mr. jarvis. >> mr. chairman and members of the committee i appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the national park service handling of the occupied demonstrations at mcpherson square. this hearing takes place in the district of columbia. the capitol of the nation and the federal government. it is here perhaps more than any other place in the united states americans come to exercise their first amendment rights to peacefully assemble to petition their government for redress of grievances and to exercise their right of freedom of speech. all three injured 97 of america's national parks but especially the national parks in washington, d.c. are places where citizens' rights are guaranteed under the nation's constitution. among the law enforcement agencies in the nation, the national park service and its urban law enforcement organization the united states park release have perhaps the greatest experience handling first amendment activities. in 2011 alone there were 626 permitted f

mr. jarvis, i appreciate the candor. you have acknowledged they are camping and there are individuals in mcpherson park breaking the law. and they have been there since october. so, it's not like three or four months later now, you've been too quick to enforce the law. they have been there four months. we aren't even there yet getting into many of the issues that the city is having to deal with. and again, nobody up here, republican or democrat, i don't think anybody in this hearing room questions at all their right to protest. that's not what this hearing is about. you're not enforcing your own statute. who's telling you -- and i know this isn't you -- who's telling you not to enforce the statute? it's not your job how to treat protest groups differently. they are breaking the law. why aren't you enforcing that law? it's been four months? >> well, all of our decisions related to the way that this particular protest has been handled has been made on the ground first and foremost by our u.s. park police, officers and comm

mr. jarvis yesterday, so has there been a response yet? >> no, we haven't heard anything. in fact, we sent a letter earlier indicating to the national park service of the costs that had been incurred by the district of colombia, asking them to help us because we're obviously in tough budget times. we haven't gotten a response to that one either. e in the letter from yesterday, is there some friction there or something or why do you think you haven't gotten a response yet? >> no. there's nothing that i would cite as friction at this stage. as a matter of fact, we're trying to work closely with the park service through all of this. but we would like a response not only to the letter yesterday, but the one that preceded it. >> so the hope is that you'll be able to move the protesters at least temporarily, clean that up and then they may be able to go back there. >> we don't know about going back. we're just trying to figure out what the best and safest way is to continue to have them do what is guaranteed by the constitution and that is protest. again, if you look at freedom