Eight at Occupy Raleigh arrested after standoff

[struggle4progress]

BY THOMASI MCDONALD - [e-mail]

RALEIGH -- A standoff between police and demonstrators with Occupy Raleigh led to the arrests of eight people, including a woman with a handicap, after they refused to leave a sidewalk Thursday in front of the Capitol.

State Capitol Police approached about three dozen or so demonstrators and gave them a 3 p.m. deadline to move all their camp chairs, tables and coolers off the sidewalk. The protesters complied.

But Margaret Schucker, 57, of Raleigh, told the police that she had back problems and needed the chair she was sitting in to participate in the Occupy Raleigh demonstration. She had a blue and white handicapped permit affixed to her chest. When police moved to arrest her, other demonstrators clustered around her and were arrested, too.

Schucker was charged with second-degree trespassing and released without posting bail about two hours after her arrest ...

http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/10/28/1600285/eight-at-occupy-raleigh-arrested.html

[nc4bo]

1. I thought sidewalks were neutral territory?

Very easy for protesters to just step back and let pedestrian traffic pass by, what's the big deal? :wtf: is going on?