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Posted: 6:41 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2011

Occupy Tulsa eyes Bartlett in move order, heads to City Hall

Group says First Amendment violated

Protestors at City Hall
Protestors at City Hall

Related

Protest downtown photo
Protest downtown

By Staff and  Staff

TULSA, Okla. —

Update

For the record, Michelle Allen with the City of Tulsa says the electricity was cut off because a permit had not been requested for use of power at the park. 

Allen says you must obtain a permit from the city before you can use electricity at city facilities like the parks.

Allen also says Mayor Bartlett did not order the police to remove the protesters. 

She says the protesters will be removed from the park after 11:00 p.m. if they are still there because it is a violation of a city curfew at city parks. 

The protesters would not be in violation of the curfew if they were to stay on the sidewalks and kept moving.


One man was getting the blame Tuesday for an order to vacate Centennial Green.

The Occupy Tulsa folks moved their protest from there to City Hall once the power was cut in the afternoon at the park.

"Dewey Bartlett had the Tulsa Police to come out and give us notice today we had to remove from the park," said one Occupier.

The group expressed in front of the city's main office building they believed their First Amendment rights were being violated by the order.

"We don't have the right to peaceful assembly and we don't have the right to freedom of speech here in Tulsa. What he (bartlett) does not realize is that when he tells us that, he's telling the whole City of Tulsa that," said the protestor.

Police Chief Chuck Jordan told us earlier Tuesday the reasons would be violations of the city's curfew and legalities that say you can't sleep in the park.

Occupy Tulsa organizer Samuel Molik says the moves that came Tuesday seemed to contrast the on-going dialogue the group had with the police since the tent city started Friday.

He was surprised when public works rolled up with city security.

"They shut off our power. Two hours later we had a meeting with the police chief and yesterday (Monday) the police chief told us we were okay for now."

Jordan told us Tuesday he had checked with the city legal department and the group would be asked to move on.

While some in the group believed the tents would be allowed on other city property, Jordan stated that would not be the case.

He said organizers had refused to camp anywhere else.

 

 

 
 
 

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