Then again, the difference between your average dirty hippy protester and a homeless person is razor thin to begin with.
(NewsOK) — Dwindling participation and a lack of accountability on the part of Occupy OKC organizers was the primary reason for not renewing the group’s permit to stay in Kerr Park overnight, the city’s top law enforcement official testified Wednesday.
Oklahoma City Police Chief Bill Citty said there has been an increased need for a police presence in the downtown park since two key members of the group’s leadership team left for philosophical reasons last month.
“It deteriorated to the point where really nobody was staying in the park,” Citty said. “I just felt like it was time. . . that it wasn’t necessary to keep tents in the park overnight.”
Heidi Owens, a frequent overnight camper, and Jay Trenary, an attorney who negotiated the group’s first permit on behalf of Occupy OKC, agreed to leave the group Nov. 12.
Trenary testified that by Nov. 16, when he asked the city to take his name off the permit, there was one person sleeping overnight on behalf of Occupy OKC, and the rest were “transients looking for a warm place to stay.”
HT: Moose