Occupy Wall Street Camps Staring Down Eviction

By Alyssa Newcomb, ABC News

22 October 11

nti-corporation demonstrators ignored an order to evacuate their encampment outside Oakland, California city hall, continuing to occupy Frank Ogawa Plaza overnight and going about their business as usual this morning.

Music blared and dozens of more tents were erected in the encampment Friday night. It was hardly the scene one would have expected after city officials issued an order that protesters were to vacate the plaza by 10 p.m.

"We're here to address the issues that have been raised in terms of public health and safety - graffiti, urination, vandalism and making specific requests as to what the need to do as to address those issues," Oakland city spokeswoman Karen Boyd told ABC News station KGO-TV in San Francisco.

Boyd said demonstrators were welcome to protest in the plaza between the hours of 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., but no later.

Despite the demonstrators' violation of the order to leave the park, there was no sign of an increased police presence.

"We've known from the beginning that this is an illegal occupation in the eyes of the city," protester Ali Hakimi told the San Francisco Chronicle. "We're just taking it day by day. We're consumed with people being fed, that they're safe, and outside of that, I don't know how far ahead we're thinking."

The problem of pending eviction isn't unique to Oakland.

Eleven protesters in San Jose, Calif., were arrested after occupying an area near city hall for nearly four weeks.

According to Occupy Together, an online group that seeks to streamline communication between all the Occupy demonstration encampments, protesters in Vancouver, British Columbia, are also facing legal pressure to vacate their tent city, which is on the lawn of an art gallery.

And in Melbourne, Australia, 100 protesters were arrested after defying an order to leave the plaza they had been occupying.

Protesters said they will suspend their occupation until further notice, according to ABC News Australia.

In London, protesters are grappling with whether to leave their post outside St. Paul's Cathedral after the famous tourist spot was shut down for the first time since World War II, due to safety concerns.

The dean of St. Paul's initially said he would not make the protesters leave, but many sightseers were angry that they couldn't see the cathedral because of the size of the tent city, which has grown exponentially since it was set up a week ago.

"We are very disappointed, because it's the second day we tried to see St. Paul's Cathedral," a tourist told ABC News Radio. "It's a very important point in London."

Protesters said they will gather for a vote Sunday about whether to leave the space.

In New York, denizens of Zuccotti Park made space for families to spend Friday night camped out as part of the first-ever Occupy Wall Street family sleepover.

The event included pizza, a sing-along and a bedtime story.

But the families' restful night was interrupted early Saturday morning when Dylan Farenhorst Spaelstra, 21, scaled the park's 70-foot-tall sculpture, refusing to come down until Mayor Michael Bloomberg resigned.

"This movement means people take action in different ways. There's certainly respect for different tactics," Occupy Wall Street spokesman Bil lDobbs said. "But as you can see, we've been going out very simply marching over the past month."

And more marching is what's in store for the residents of Zuccotti Park and their compatriots in other cities. They'll be joining movements across the country to participate in the 16th National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality.

The Occuppy Wall Street movement, which began in New York City on Sept. 17 to protest corporate greed, has spread to more than 1,500 cities to date.