Denver – The Denver police cleared a protest encampment allied with the Occupy Wall Street movement in a downtown square Saturday evening. Sixteen people were arrested, according to the police.
“We warned the individuals about blocking right of way and setting up tents,” said a police spokesman, Sonny Jackson. “We asked them to take some of the items down, and they refused.”
The police arrived at Civic Center Park early Saturday evening and began dismantling the camp.
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“We asked them to step back, and collected anything that was left behind,” Mr. Jackson said.
Protesters said that some grabbed their belongings and went to regroup at Skyline Park, which is about a mile away, near the Denver branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.
The move comes a month after the police ejected protesters from a park in front of the State Capitol, where Denver’s Occupy offshoot began. Twenty-four people were arrested that night after refusing orders to disperse.
Saturday night also saw protesters swept out of an Occupy encampment in Salt Lake City. Nineteen people were arrested when they refused to remove tents from Pioneer Park, according to The Associated Press. The A.P. also reported that existing permits required for protesters to remain at the park were revoked after a man was found dead in a tent there Friday morning.