Seven protesters were arrested after a pre-dawn raid on the Occupy D.C. camp in McPherson Square on Saturday, with dozens of police clearing away tents, debris and some dead rodents.

U.S. Park Police on horseback and on foot clad in riot gear swept into the park around 6 a.m. A helicopter circled overhead, horses’ hooves clattered on the pavement and protesters ran through the camp trying to wake up those still sleeping. Several square blocks downtown were closed for several hours because of the raid, which was characterized as “further enforcement” of a no-camping crackdown that began Monday.

At first, protesters and police operated in good humor as they negotiated taking down the big blue Tent of Dreams, which the protesters had unfurled over a Civil War statue Monday. But relations grew tense as the day wore on and police began clearing the park of tents and bedding.

At one particularly tense moment, dozens of police pushed back with riot shields so they could erect more barricades.

“We’re being evicted without tear gas!” said Melissa Byrne, a protester from the District.

Four people were arrested when they refused to leave an area where cleanup was being conducted and charged with failing to obey a lawful order. Three others were arrested later; it was not immediately clear what the charges were.

“We have an ongoing enforcement activity and it is going well,” said Sgt. David Schlosser, a spokesman for the U.S. Park Police. Schlosser said that parts of the park were being closed for a “nuisance abatement” and that the action was not an eviction.

Ann Wilcox, a member of the National Lawyers Guild who serves as a volunteer legal adviser to the group, disagreed. She said what was happening in McPherson was little different from high-profile Occupy closures such in New York’s Zuccotti Park and elsewhere around the country.

“They want the park to be clear in the coming days, and they’re going to keep checking back so [protesters] can’t reestablish themselves,” she said.

Under the rules, protesters are allowed to conduct a “24-hour vigil” in the federal park, but are not allowed to camp overnight. But until recently, protesters had been openly camping at McPherson Square and a similar encampment in Freedom Plaza.

Amid health and safety concerns and pressure from District officials and congressional Republicans alike, the U.S. Park Service announced a week ago that it would begin enforcing the longtime regulations. Campers were told they couldn’t have camping gear or sleep at the park, prompting some to go on “sleep strikes.” But while some complied with the rules and left the McPherson encampment over the past week, others remained.

Relations between protesters and police grew tense Saturday when officers began a tent-by-tent search, discarding any bedding and belongings inside. Officers in yellow hazmat suits and masks moved through the tents, they used poles to gingerly pick up used blankets, clothes and assorted debris and drop them into trash bags.

Cleanup crews also uncovered dead rats and mice after removing about a half-dozen wooden pallets that the Occupiers used for sleeping.

Protesters grew upset when it appeared Park Police were tearing out tents without bedding, which they considered “vigil tents” that are permitted by the National Park Service.

“Why are you taking down a tent with nothing inside of it?” protester Sara Shaw hollered from atop a park bench, behind the police barricades.

Capt. Phil Beck tried to calm the situation, noting that the Occupiers had been allowed to videotape the cleanup efforts.

“We’re not hiding anything. We’re not keeping anything about this a secret,” Beck said. He said protesters whose tents were seized could pick them up Monday at the Park Police headquarters on Ohio Drive in Southwest.

Protesters said they had expected the raid, but some were surprised at the magnitude of the response, which included dozens of officers, fire hoses, a paddy wagon, arrest-processing tent and a cherry-picker truck used to remove the Guy Fawkes mask one of the Occupiers had placed over the face of James B. McPherson, the Civil War major general whose statue in the the center the park.

“It’s pretty excessive,” said Ricky Lehner, one of the “sleep strikers” in the park Saturday.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/occupy-dc-camp-raided-by-police/2012/02/04/gIQAwDoCpQ_print.html