OCCUPY CAMP IN NEW ORLEANS REMOVED FROM DUNCAN PLAZA

From NOLA.com:

The two-month occupation of Duncan Plaza ended with a whimper late Tuesday as U.S. District Judge Lance Africk denied Occupy NOLA's request for a preliminary injunction that would have allowed protesters to continue camping indefinitely in the park across from City Hall. As darkness fell, protesters scurried to pack up possessions and clear out of the plaza by 10:30 p.m., the park's official closing time.
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So while plaintiffs' lawyers spent the day hoping for a favorable decision, they also hedged their bets, helping their clients arrange places to stay in case Africk ruled against them.

"We're just heartbroken for people who are out here with no place to go," said plaintiffs' lawyer Davida Finger, who estimated that about 20 people were in that situation.
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Across the nation, the issue of tents is one of the more unusual aspects of Occupy cases. Carol Sobel, an attorney for the National Lawyers Guild, which has represented many of the groups, says she believes that the cases have forced judges to ask, "What is the role of the tent as a symbolic expression of foreclosures and people's loss of their homes?"

Some proponents have proposed that tents, as a symbol, rise to the level of free speech. But so far, no courts have supported that argument.

First Amendment scholar Keith Werhan, a professor at Tulane University Law School, said he sees the structures as emblematic.

"Tents are in a sense symbolic of the message that the Occupy movement is trying to get out: that some people are literally left out in the cold," he said. Plus, from a practical standpoint, he said, tents also make possible a 24-7 occupation, which in itself is arguably part of a larger message.

I don't see what harm the Occupiers do that they need to be driven out. A couple of months ago, I visited Duncan Plaza, and I fail to understand why they couldn't stay, so long as Occupy followed health and safety rules. Perhaps certain people don't like the sight of the folks camped out in the plaza, but is that a reason that they must be removed?

In another story on the front page of the newspaper, we learn that Occupy negotiated a cheaper price on portable toilets than the city. Occupy paid $163.50 a week for two portable toilets, including cleaning, compared to the $1000 per week that the city paid just for cleaning four portable toilets.

Occupy's lawyers say the disparity in costs raises a broader question about whether Landrieu administration officials have overstated what the low-key protest movement has cost New Orleans.

Their memorandum accompanying Exhibit No. 1 notes that city officials claim to have spent $50,000 to maintain Occupy NOLA, including about $1,000 per week for toilets. But Occupy could have rented four toilets a week for $327, about one-third of what the city had paid.

Occupy posted signs on the toilets reminding the users to keep them clean because the cleaner is "one of the 99 percent".

Only two persons, Michael Raso and David Dantonio, refused to leave Duncan Plaza and were arrested by NOPD.