Chanting “Ain’t no power like the power of the people!” “OSJ; not going away!” and “This is what democracy looks like!” a small but hearty band of Occupy San Jose protesters shouted for a second night in front of City Manager Debra Figone’s home in the Rose Garden.

Fewer than a dozen waved signs and yelled recriminations against Figone, whom they blame for refusing to give them a permit to camp at City Hall.

“You kick us out of our home, we are going to come to your home,” said Shaun O’Kelly, widely known as the man who spent 26 days camped atop a wall in City Hall plaza before descending just before midnight Friday. He denied that a cease-and-desist order that the city served on him last week influenced his decision to leave his three-story-high perch.

Occupy took to protesting at the homes of city leaders after the city evicted campers from a parking strip across from City Hall. Earlier on Sunday, Occupy member Shaunn Cartwright said, San Jose’s general assembly voted to place a three-week moratorium on targeting city officials at their homes. But several members decided to continue the neighborhood protests until their moratorium kicked in Monday. On Saturday they had pitched a tent in Mayor Chuck Reed’s driveway, and later they demonstrated at Figone’s house.

‘Outside agitators’

On Sunday, San Jose City Attorney Rick Doyle became the next target, so a handful of protesters drove in a light rain to his Rose Garden home. But when no one appeared to be home, there was confusion over whether it was the correct address. Instead of hanging around, they tweeted their revised plans to supporters, got back into their vehicles and headed to Figone’s house.

The group blames Doyle for the trespassing and illegal camping charges that some of them face.

City spokesman Tom Manheim said that the city simply doesn’t allow camping at City Hall and therefore cannot issue a permit to camp. While the city tolerated the protest since Oct. 2, he said, last week it ordered protesters to remove chairs, tables and other equipment.

“It became clear that over the last couple of weeks there was an increase in vandalism and other problems,” Manheim said. “We felt we needed to take action.”

Last Tuesday, two assaults were reported near the protest centered on the intersection of Fourth and Santa Clara streets in downtown San Jose. Occupiers blame the violence on “outside agitators” who they said attacked them.

In fact, said the charismatic O’Kelly, “all the fighting with my friends” down below is what prompted him to finally descend from the wall after nearly a month. “We’re supposed to be fighting corporations and economic inequality,” he said, “not each other.” And instead of struggling to keep their tents at City Hall, he said, “I decided we could take it someplace else, and it would be fun for everybody.”

Hollywood to San Jose

A native of Florida, O’Kelly, 27, grew up mostly in Fort Myers. He came west with friends to look for a job as an extra in Hollywood, but he didn’t find work. Last summer, he climbed Castle Crags near Mount Shasta to try to overcome vertigo. Then, he said, he came to San Jose to relax from mountaineering.

On Oct. 24, he climbed the wall at City Hall plaza and vowed not to come down. For a while his unusual solo protest worked.

Using ropes and the help of enthusiastic fans, he used a bucket system to pull up food, water and other donated provisions. One day someone even sent up a puppy for him to play with. Friends down below even ferried his waste and disposed of it. Sometimes, he read and studied books for earning a high-school diploma. He said he never feared tumbling from the 5-foot-wide wall, but ultimately, he realized that being up there was boring.

And the aim of his protest? “Socioeconomic change,” O’Kelly said, just before announcing that he was tired of being interviewed.

Outside Figone’s darkened home, protesters tried to be heard over Martin Luther King’s “We Shall Overcome” speech booming from inside one supporter’s Land Rover parked across the street. They shouted, “Make Debra pay. I can be here all day” and “Give the police back their pensions.”

And then, later in the night, they left.

Contact Sharon Noguchi at 408-271-3775.