three other Burlington police cars sat near the edges of the park.
Later Thursday night, the mayor’s office issued this statement:
“At this time, in order to ensure public safety, no tenting or camping will be allowed in the park. The discharge of a firearm under these circumstances is a serious concern. In light of today’s incident, the Burlington Police Department has concerns that they cannot ensure public safety for Occupy Burlington participants and the public where tents obstruct and obscure potentially dangerous activities in areas that are routinely open to access by the public. The city will continue to respect the right of speech and peaceful assembly in areas of City Hall Park that are not cordoned off.”
At the Unitarian Universalist church, officials offered the protesters a place to regroup, eat and plan strategy. Occupiers there said they would begin plotting strategy by about 9 p.m.
Church member Elz Curtiss said she’d been in contact with Interim Senior Minister Roberta Finkelstein, who is out of town, to discuss how to help the protesters.
The City Hall Park shooting prompted church leaders to have a chaplain ready to talk to anyone at City Hall Park who needed help, Curtiss said. “Roberta said if they need anyplace to go, you have the keys,” she said.
When it became apparent the demonstrators would not be allowed to stay at City Hall Park, Curtiss said she offered the church. “Ultimately, this is a community that experienced a terrible tragedy,” she said of the demonstrators. “It’s important that they not lose the shelter of each other.”
Curtiss said she was impressed that the occupiers repeatedly said during the tense moments in City Hall Park earlier in the evening that they wanted to be their best selves. “I felt very good about it,” Curtiss said. “This is why you do religion.”
Shortly before 9 p.m., the number of Occupy Burlington participants in the church had swelled to about 80. The group politely asked a Burlington Free Press reporter to leave, saying they wanted privacy to grieve for their friend and felt more comfortable discussing their next moves away from the media.
Participants said they would issue statements to the media concerning the outcome of the meeting.
The shooting
The day was thrown into an uproar beginning shortly after 2 p.m.
Police said they responded to a 2:07 p.m. report of a man in City Hall Park who had sustained a gunshot wound to the head. Authorities said the man was a 35-year-old resident of Chittenden County, but provided no additional details about his identity.
The man was taken to Fletcher Allen Health Care, where he died at about 5 p.m., police said.
Preliminary information from witnesses indicated the gunshot wound was self-inflicted, police said.
“However, this is an ongoing investigation and all investigative avenues will be explored,” Burlington police said in a statement issued Thursday night.
After the shooting, police said the public was not in danger and that a weapon had been recovered. Deputy Police Chief Andi Higbee declined to say what type of weapon was recovered.
Steven Sclafani, 39, of Burlington said he was walking through City Hall Park at around 3 p.m. when he heard a bang.
“I thought it was a loud firecracker,” he said.
Sclafani said he then saw smoke coming from a tent. Three people ran out of the tent, he added. “I heard someone say ‘He shot himself.’ I ran over and saw a man lying on his back,” Sclafani said.
The man was inside a tent, and at least one other person was trying to help him, Sclafani said. Sclafani said he immediately called 911 and police arrived in the park a short time later. Sclafani took a picture of a handgun placed on the park grass amid fallen leaves; he said he believed it was used in the shooting.
As police swarmed the park, rescue workers removed a motionless man from a green tent where blood was evident. Police were seen questioning several people as others standing in the park cried and hugged each other.
Mason, the Burlington woman who would later be temporarily detained by police over access to the park, said Thursday afternoon she had been involved with the Occupy Burlington movement since it established itself in the park Oct. 28. She said the man who was shot had been in the park for several days, at least.
“I don’t know a lot about his personality. He loves the outdoors. He’s been a member of our community,” she said.
Future of encampment
The shooting happened less than 24 hours after a point of great excitement at the encampment. Wednesday night about 500 people flocked to City Hall Park for an impromptu concert by internationally known gypsy punk musicians from the band Gogol Bordello.
Thursday, police said they were concerned with public safety.
“When you have a discharge of a firearm in a place like this, there’s good cause to be gravely concerned,” Higbee said.
Firearms are not allowed in City Hall Park. Mayor Kiss said the shooting raises questions about the easy availability of firearms.
“We need to reflect on guns in Vermont,” he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment