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5 Occupy Dayton members arrested

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By Joanne Huist Smith, Steve Bennish and Katie Wedell
Staff Writers Updated 8:32 AM Thursday, December 8, 2011

Five members of the Occupy Dayton movement were arrested by police Wednesday for trespassing on property they claim is on the city’s nuisance list.

The arrests were made just after 4 p.m. in the 1200 block of Seneca Drive, according to Montgomery County Jail records. No charges have been filed. All those arrested were younger than 21.

The protesters were arrested one day after they voluntarily dismantled their small encampment in Dave Hall Plaza and after the nationwide Occupy movement declared a war on the foreclosure crisis.

National groups spent Tuesday holding a day of action against banks and evictions by occupying foreclosed homes in 20 cities. Occupy protesters were accompanied by evicted families who took up residence in abandoned dwellings. Occupy Dayton apparently joined in the effort Wednesday.

The Dayton activists claim they set up a tent in the backyard of an abandoned property.

Dayton Police Lt. Kenneth Beall confirmed that the five individuals that were arrested were in the yard of the house and had set up a large tent. He said police were called to check on a suspicious circumstance at the address. Because the property had previously been nuisance abated, their presence there was a violation of a nuisance ordiance, prompting the arrests.

“These properties pull down property values, make areas undesirable to live in and do nothing to revitalize the city of Dayton as a whole,” Occupy Dayton said in a statement after the arrests.

The activists said they never intended to remain at the Seneca Drive location. It was an interim home while other arrangements were being made. The statement also indicated six arrests had been made, not five.

“The seemingly permanent nature of nuisance properties in Dayton with no attempt to improve them is far more damaging to the city than anything Occupy Dayton has done,” the group stated.

The Occupy Dayton protest began in Courthouse Square two months ago but moved to Dave Hall Plaza to accommodate the Grande Illumination celebration held Thanksgiving weekend. The Montgomery County Commission Tuesday passed legislation banning camping on Courthouse Square. Early Wednesday, county staff discovered a large Occupy Dayton tent set up, but abandoned, on Courthouse Plaza.

“The tent that was found … is being stored by our facilities department,” Cathy Petersen, county spokeswoman said.

City officials didn’t order the protesters out of the park in front of the Crowne Plaza Hotel, but officials indicated that sooner or later they could move on the camp.

Tom Biedenharn, Dayton’s director of public affairs, said Occupy Dayton has offered to pay for reseeding the park with grass, where their tents once stood. Straw already covers the site.

“We did not want to be the people who left a mess behind,” said Johnathon Gallienne, a member of Occupy Dayton’s media committee. “Our actions and our opinions should not cost the city in terms of replanting the grass.”

Protesters at the site at Main and Fourth streets had said it was time to move on to other community actions to focus attention on their protest of corporate greed and government collusion.

As a cold rain moved in Tuesday, protesters hauled away cots, damp sleeping bags, piles of warm clothes and a heavy-duty army tent.

Annie Blanchard of Greene County, said it was time for the camp to come down and make way for other community actions. “We hoped to show our presence and take action here as others have in other parts of the nation. We are part of that and in solidarity with the rest of the world,” she said.