The Occupy movement is turning its attention to housing, with activists occupying homes being foreclosed on and attempting to take control of vacant properties. NBC's Michelle Franzen reports.
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By The Associated Press
Police cracked down on anti-Wall Street protesters on the East and West Coasts over the weekend, arresting demonstrators in Portland, Oregon and in Washington, D.C.
In Washington, U.S. Park Police arrested more than 20 people in a downtown park Sunday, Occupy DC said, after protesters assembled a wooden structure authorities later declared to be unsafe.
Protesters have been camped for weeks at McPherson Square and began assembling the structure overnight for shelter during the winter, Occupy DC said on its website.
Several climbed on top with a couple of hundred others looking on and chanted, "Give us water, give us food, document what is happening."
Lieutenant Robert Glover of the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department told the protesters the structure was unsafe and illegal and police were not forcing protesters from the park.
"We are not looking to push this thing further," he said.
Related story: Foreclosed homes are next Occupy target
Portland police arrested 19 people who were trying to occupy a downtown park, including one man charged with criminal mischief and trespassing for climbing onto the roof of City Hall, police said.
Some 300 people had attempted to gather in Shemanski Park, beginning late on Saturday night, and then marched through the city's streets, police said.
Protesters who have been demanding economic justice for average Americans who they say suffer while the government bails out Wall Street firms have been getting arrested in recent weeks as officials try to disassemble their encampments.
In several cities, officials have cited dangerous health and safety conditions and the cost of added policing and other security measures in a time of tight budgets.
An unidentified male was reported dead at the Occupy Denton camp at the University of North Texas campus, according to a post on the university's Facebook page. It was unclear when and how the person died, and campus police were investigating, it said.
The Portland demonstrators said on Sunday they will lobby the city for a location to pitch their tents.
Several people held a vigil outside Portland City Hall, asking that a ban on camping in parks be lifted. They said they plan to stay until the city's rule is changed.
"This will be an ongoing nonviolent effort to maintain focus and attention to the issues of inequality that 99 percent of America face as the result of corporate greed and corruption," they said on their website.
Protester Kip Silverman said the demonstrators' civil rights were being "trampled on" by the city.
"We have a certain expectation for how government and the people should work together in Portland, and it is not happening right now," he said.
More than 300 arrests were made in Los Angeles last week as police cleared an Occupy encampment.
The movement began in a downtown park in New York City, but protesters were cleared from that site two weeks ago.
Oklahoma City protesters got a temporary restraining order from a judge last week to avoid being forcibly ousted.
In Seattle, however, a judge on Friday rejected a bid by activists to block their eviction from a community college, clearing the way for the city to remove them as early as the next few days.
? 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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