UGA to Wall Street Protesters: Not Here

Since , a group of community members, UGA students, faculty and staff and interested passersby have been holding a 24-hour protest downtown at the .

They are part of the wider Occupy Wall Street movement that started in New York and has since spread across the country. , there may be as few as five or as many as 30 people holding signs and talking to people walking by on the sidewalk.

Now, UGA Police Chief Jimmy Williamson has told the protesters they have to move, and both he and local police have signed off on new rules for the protesters.

According to a story in today's Athens Banner Herald, the protesters may no longer be on the steps of the Arch or block sidewalks near the Arch. Nor can they bring chairs, tents, sleeping bags or "stand in a manner that unnecessarily occupies space on the sidewalk.”

In 1991, the Arch and part of North Campus were the site of a weeks-long protest of the Gulf War. People stood at the Arch, and, for a while, camped on north campus near Demosthenian Hall. Then-UGA President Chuck Knapp met periodically with the protesters to keep things peaceful.

There was pressure from some UGA alumni and some community members to remove the protesters, but Knapp refused to make them leave.

The General Assembly of Occupy Wall Street Athens has issued a statement on their Facebook page. It reads:

Yesterday Occupy Athens Georgia received a list of very restrictive demands by county and university police. They claim that we are not allowed to traverse the steps of the Arch, nor are we allowed to have chairs or tables or protection from the weather. They claim that we are not allowed to gather in groups of more than two persons, either amongst ourselves or in the many productive conversations we have every day with passersby. They demand that we stand in single-file lines with our backs flush against the fence. We do not block, or seek to block, anyone’s movements through the area. The police essentially demand we cease any activity that could be mistaken for occupation or meaningful protest against a government and economic system awash with corporate corruption and purchased influence. And all this in the very place we have a legally obtained permit to gather!

We believe, and the National Lawyers Guild agrees, that these demands are unconstitutional abridgements on our collective and individual First Amendment Rights.

We are a peaceful, non-violent movement seeking effective dialogue with all our fellow Americans. We cannot abide any further suppression of Americans’ economic opportunity or personal liberty.

We stand in solidarity with millions of Americans making their voices heard across the country. We are all the 99 percent.