With news from various local Occupy camps mostly settling down, the Chronicle's number one homeless camping critic weighs in on the current state of Justin Herman Plaza today. According to C.W. Nevius, fueling some anti-Occupy sentiment in his Tuesday column today, the occupiers have now resorted to calling the cops down to the plaza to handle intra-camp scuffles more times than SFPD has moved in on their own accord.
As SFPD Chief Greg Suhr tells Nevius, "We're getting called in multiple times a day, because they are continuing to have daily assaults on each other. We get called in there to keep the peace a lot more than we've gone in there ourselves." According to Nevius, Mayor Lee's promise to raid the camp "soon" did more to clear out the camp than an actual raid — which would have stoked additional support and media attention for the cause, not to mention some bad PR for City Hall.
So, in that way, Nevius thinks Mayor Lee played Occupy SF as one might handle a bratty kid in the throes of a tantrum: just ignore it and it will eventually get attacked by a mentally ill homeless person and ask a grownup for help.
Previously: All Occupy SF coverage.
[Chron]