Episcopal clergy convicted after N.Y. ‘Occupy’ demonstration

[rug]

Sharon Sheridan /ENInews|Jun 19, 2012

NEW YORK (RNS/ENInews) A retired Episcopal bishop and a Harlem priest were among seven people convicted Monday (June 18) on charges of trespassing on property owned by one of the Episcopal Church's wealthiest parishes at the height of the Occupy protests.

Bishop George Packard, who oversaw the military and federal ministries before he retired, and the Rev. Earl Kooperkamp of St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Harlem, were sentenced to four days of community service. They had faced up to 90 days in prison on the most serious charge, Packard's lawyer, Gideon Oliver, told Episcopal News Service.

An eighth defendant, Mark Adams, was sentenced to 45 days on charges of trespassing, attempted criminal mischief and attempted possession of burglar's tools, reportedly for trying to use bolt-cutters to slice through the fence surrounding a parcel of land owned by Trinity Church, off Wall Street in downtown Manhattan.

Trinity's rector, the Rev. James Cooper, said the landmark church supported many of the Occupy movement's goals and would continue to welcome protestors to its facilities in the Wall Street neighborhood, but said in a statement that it did "not support the seizure of private property."

http://www.religionnews.com/politics/law-and-court/episcopal-clergy-convicted-after-n.y.-occupy-demonstration

[cbayer]

1. I'm not sure I understand what happened here.

Is this right? OWS participants, including these guys, ask to use the church for an encampment and were told no. So they occupied it anyway and were arrested? Is that right?

[struggle4progress]

2. Bishop George Packard climbs over a fence surrounding the Duarte Square property in lower Manhattan

owned by Trinity Wall Street in a Dec. 17 effort to open the area to Occupy Wall Street protesters.
Bishop, priest convicted of trespassing in Occupy demonstration
By Sharon Sheridan | June 18, 2012
http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/ens/2012/06/18/bishop-priest-convicted-of-trespassing-in-occupy-demonstration/

OWS #D17 - Over the fence from Duarte Square
Exhilerating. 77 year-old Episcopal Bishop George Packard inspires us all by being first over the fence around Duarte Square. OWS organizers built a pair of staircases that we disguised as signs during the march. Our celebration inside was short-lived but we made an impression.

Occupy Group Faults Church, a Onetime Ally
By MATT FLEGENHEIMER
Published: December 16, 2011
For months, they were the best of neighbors: the slapdash champions of economic equality, putting down stakes in an outdoor plaza, and the venerable Episcopal parish next door, whose munificence helped sustain the growing protest ... The displaced occupiers had asked the church, one of the city’s largest landholders, to hand over a gravel lot, near Canal Street and Avenue of the Americas, for use as an alternate campsite and organizing hub. The church declined, calling the proposed encampment “wrong, unsafe, unhealthy and potentially injurious” ... Occupy Wall Street plans to hold a demonstration on Saturday at the lot. Some clergy members have said they planned to attend, and a handful said they may join protesters who have discussed taking down the fences around the lot, risking arrest ...
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/17/nyregion/church-that-aided-wall-st-protesters-is-now-their-target.html?pagewanted=all

[cbayer]

3. Thanks s4p. I have a vague recollection of this.

Love that photo.

[hrmjustin]

4. I know and love the man!!! n/t