TAMPA -- Three more Occupy Tampa protesters were arrested Wednesday night, accused of trespassing in a public park.
Police were patrolling Kiley Garden Park, 400 N. Ashley Drive, after it closed when they spotted Ryan Bee, 25, on the property, according to an arrest report.
Officers arrested him because he violated a previous warning, the report said. Bee had been booked into a county jail Nov. 9 on charges of trespassing and possession of drug paraphernalia in the same park.
While Bee was being arrested, two more protesters entered the park, the report said.
Joseph Perry, 20, began to record the incident with a video camera and was told by officers to leave, according to the report. It said he and Ashley Perry, 24, were arrested after police asked them to stay off park property and they didn't heed the warning.
All three were booked into Orient Road Jail. Bee's bail was set at $2,250. Joseph and Ashley Perry's bail was set at $500 each, and Joseph Perry was released on bail Thursday morning.
Kiley Garden Park is adjacent to Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park, the site where Occupy Tampa has centered its efforts to protest corporate bailouts, soaring unemployment, a shrinking middle class and government debt.
The city has allowed Occupy Tampa participants to sleep on a sidewalk along Ashley Drive, but not in public parks. People sleeping overnight have to get up and collect their belongings by 6 a.m.
Some protesters have spent the night in Kiley Garden Park without being led out in handcuffs. On Nov. 8, Occupy Tampa posted a video on YouTube showing four protesters sleeping there. Near them was a sign that said, "This is our park."
In an email to The Tampa Tribune, protesters wrote that Occupy Tampa scored a "victory" against police when the "four members successfully camped out overnight without arrest at Kiley Garden Park."
The local movement here originally was inspired by Occupy Wall Street protests in New York.
Thousands of people demonstrated Thursday in New York, according to The Associated Press.
Earlier this week, police removed Occupy Wall Street protesters from their Zuccotti Park camp in Manhattan.
A local advocacy group, St. Pete For Peace, has created a website that tracks how many arrests have been made since the Occupy Wall Street movement started Sept. 17.
About 3,476 protesters in 56 cities have been arrested, according to the OccupyArrests.com.
Copyright 2011 - Tampa Tribune, Fla.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
