The lights went out at Occupy Tacoma’s downtown encampment Wednesday night, and chances are they won’t come on again.
Protesters, who have been camped out since Oct. 15 in Pugnetti Park on Pacific Avenue, had tapped into electrical power supplying the park’s six light poles. Overloads occasionally have tripped the breaker in the on-site service panel.
Several days ago, employees of the park’s owner, the state Department of Transportation, after discovering the service panel box had been broken into, installed a new lock, said the Transportation Department’s communications director, Steve Pierce.
The fact the lights went out after a general assembly meeting at which the Washington State Patrol discussed the group’s inevitable eviction was purely coincidental, he said.
“We did not shut the power off on them, I’m 100 percent certain of that,” he said. “A circuit was overloaded and a breaker tripped.”
Power most likely will not be returned to the park while the protesters remain because of liability issues, he said.
Transportation Department representatives tentatively plan to attend next Wednesday’s general assembly meeting to again try to find a way to get the protesters to leave peacefully and with dignity before they’re evicted for trespassing, Pierce said.
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