The thirty-three year-old Peace Vigil at the White House almost came to an end late Friday night when a dozen U.S. Park Police officers were dispatched to remove it.
When Park Police came, they told Clark Sullivan, who was standing watch at the vigil, to remove the chairs, tent and square wooden platform. The vigil had been using them to keep warm and off the sidewalk. They gave Sullivan fifteen minutes to do it, else they would confiscate the entire vigil.
Sullivan uses a wheelchair so there wasn’t much he could do. But he did have a tool Park Police understand well: a video camera. He videotaped the police officers’ actions. A second peace activist, Taylor Hall, who had just come to the vigil for a shift change, helped him remove the items which Park Police took an issue with.
Police have been threatening to forcibly remove the vigil from its 5×5 foot space over the past three days. They first issued a code violation warning on Thursday afternoon and threatened to remove the vigil the next day. On Friday afternoon, however, police officers merely took photos and gave a warning that they could return at any time.
Activists claim the peace vigil represents their 1st Amendment right to express a view against war and nuclear weapons. Park Police claim the vigil is breaking the law pertaining to maintaining a camp site on park grounds.
Police left a copy of the code of park regulations regarding camping in public parks. The warning was similar to the one issued to Occupy DC activists in McPherson Park in January 2012 to remove blankets, sleeping bags and any other bedding material in tents. “Having a tent up [under the white tarp] was the issue,” said Sullivan. “They were pretty hostile when they came in.”
Park Police removed the wooden pallet and chairs the activists could not take from the vigil, but the items can be reclaimed from Park Police headquarters at Hains Point. “We only had a few people here so we had no choice but to let [police] take them,” said Rocky Stenquist, a peace activist who has been working at the vigil for two years. The vigil has occupied the White House sidewalk with six-foot wooden signs flanking each side without much change for the last three decades.
Now all that is present is the metal frame and a white plastic tarp over it with a brown cardboard sign clipped to it that says, “Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech.” There is also a red plastic bucket with “Peace” written on it, used for donations. Peace activists were allowed to keep several boxes of flyers which tell the story about the Peace Vigil and the dangers of nuclear war. But there was no place to sit but on the sidewalk and except for the white plastic tarp, little or no protection from the elements.
Recently the police have been increasing the pressure on the peace vigil activists by issuing verbal warnings and taking photographs. “The tent was there all winter,” said Sullivan, “I feel like they are harassing us. Legally we’re grandfathered in as a protest.” The vigil has been the subject of past contention with Park Police. In September an activist abandoned the vigil and the police responded by confiscating the entire vigil, the tent, signs and printed materials.
But Sullivan cited the extreme cold weather as a humanitarian issue which prompted activists to install the tent underneath the white tarp to protect them from the extreme weather this winter brought. “We had the tent and blankets out there because it was so cold out,” said Sullivan. There was a rolled up sleeping bag and blankets visible at times during the previous week. “We removed those items on Thursday after the first warning,” he reported.
As of Saturday morning the vigil is much more lean. All that remains is a steel skeleton, a white tarp and a few bricks to hold it in place from wind and the two six-foot yellow signs flanking it. However, all the would-be comforts of a longstanding protest–the tent, pallet and chairs have been removed.
Peace activists vow to remain on the sidewalk. “We’re gonna continue to be down here because it’s been here since 1981, and we’re not gonna let it die,” warned Sullivan. He spoke about the purpose of the vigil, saying, “We’re here to remind the president of his duty to not start wars,” he said. “When he looks out his window, he is reminded there is a better way which is peace.”
