United Liberty

Earlier this evening, a group of us from BlogCon visited Occupy Denver. We had been reading all day that there would be a clash at some point between police and protesters in the park across the street from the Colorado State Capitol. Lachlan Markay from the Heritage Foundation had been tweeting updates showing the police, decked out in riot gear, preparing to enter the park.

As you can see in the video below, the so-called “occupiers” tried to block off the street before police pushed them back into the park. Police knocked down their tents and forced them to leave. According to the Denver Post, many of the protesters left before the police forcibly removed them. Some of the protesters eventually made their way to the 16th Street Mall, which is maybe 400 feet from the hotel hosting BlogCon. More than a dozen protesters were arrested.

There were nearly as many spectators watching the event than there were protesters in the park. As you can tell, some of the on-lookers were sympathetic to their cause. Police took steps to give protesters a chance to leave without incident. Based on what we were told, they were given three warnings to leave the park before they would be arrested.

Here are some photos from the visit to Occupy Denver, starting with a view from across the street of Occupy Denver:

Police preparing to enter the park, before them moved us back:

Another view of the police: