This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Occupy SLC representatives met with city officials twice Tuesday to discuss the movement's inherent need to camp and First Amendment and human rights.
In a morning meeting with Mayor Ralph Becker, activist Thomas Camoin, a 44-year-old Salt Lake city filmmaker, outlined reasons why the Occupy movement relies on tent cities to survive.
Those reasons include solidarity, visibility, community-building, dwellings for homeless occupiers, having a headquarters, on-site health and safety services and, ultimately, making a unique political statement.
"When the coverage of the movement stops, so does our national dialogue," Camoin said, urging Becker to consider reopening Pioneer Park or allowing a camp at another site, possibly the south side of City Hall.
On Oct. 6, Occupy SLC set up camp in Pioneer Park, which already served as a haven for the homeless. On Nov. 12, after a homeless man died in one of the encampment's tents, Salt Lake City police shut the camp down.
Becker told Occupiers they'd face similar problems at other sites in the city, including City Hall, if they operated a kitchen that dished out free meals.
In an evening session with the city's Human Rights Commission, the activists spoke about their five-week stay in Pioneer Park and alleged abuses by the police, particularly the clearing of the camp on Nov. 12.
For starters, they were only given a 36-hour notice to vacate the park, said protester and former reporter Jesse Fruhwirth, adding that tenants typically get 72 hours to move.
While police refrained from using violence, Fruhwirth said they made an unnecessary show of force by bringing in a 15-foot tall front loader, two dump trucks, a whole cadre of cop cars, paddy-wagon buses and two mobile command centers to dismantle the community.
According to Salt Lake City Police Chief Chris Burbank, officers made 163 arrests during the park's occupation, mostly related to intoxication and drug use. He justified the show of force, saying the camp was dismantled peaceably.
Retired businessman and homeless advocate John Netto called the Pioneer Park police sweep a costly over-reaction, but said that Burbank's job was to make sure it played out without violence.
"And it did," Netto said. "We may not have appreciated the style and the show, but it did happen peacefully."
Joe Cohn, interim legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah, said he hopes to gather all stakeholders together to air grievances and arrive at ground-breaking solutions.
"Camping is a signature feature of the movement," Cohn said, adding that the act of continuous occupation connects protesters worldwide.
"Here in the United States we have a trend of restricting areas of public space for free speech," Cohn said, "and restricting the time, place and manner in which we allow it."
Salt Lake City could lead the way, Cohn hopes, in establishing a "gold standard" for upholding First Amendment and human rights.
Chris Wharton, a Salt Lake City-based attorney who chairs the city's Human Rights Commission, said the panel made no decisions Tuesday but hopes to release its recommendations by mid-December.
Twitter: @catmck