Arrests Made At Occupy DC After Protesters Build Barn-like Structure

(The Blaze/AP) U.S. Park Police have arrested several Occupy D.C. protesters who refused to dismantle an unfinished wooden structure they built in a park overnight.

On Sunday morning, police told them they would need a permit and gave them an hour to disassemble it.

When the protesters failed to comply, officers arrested several protesters. After an hours-long standoff which drew as many as 200 people to watch, an inspector posted a notice on the structure and later more protesters inside it were arrested.

Legba Carrefour with Occupy D.C. says about two dozen people had been arrested. By late Sunday, six protesters who had been on the roof of the structure came down aboard a cherry picker. No protesters remained in the building.

The structure in McPherson Square was donated by a father-son architect team, and one of the Occupy demonstrators told CNN that it was built as a place where protesters could stay warm in the winter and hold their daily general assembly meeting.

Earlier in the day police put up barriers around the structure and cordoned off nearby streets with yellow tape as protesters chanted "This is a nonviolent movement," and, "Put the pepper spray away."

WTOP reports that D.C. police SWAT officers arrived in the afternoon to help Park Police remove the occupiers who had taken up camp on or inside the wooden structure. According to WTOP, park police officers pulled out a Taser as they slammed to the ground and arrested 21-year-old homeless veteran Micheal Patterson, from Alaska. WTOP also reports that some protesters were calling the building of the structure a "barn raising."