.@sfpd trying to remove tree sitter from Hayes Valley Farm. I'm told man is a veteran. @ktvu twitter.com/katieutehs/sta
— Katie Utehs (@katieutehs) June 13, 2013
Police pinched protesters involved in the Hayes Valley Farms tree-sitting protest early this morning. SFPD hit the former urban farm at around 2 a.m. and moved in about an hour later. At least seven occupiers were arrested, three of them plucked from a makeshift treehouse.
One protester was hurt falling from the tree fort. “The protester was hanging from a tree limb and let go of the limb landing on foam padding SFPD had in place under the tree in case of emergency,” SFPD spokesperson Sgt Dennis Toomer told SF Appeal.
Brandishing signage that read "Liberate the Land," occupiers swarmed the farm at Fell and Laguna two weeks ago. The farm, as you recall, agreed to operate temporarily for two years. Since its amicable closure, Occupiers have used the former farm to fetishizing various causes while also attempting to draw attention to the turmoil in Turkey by renaming the patch of land "Gezi Gardens."
The farm soil will now play host to a 182-unit semi-luxury condos construction project, which will hopefully help put a miniscule dent in the City's housing crisis.
The now-defunct farm occupation has nothing to do with Hayes Valley Farm organizers.