BELLINGHAM - City workers finished cleaning up Maritime Heritage Park Thursday morning, Dec. 29, after Occupy Bellingham campers were evicted by police the day before.
The campers had been staying in the park in protest since the end of October but were evicted Wednesday after receiving a vacate order from Mayor Dan Pike and the parks director the previous morning.
Four were arrested in the eviction, after which parks and public works employees began cleaning up the park. Fourteen workers cleaned up Wednesday afternoon, with 17 there Thursday morning.
Workers restored the park as much as possible, though grass damaged by tents will have to be reseeded in spring, said parks operations manager Marvin Harris. He described the damage as minimal and expected the park to recover just fine. Mulch laid down by the protesters protected some of the grass, and parks workers were able to rake it up and use it in plant beds.
Harris estimated the cost for cleanup - including staff time, supplies and dumping costs - at about $4,030.
Police costs were still being tabulated Thursday. Lt. Rick Sucee estimated that about 50 officers were working on the eviction for about nine hours, with many of them on overtime because they otherwise would have been off duty. Four to six corrections deputies from the Whatcom County Sheriff's Office also were on the scene. Had the campers been out of the park by the 9 a.m. deadline posted on the eviction notice, only a few officers would have been necessary to stand by as parks crews cleaned up, Sucee said.
Larry Hildes, an attorney for Occupy Bellingham, said he and the protesters were betrayed by the city in the eviction and described the police response as overkill, saying that a couple of protesters were injured, a claim police dispute.
"The police were the low point of the whole thing, but the entire incident was unnecessary and really badly handled," he said. "This is a community where the police don't need to have riot gear, and they certainly don't need to bring it out for 30 to 40 people."
Sucee said the gear the officers were wearing - including face shields, vests and shin guards - is the uniform of the city's civil disturbance unit, which handled the sweep through the park.
"That type of gear is the gear they wear for their personal protection," he said. "Throughout the country, when there are civil disturbances, those officers never know the response they will get."
The four people arrested during the eviction made their first appearances in court Thursday and were released from Whatcom County Jail. Hildes said the focus now is to help them with their criminal cases and then file a lawsuit.
"No matter what happens we will take civil action. I promise you, we are going to file a civil suit on this," he said. "We're extremely angry with the city, we're angry with the mayor and we're upset with the way the police handled this. They treated this as if it was a war, for 30 or 40 peaceful people."
Having seen the escalation that took place at other Occupy encampments throughout the country, Sucee said police decided it was best to be prepared. Officers weren't sure if protesters from other areas of the state would come up to take a stand in Bellingham.
"We planned for the worst and we got lucky," he said. "There was no violence. That was good. Nobody got hurt. That was good."
