United States Department of the Interior
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
HEADQUARTERS, UNITED STATES PARK POLICE
1100 OHIO DRIVE, S.W.
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20242
December 6,1982

A5639 (NCR-PPOD)

OPERATIONS DIVISION MEMORANDUM NO. 14(Series 1982)

To: Operations Division Personnel

From: Commander, Operations Division

Subject: Camping and Temporary Structures (36 CFR 50.19)

Recent amendments to 36 CFR 50, effective June 4, 19 82, have clarified the prohibitions in that part concerning the use of temporary structures and camping in park areas. Regulations contained in 36 CFR 50.19 (e) (8) prohibit the use of temporary structures for living accommodation purposes in park areas not designated as camping areas. Regulations contained in 36 CFR 50.27(a) prohibit camping in park areas not designated by the Superintendent as public camping grounds. Camping is defined in the regulations as the use of park land for living accommodation purposes .

Tents may be erected as a means of symbolizing the message of demonstrating groups or of providing support and logistical services. Examples of activities where the erection of tents in connection with demonstration activities has been permitted include: a demonstration by ACORN in which a number of tents symbolized the need for housing for the homeless; demonstrations by anti-war veterans groups where the tents symbolized conditions in Vietnam; Indian teepees by Indian rights groups to symbolize the plight of Indians; and numerous other demonstrations where support services tents were used for first aid facilities, for lost children areas, and to shelter electrical and/or sensitive equipment or displays.

Although tents may be authorized as temporary structures for the aforementioned purposes in connection with permitted demonstration activities, the regulations prohibit camping or the erection of tents for camping in connection with de~monstration activities in other than formally designated campgrounds. Camping is defined as the use of park land for living accommodation purposes such as sleeping activities, or making preparation to sleep (including the laying down of bedding for the purpose of sleeping), or storing perronal belongings or making any fire, or using any tent or shelter or other structure or vehicle for the purpose of sleeping or doing any digging or earth breaking or carrying on cooking activities. These activities constitute camping when it reasonabl.y appeaars, in light of all the circumstances, that the participants, in conducting these activities, are in fact using the area as a living accommodation reqardless of the intent of the Participants or the nature of any other activities in which they may also be engaging.

The enforcement of these regulations in which the activity mav be a part of a First Amendment expression should be delayed until consultation with a supervisor and a representative of the Solicitor's Office who can be reached through the Force Communications Center. However, enforcement of these regulations should be positive and immediate when the activity is ciearly not a part of-a First Amendment expression.

This policy is not intended to prohibit traditional picnicking activities in areas designated for Picnicking pursuant to 36 CFR 50.14.

James C. Lindsey, Deputy Chief

Inaugural Articles - 1997 - 1993 - 1989 - 1985 - 1981 -

January 1997

In case you're looking for us (White House Peace Vigil - Peace Park anti-nuclear vigil - and friends) our signs have been moved across Lafayette Park to H Street, as has happened every four years since the vigil began in June, 1981.

Meanwhile a dozen large mobile homes rest on the grass of the southern half of Lafayette Park for the construction crews' comfort. Police patrol regularly, in part to make sure no homeless people crawl under the empty trailers in the icy dark of night. The bricks where office workers and tourists usually walk have been torn up, and huge - ugly - three-story bleachers rise in the space where our vigil normally stands, along the north side of Pennsylvania Avenue, so the press -- for one afternoon -- may stay warm and dry and near bathrooms while President Clinton has his second inaugural parade. The bathrooms on the north side of the park are locked, though construction workers again (as in past years) have for their use several porta-johns which are locked at night. Fences of every variety are intricately laid out to block demonstrators into the northeast corner of the park during the Big Event.

Ronald Reagan tried to have a second inaugural parade but it was so cold Inauguration Day 1985, the president had to call it off, and the quarter-million-dollar bleachers went unused. We were shivering and dancing in the northeast quadrant of the park, giving credit to God for a good sense of humor.

The vigil began five months after Reagan's first inauguration. At that time, people were allowed to demonstrate on the White House sidewalk. After a campaign by the Washington Times in 1983, new regulations were written banishing the vigil to Lafayette Park. During the wee hours of the morning, when tourists weren't about, police hovered and often arrested the vigilers. Department of Interior lawyers wrote a "camping" regulation which was used to criminalize (see CCNV case, U.S. Supreme Court, 1984) what was formerly protected behavior (see Abney case, U.S. Court of Appeals, 1976).

Since there are private citizens who insist on paying for this desecration of Lafayette Park every four years (via the Inaugural Committee), we're stuck with the bleachers again this year. So I'm writing President Clinton asking him, as I asked President Reagan in 1985, at least to leave the bleachers up for the rest of the winter, for homeless people to get out of the cold, wet, snowy, icy streets. I'm not asking for us -- we will remain at our signs with the minimal amount of protection necessary to survive. We are asking on behalf of the homeless sleeping on the DC streets (in spite of police harassment) ... still, after all these years.

Ellen Thomas
PEACE PARK ANTINUCLEAR VIGIL
PO Box 27217, Washington, DC 20038 USA
202-462-0757
prop1@prop1.org

1997 Inaugural | Park Closures | Pennsylvania Ave. Closure
Peace Park | Proposition One
Legal Overview | Regulations