Occupy protesters want Mayor Rybak to explain arrests
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About 50 protestors with the Occupy movement converged on Mayor R.T. Rybak's city hall office on Monday.
The protestors demanded to discuss arrests that occurred during a demonstration on Saturday night. About a dozen protesters were arrested after where protestors erected tents in Peavey Plaza and Loring Park near downtown Minneapolis in an attempt to re-establish the Occupy movement's presence in the city.
Police spokesman Sgt. Steve McCarty said officers warned the group they were violating city ordinances and blocking public access and to leave. Police say the protestors were blocking an intersection before they were arrested.
The mayor's staff has agreed to meet with the protesters at 1 p.m. Tuesday at the mayor's office.
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Protestor Melissa Hill said she wants to hear Rybak explain why the arrests happened.
"I was not expecting to be arrested. It was your typical rally, protest that people have done thousands of times down here and the don't get arrested," Hill said.
Minneapolis Police officials said the protestors were blocking an intersection when they were arrested.
A photographer for KSTP-TV was injured when a camera was knocked out of his hands by a police officer. Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan said he was disappointed because the action appeared unnecessary.
"We made it very clear that this is not just a time for the mayor to give a speech to us, that we would have questions of him," protestor Ben Egerman said. "And we asked him to go on the record as either supporting this police violence or denouncing it and taking some action on that."
