Police arrested protesters early Wednesday at Woodruff Park, home of the Occupy Atlanta movement.

Protesters had been ordered to leave the park. Those waiting to be arrested were sitting in a circle with their arms locked. Police starting handcuffing them with plastic handcuffs around 12:45 a.m. Many protesters would not get up on their own and some had to be dragged. Most protesters went peacefully.
Some of the people waiting to be arrested waved small American flags. About 40 to 50 people remained inside the park after midnight, including Sen. Vincent Fort (D-Atlanta), former Atlanta city councilman Derrick Boazman and Joe Beasley, the southern regional director of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition. Several hundred others were in the street, chanting and carrying signs. Fort was arrested around 1 a.m.


Motorcycle police moved in about 12:15 a.m. Wednesday and a helicopter circled overhead. Officers were also on horseback. Police went from tent to tent with flashlights, urging people to leave before a second warning was issued. Tents were removed from the park and placed on Peachtree Street.
Deputy Police Chief Calvin Moss announced at 11:52 p.m. Tuesday that the executive order allowing protesters to stay in the park has been revoked. Protesters were told to leave the park and any belongings left behind would be treated as abandoned property.
At 10:45 p.m., Tim Franzen, an Occupy Atlanta leader, told participants who wanted to be arrested to gather in a circle in the middle of the park where there was the best lighting for the media to see. He advised people who had been drinking, using drugs or were on probation not to take part. Those who did not want to be arrested but wanted to continue the occupation were told to circle the park until 6 a.m. and then return.
Franzen said arrangements already had been made to cover the bail of group members who were arrested. They are expected to be charged with violating a city ordinance, a misdemeanor.
"After they arrest us, you should march to the jail," he told them.
Some people climbed over the barricades to re-enter the park, while others chanted, "Hey, hey, ho, ho, Mayor Reed has got to go."
Fifty additional police officers arrived just after 8 p.m., and Park Place NE alongside the park was barricaded. As of 10 p.m., a helicopter keeping watch over the park was greeted by a sign made out of PVC pipe, saying "Hi."
Mayor Kasim Reed said Monday he wouldn't evict Occupy Atlanta from the park until a group of clergy met with the demonstrators to try to work out a solution.
That meeting occurred late Tuesday afternoon, but little was accomplished. Reed said if no resolution was reached "we are going to clear the park."
"No one's really listening to me," said the Rev. Darrell Elligan, pastor of the True Light Baptist Church, following his meeting with Occupy Atlanta representatives. Elligan, president of the Atlanta chapter of the Concerned Black Clergy, was among a coalition of 30 faith leaders asked by Reed to meet with the demonstrators, though the pastor said they were not representing the mayor.
Occupy Atlanta wasn't buying the clergy's professed neutrality.
"I think [the clergy] were sent here to give the mayor cover," said Lady Mansfield, a spokeswoman for the protesters. "Not everyone, but most of them."
At 6 p.m. more barricades were brought in along with additional officers. Later, police established a staging area at the Civic Center.
Atlanta police recruits, dressed in white T-shirts and blue pants, first began erecting barricades around the park Monday afternoon after Reed said he would at some point rescind his order allowing the protesters to remain in the park until Nov. 7. Reed said an unauthorized hip-hop concert that created a "dangerous situation" was the reason, adding some people associated with the movement "were on a clear path to escalation."
In response, Occupy Atlanta said city officials had "fabricated danger where none exists."
Also Tuesday, a man was seen walking around the park with a loaded AK-47, which, since he has a permit to carry, is legal though was unsettling to many. Police watched him closely as he circled the park, which was filling up with more protesters as the sun began to set. The man, who identified himself as "Porch," said he supported the demonstrators' right to assemble and was making a point about both the First and Second amendments.
The man, who said he was a 29-year-old accountant from East Point, invited his conservative friends to join him in the park.
"I'd welcome more of them to come down here and support the right of this movement to be here," he said.