Center City: Occupy Philadelphia Protestors Evicted

Protestors broke out into a march down 15th Street after the final eviction warning.

Hundreds of police officers moved in early this morning and surrounded City Hall to issue the final eviction notice to Occupy Philadelphia protestors before they started to make arrests. They gave the protestors three warnings before they moved into the camp.

Protestors broke out into a march down 15th Street after the final eviction warning.

The group of 25 protestors held its ground while Police Capt. William Fisher issued all three warnings. As he gave the third and final warning, the protestors broke into a march down 15th Street that eventually led to a brief standoff with police at Rittenhouse Square. More people joined the group of protestors there and the number of people continued to swell throughout the morning.

“I saw all of this happening on Twitter,” said Katie Briggs, 21, a South Philadelphia resident. “So I came to join the movement when I saw they needed more people.”

Walter Smolarek, a Temple student, led protestors in a chant as they walked down Locust Street.
Protestors had a standoff with police at 15th and Walnut streets on their march to Rittenhouse Square.
Protestors had a standoff with police at 15th and Walnut streets on their march to Rittenhouse Square.

After the standoff, protestors scattered and wandered throughout the streets chanting and marching with one another. They did so late into the morning until things became tense between the protestors and police.

The eviction resulted in as many as 50 arrests and a couple of injuries. Occupy Philadelphia’s stay at City Hall’s Dilworth Plaza ended rather peacefully compared to the various other Occupy movements around the country.

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