Police begin clearing Occupy DC protest site

ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION)

Story: Police removed bedding and some tents on Saturday at an "Occupy" protest site just blocks from the White House, enforcing a no-camping rule at a public square that has housed protesters for months.

Dozens of officers sealed off McPherson Square and moved in before dawn to enforce the no-camping regulation. Demonstrators

have been in the square since early October to target the growing income gap, corporate greed and what they see as an unfair tax structure favoring the richest Americans.

The National Park Service had repeatedly warned protesters that it would start enforcing a ban against camping in McPherson Square

and at Freedom Plaza, both a few blocks from the White House.

Demonstrations in the U.S. capital have survived an unusually warm winter and a permissive approach by federal authorities reluctant to provoke confrontation.

But the site has drawn increasing complaints from members of Congress and city officials because of squalor and rats. The

protest site also had drawn numbers of homeless people.