Police disperse Carrboro Commune Occupiers

Occupy protesters moved into an empty building at the site of a planned CVS in Carrboro at 4 p.m. Saturday — but after police told them they could be arrested or leave, they vacated the building at about 7:10 p.m., yelling all the while.

According to a press release from the group, called Carrboro Commune, the occupation was meant to be permanent. The release also states that the group is separate from Occupy Chapel Hill/Carrboro.

“This will allow local residents to come together, roll up our sleeves, and share a sense of real ownership over the site. This would be impossible were a corporate drug store to be located here,” a blog post from the group reads.

“This isn’t just about CVS. It’s about an economic system that prioritizes profit over people, a legal system that violently defends it and a political system that rubber-stamps it.”

Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton and several Carrboro Alderman visited the protest camp, and Chilton told TV cameras and a group of reporters that he would not leave the building until the occupiers did.

“I’m here as an officer of the N.C. Government,” he said. “I’m not leaving til they leave.”

Chilton said he first came with the chief of Carrboro police, and together the two told occupiers that they were breaking the law by camping out in the building.

But prior to the police break-up protesters seemed undeterred by the warning, and told Chilton that if he didn’t plan on leaving until they did he would be staying at the building for some time.

After police came to make them leave, occupiers chanted angrily and swore at police and the mayor. Maria Rowan, who is a member of Occupy Chapel Hill/Carrboro, was among a group who worked to facilitate a calmer discussion.

Prior to the break-up, Rowan was outside watching the events said the occupation was a form of civil disobedience and should be allowed, and she thought that it might be more tolerated in Carrboro.

“If you can’t have civil disobedience in Chapel Hill, where can you have it? I shouted out, ‘Carrboro,’” Rowan said, recounting a scene from an Occupy Chapel Hill/Carrboro meeting.

As protesters left the building and engaged in a conversation with officials on the sidewalk, some asked Chilton why they were being forced to leave.

“The mayor believes in government? Crazy,” Chilton said.

Daniel Meltzer, who said he supports the movement and was distributing pamphlets on the sidewalk outside of the building, said the occupation was largely a protest against what he said was a largely unpopular CVS that has been planned for the building.

But a protester who said her name is Ellen Jones said the occupation was a reaction to the police raid of the abandoned Yates Motor Co. building on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill, which took place in November.

“Obviously we’re in the position of feeling distrustful,” she said prior to the police dispersal. “The decision to do this is a political experiment.”

About 60 people were involved in the CVS building takeover in all, Jones said.

Jones said she did not know of any Carrboro Commons occupiers who overlapped with the Occupy Everything protesters from the Yates raid. Self-identified members of Occupy Chapel Hill/Carrboro and Nomadic Occupy watched from the sidewalk outside.

At about 7 p.m., shortly before police made them leave, the group was cooking dinner and constructing a table. They had painted an interior wall to say “Carrboro Commons” and protesters had hung a sign reading “under capitalism we are all under gunpoint” behind their make-shift kitchen.

Assistant City Editor Brian Fanney contributed reporting.