Germany: Police begin clearing Occupy Frankfurt camp

Police officers remove a protester of the "Occupy Frankfurt" camp near the Euro currency sign sculpture in front of the European Central Bank (ECB) headquarters in Frankfurt August 6, 2012. (Reuters Pictures)

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — German police on Monday carried out a court order to remove anti-capitalist protesters from an Occupy Frankfurt camp set up almost ten months ago next to the European Central Bank headquarters.

Police put up barricades around the camp and asked people to leave voluntarily, then started to carry out activists who refused and sat down. A small crane picked up heavy objects such as old sofas and loaded them in the back of a truck for removal.

The clearing of the remaining several dozen tents followed a court decision upholding the city's effort to enforce rules against camping on city-owned parkland. City official Joerg Bannach said Monday the police were trying to clear the camp "as peacefully as possible."

The city's latest authorization for the almost 10-month-old demonstration permits protesting on the adjacent public square between the ECB and the Frankfurt Opera but banned tents.

"Tents are not a means of protest," said Bannach. "That's been the case from the beginning, but we tolerated it."

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