Travis Long - tlong@newsobserver.com
N.C. State student Aaron Picart protests at the Capitol last week. Raleigh police, whose overtime pay has cost $50,000, will help Capitol officers only after 5 p.m.
RALEIGH -- After spending more than $50,000 over nearly a three-week period, the Raleigh Police Department is no longer monitoring the Occupy Raleigh protesters in front of the Capitol grounds.
Raleigh police in the downtown district are still assigned to an area that covers a stretch of sidewalk along East Morgan Street on the south side of the Capitol, but only after 5 p.m. and overnight, authorities reported on Monday.
"We have people that are available, but the day-to-day operations have been turned over to the state Capitol police," Jim Sughrue, a Raleigh police spokesman said on Monday.
The Raleigh demonstrators say they are in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street protest against economic inequality, however North Carolina's capital city protests have not drawn large crowds, save for the first day on Oct. 15. Although there have been 28 arrests, all happened without violence or injury.
Raleigh police arrested 20 people on Oct. 15 on charges of second-degree trespassing after they refused to leave the Capitol grounds when the group's demonstration permit expired. Nearly two weeks later, Capitol police arrested another eight protesters last after the N.C. Department of Administration announced that the sidewalks were the property of the Capitol and ordered the protesters to remove all chairs, tables, blankets, coolers and other supplies from the sidewalk along East Morgan Street.
"It's in the jurisdiction of the State Capitol police," said Scott Hunter, Capitol police chief. "They are just doing their job."
Police presence costly
Jim Sughrue said the city spent $26,300 on the first weekend of the protests. Since then, the city has spent about $1,500 a day in overtime to officers to keep up a continual presence there. Typically, the department has kept two or three officers and at least two vehicles parked across the street from the protesters.
Hunter said on Monday that the change occurred about a week ago. He added that "now that everything has settled" the Capitol police will do periodic checks at the site, with several rotating officers assigned to monitor the area each day.
The question of where Occupy Raleigh can legally assemble and demonstrate however is far from settled. This morning, the Occupy Raleigh demonstrators will seek permission from the city to set up an encampment on a grassy area next to the City Hall parking deck - essentially a yard with benches and trees at the corner of Dawson and East Morgan streets. But residents of three apartment or condo buildings along Dawson Street have called the city to voice objections.
Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker has suggested a different idea: a city parking lot on McDowell Street next to the former police building, which has been vacant since the police department moved to a headquarters on Six Forks Road.
The site would be a place for protesters to eat and sleep while they continue their protests at the Capitol.
