Maine news, sports, weather from Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram, Portland, Maine

Decampment: Occupy tents gone, but protest survives

City workers move in to Lincoln Park, filling Dumpsters with the remains of the campers' four-month stay.

By David Hench dhench@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer

PORTLAND - By late Friday, Lincoln Park was just a park again. The remnants of Occupy Maine had been removed, more than four months after the encampment began.

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Sam Swenson, an Occupy protester who didn’t live at the camp, throws a pallet onto a pile in Lincoln Park on Friday.

Photos by Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer

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Kaysean Moss, right, who says he is homeless, has been camping in Lincoln Park in Portland along with Occupy Maine protesters for about three months. Moss, other homeless people and remaining protesters had to remove their structures on Friday, per order of the city.

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FORMER CAMPER KNOWN AS 'BIG JOHN' FOUND DEAD

PORTLAND — The state medical examiner is investigating the death of a 34-year-old man who at one time was a controversial member of the Occupy Maine encampment.

Police said Friday that they were still trying to reach family members of the man, so they could not confirm his identity.

However, several members of the Occupy Maine movement said the man was John Montero, known as “Big John” during his time in Lincoln Park.

The man was found in the entryway of 55 Allen Ave. There were no signs of a crime and his death does not appear suspicious, though authorities will do blood tests to determine whether drug use played a role in his death.

Montero was outspoken in support of the movement, and he was a large, imposing man with a criminal record, who intimidated some people. His loud booming voice tended to dominate some general assemblies.

In November, he was ordered to stay out of the park after allegedly blocking another man from entering.

Montero said in an interview that he was from Georgia and his house was foreclosed on after he lost his job at a call center.

– Staff Writer David Hench

A small core of demonstrators worked through the day Friday to dismantle the last of the unoccupied campsites, dragging debris to a city-provided Dumpster and piling wooden pallets on which tents had been pitched.

They were philosophical about the end of Maine's longest-running Occupy encampment, which was ended by a city order and a judge's ruling supporting it.

"Some people are saying what we're doing is disgraceful or is a blight or we look like 'a municipal dump,' " said Sam Swenson, taking a break from the cleanup. "The fact we had so much support from so many different people in our community showed our message really does matter."

Occupy Maine formed in the fall as an outgrowth of the Occupy Wall Street movement, intended to draw attention to economic inequity and excessive corporate influence.

Over the months, public criticism of the protesters grew and city officials' patience wore thin. City councilors voted in December not to grant a permit that would have allowed the protesters to stay in Lincoln Park, citing health and safety issues and concern that the park was no longer available for others to enjoy.

Occupy Maine took the case to court. City Manager Mark Rees opted not to force the demonstrators out until a Superior Court judge ruled last week that while the encampment was a form of political speech, the city's ordinance prohibiting camping and loitering in parks from 10 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. is constitutional.

The city postponed the deadline it set for the campers to move out, first to Monday and then to Friday, to give them a chance to pack up and to reduce the likelihood of confrontations.

At 1 p.m. Friday, eight workers from Portland's Department of Public Services arrived at the park, between Federal and Congress streets, with a loader that they used to top off one 30-cubic-yard Dumpster and start filling another one they had brought with them.

"I think the city of Portland is very pleased with the progress of the movement here," Police Chief Michael Sauschuck said Friday at the park, referring to the efforts to clean up tarps, chairs, signs, wood and other debris from the area.

Four police officers were there, as a precaution and to make sure nobody got hurt with the heavy equipment in use, Sauschuck said.

Earlier, at the northern end of the park, a group of young people arrived at lunchtime and tossed a Frisbee under the brilliant sun. A pair of walkers strode deliberately around the perimeter.

About 70 tents were arrayed in the park at one point, though the number of people staying there fluctuated. The last two tents in the park Friday belonged to people who were homeless and had not been active in the demonstrations.

One man packed his tent and all of his belongings onto a shopping cart and made his way slowly out of the park.

At the other, larger tent were four people -- an old man, a middle-age woman, a young man and a young woman -- and at least one dog. They waited until city workers and four police officers arrived, then started loading their belongings into a parked car.

The only confrontation occurred when the young man started arguing about being filmed by television cameras as he broke down the camp.

Sauschuck said city caseworkers had been visiting the park over the previous week, working to find housing for people who didn't have any. Some campers said they recently had found apartments.

Deseree Tanguay, a longtime protester, wheeled a load of clothing and blankets, which had been donated to the demonstrators, to a nearby soup kitchen to be donated to other people.

James McMann held his own protest at midday Friday, carrying a flag and a sign that read: "Occupy Maine should clean up the park, not Portland taxpayers."

McMann, who said he lives in Kennebunkport and works in the Portland area, said he agrees with people's right to protest, but not when they are disrespectful of public property.

"What they've done is just not right," he said.

Protesters said their movement didn't end with the dismantling of the camp. They have office space, they plan more protests, and they may be back in the spring.

"It's not the end. It's new beginnings," said Deese Hamilton.

The group plans a rally in Monument Square at noon today, and a re-dedication of Lincoln Park on Sunday.

Jen Rose, one of the last protesters to leave, said, "There's going to be a lot more activism, now that we don't have to maintain a camp."

Staff Writer David Hench can be contacted at 791-6327 or at:

dhench@pressherald.com