Police arrest six Occupy Tampa protesters

Nick Windholz tried his darndest to get arrested today.

The Occupy Tampa protester lay in front of police and called them "Gestapo." Then he marched to Tampa Police Department headquarters with several comrades, chanting "TPD is oppressing me." In the lobby, the 26-year-old Land O' Lakes resident laid prone, hands behind his back holding an American flag.

Officers wouldn't cuff him. Six others weren't so fortunate.

The ongoing tension between police and Occupy Tampa protesters finally boiled over into arrests about 9 a.m. today.

Protesters were arrested after police said they refused to stop lying on the sidewalk in front of Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park.

At issue is a city ordinance that prohibits people from sleeping in city parks. As an alternative, police have told protestors that they have to sleep on nearby sidewalks when the park closes at 10 p.m. In the morning, police wake the protesters up and order the demonstrators to roll up their sleeping bags and leave space on the sidewalk.

That has created friction between the two groups, and today protesters refused to move.

Police spokeswoman Andrea Davis said officers had been trying to get the protesters to move off the sidewalk since 6 a.m. – hours before arrests began.

"We've clearly established that we don't want to arrest protesters who follow the law, and it's unfortunate that they've given us no choice,'' Davis said.

"We have to balance their First Amendment rights but also the people who work in this area."

Davis noted police didn't arrest all the protesters lying on the sidewalk, saying police were trying to be reasonable. "The people with sleeping bags and a lot of stuff, that's where we're starting.''

As Alicia Dion, 24, of Pinellas County, was being placed into a patrol car, she said she did not know why she was being arrested.

"I have not been Mirandized,'' Dion said. "No one gave me an ordinance or a statute at the time."

Police also took assorted items like sleeping bags from the sidewalk and put them in the trunks of their squad cars.

After the arrests about 10 protesters marched from the park to nearby police headquarters to protest.

They chanted "Arrest corrupt police" and "TPD is oppressing me" as a demonstrator played a bongo drum. They sat inside the department about 10 minutes, chanting quietly before they left. Outside the department, they warned youngsters visiting the station that "police are not your friends."

Mayor Bob Buckhorn supported the crackdown on demonstrators.

"We've been very patient," he said.

Tampa had been the only city where Occupy demonstrations had not resulted in arrests or violent confrontations, he said. But enough was enough.

"At some point, you have to draw the line," he said, "and if you step over that line, there are consequences."

"If they want a place to sleep," Buckhorn said, "they can go home or to a hotel. We have bent over backward trying to accommodate them."

In his conference room while demonstrators were being handcuffed a few blocks away, Buckhorn said Occupy Tampa has been a peaceful demonstration.

"But we will not tolerate people who violate the law," he said.

Elizabeth Toms, 20, of Temple Terrace, was one of the protesters not arrested. She said police told protesters they need at least a 4-foot clearance from the street and said protesters have been providing at least a 6-foot clearance.

"If they care about obstructing the sidewalk, they wouldn't line it with their (police) cars,'' Toms said.

Asked if having fewer people because some have been arrested would diminish the protest, Toms said, "We have a lot more. A lot of people are just not here at the moment."

Although she wasn't arrested, police seized her two blankets and her pillow, which someone else had been using.

The arrests come one day after the protestors marched to city hall to complain to city council about what they termed regular harassment by police, including officers recording video of them as they sleep and waking them up every morning.

Police officials said they have tried to accommodate the demonstrations, allowing them to occupy the park during the day without permits and other requirements.

"Downtown is a neighborhood these days, and we expect them to get out of the way," Tampa police Capt. Brian Duggan told council members Thursday.

Both police and the protestors had pointed out at Thursday's meeting that nobody had been arrested.

Windholz, who said he lay in front of police today in solidarity with his arrested brethren, said he doesn't know why officers wouldn't arrest him.

"I was mocking them left and right," he said.

The Occupy movement is a national extension of the Occupy Wall Street protests in the New York City financial district. Protesters say they object to social and economic inequality and corporate greed.