A woman who lives across the street from the Occupy Petaluma encampment in Penry Park decided that after three weeks, she no longer wanted to have to look at the protesters from her front window.
So, last Saturday, Heather Thorson erected an 8-by-15-foot canvas painting at the western edge of the park to block her view of the encampment.
On Tuesday, police told Thorson she would have to take the painting down because she did not have a permit.
"I put it there so that when I look out my window I do not see people sleeping in the park," Thorson said.
The self-employed businesswoman does not disagree with the protesters, who object to Wall Street banks and mortgage companies enriching themselves at the expense of middle-class taxpayers. "I understand where they are coming from. I believe we need to change things. But I do not believe that my tax dollars should pay for police to deal with (the protesters). They should have to go home (at night) and not be allowed to sleep in the park," Thorson said.
Tim Nonn of Occupy Petaluma described what happened this way:
"The group didn't know who put up the mural. I was talking with Jan Mandrell of the Parks and Recreation Department, and she told mw that it would have to come down before the city could issue a new permit for the encampment. So I talked to some of the people in the camp, who started taking it down.
"All of a sudden, a guy standing on the balcony across street, started screaming at us. He said, &‘Don't touch that, don't take it down.' He said, &‘I'm calling the police. I thought, &‘well, good.'
"Personally, I thought it made &‘Camp Opie' look better," Nonn said.
Occupy Petaluma began on Oct. 29, after organizers met with city officials and received a permit for a limited number of people to camp in the park. Penry Park is located adjacent to the downtown branch of Bank of America, one of the targets of the protest. The permit has just been renewed again, said Nonn, this time extending through Jan. 1.
Thorson said she and her boyfriend bought an 8-by-15-foot canvas tarp, painted an ocean scene using a spray gun, mounted it on a wooden frame and propped it up in the park using 5-gallon cans filled with sand to hold it in place. The painting was illuminated at night with a light powered by a 12-volt battery. "It wasn't a political statement," she said.
On Tuesday morning, Thorson said she got a call on her cell phone while attending a college course in Vallejo that her painting was being taken down. "When I came home, the police asked why I put it up. I said that (the protesters) shouldn't have to occupy my vision every single day.
Police Lt. Tim Lyons said, "She does not have a permit to place a sign in Penry Park. Occupy Petaluma has a permit to be in the park currently."
"We took it down to avoid any conflict," he said. "We're just trying to keep the peace."
(Contact Chris Samson at chris.samson@arguscourier.com)
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