MOBILE, Alabama -- Occupy Mobile protestors Tuesday packed up their camp in downtown's Spanish Plaza after Mayor Sam Jones told them they had to be out before noon.

Jones had initially told the group they could stay until Wednesday, but later changed the deadline when the group did not immediately respond to his first offer.

Jones said that he’d given the Wednesday deadline on the condition that the group identify another, privately owned, location and contact his office to let him know that the group had agreed to leave. When no contact was made, he said, he took the offer off the table and ordered them out Tuesday morning.

Police, on horseback and on foot, watched as the protestors broke camp.

The city needs to clear the park ahead of a Veterans Day celebration scheduled for Friday, Jones said.

“They cannot deny others the use of a public park,“ he said.

Erin Kinsella, who recently lost his job as a security service salesman, said the group has never denied anybody use of the park.

In fact, he pointed out, the group has been accepting anybody who wanted to join them, including the homeless.

Michael Lynch, one of the protestors, said that the group came to a consensual decision to comply with the mayor’s demand in respect for the veterans.

“We are moving for the veterans because we respect the sacrifice they made so we can even be here,” he said. “We are not doing this for City Hall. They can go to hell.”

Lynch said it was unfair to change the deadline on such short notice. With so little time, the group couldn’t even attend Tuesday morning’s City Council meeting to plead its case, he said.

Despite their anger with Jones’ decision, the protesters were orderly and polite as they gathered up their things. Several, including one man in a Guy Fawkes mask, walked up to the officers, shook their hands and thanked them for not engaging in the type of violent crackdown that has marred other occupations in the country.

Chele Fury, an artist and fire dancer who has been active in the protest, said that the occupiers may reconstitute the protest elsewhere.

Robert McClendon is a staff reporter for the Press-Register. Reach him by phone at 251-219-5611, or by email at

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Other protesters said they planned to return to Spanish Plaza, with or without the city’s consent. A lawyer on the scene briefed the protesters on their rights and how the local criminal justice system would likely unfold should they stay and be arrested.

It was unclear Tuesday evening whether any of them would stay.

“Our voice is too loud, our community too large to be silenced now,” Fury said.