Cops arrest 1 during Occupy demonstration
Occupy Philly protesters took to the plaza at the Municipal Services Building and testified during a hearing about Mayor Nutter's ban on outdoor food distribution.
This post has been updated.
Occupy Philly is at it again. This time, they're taking on Mayor Nutter's ban on outdoor food distribution.
On Thursday afternoon, leaders of the group said, about 200 of their members and protesters from various other groups held a rally and distributed food at Thomas Paine Plaza outside the Municipal Services Building, before several members of the group worked their way into a public Board of Health hearing about Mayor Nutter's regulation to ban the feeding of the homeless in parks.
Nutter's ban, aimed to move feeding indoors and encourage safer, healthy eating, is set to take effect in 30 days. The Board of Health, Deputy Mayor for Health and Opportunity Donald Schwarz told protesters who took to the hearing room to testify against the measure, will likely render its decision related to the measure next week.
One protester, a 28-year-old woman who Occupy members said is a doctoral student at the University of Pennsylvania, was arrested outside the front door of the MSB after a handful of bicycle police were called in for crowd control. Julia Alford-Fowler, of the group's legal collective, said she was being held at the 9th District, 20th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, and was expected to be released early in the morning.
Officials were letting Occupiers and other protesters inside to testify – but only 40 at a time, as the hearing room was too small to accommodate more.
A few Occupiers staged a sit-in during protesters' testimonies inside the hearing, and police said they could potentially face arrest, but all eventually decided to get up, and no other arrests were made.
The hearing, which began at 5:30 p.m., eventually let out around 9:30 p.m. after several Occupiers testified. Click here for Twitter coverage from the street and from inside the hearing during the last batch of testimonies.
Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Nutter's Chief of Staff Everett Gillison, who was in attendance during the hearing, said the measure to limit outdoor food distribution is a move to give people more dignity by feeding them inside.
"The best use of government is to transform people's lives," Gillison said after the hearing, adding that he understands people can be apprehensive about change.
"There's got to be a dignity," he said. "No one wants to eat in the cold. That's not really what we're about."