Camping in McPherson Square?

"Occupy D.C." protesters have pitched tents and spent the winter, so far, in McPherson Square. And they're squawking when police are telling them that "camping" in McPherson Square is illegal.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/tensions-mount-with-arrest-of-occupy-dc-protester-and-approach-of-deadline/2012/01/29/gIQABYc5aQ_story.html?tid=pm_local_pop

For those who've never lived or worked in Washington, McPherson Square is not a campground, or even a big public park like Lafayette Park. It's a rectangle of green space, not an especially large one, at the intersection of several streets and avenues. It's big enough for people to eat lunch, wait for a bus, smoke a cigarette, or flag a taxi, which are the uses for which it was meant. It's not even a place where people have traditionally wanted to be after dark.

Reading the Post article linked above made me wonder whether the police have tolerated the protesters' camp for as long as they have because the protesters may be an impediment to what was rumored to go on, in McPherson Square, at night, when I was in the city. I wouldn't know.