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Veterans Park was still shut down by the Colorado State Patrol on Friday night.
Early Friday morning, 23 people were arrested, but the arrests were not violent, and while troopers wore riot gear, no pepper spray or tear gas was used when they moved in.
It is being called a textbook response by both police and protesters.
"Most of the world's going to look at this and say, 'How'd you do it?' This was a model operation. That you were able to go in, with no violence, and minimal arrests disrupt what could have been a potentially volatile situation," Gov. John Hickenlooper said.
Richard Klassen was right in the middle of it.
"I was the first one to be picked up off the ground by police last night," he told 9NEWS.
Klassen refused to leave the park and was charged with unlawful conduct on public property, along with most of the other people who were arrested.
"Two police officers in riot gear picked me off the ground with two other people. I didn't resist," Klassen said.
He says his arrest, and spending the night in jail with other protestors, was worth it. During court on Friday, a judge let him off with no bond, and he'll be in court again in one week.
"I don't think the police achieved anything last night. We're not going to get stuck with any charges," Klassen said.
LISTEN: HEAR THE VOICES OF THE OCCUPY DENVER PROTESTERS
That is possible, but considering how tense things were Friday night, Hickenlooper is proud of both sides.
"I had talked to the protestors and I felt they were reasonable people that had real issues," he said. "I don't blame them for being frustrated. But I think they understood our position that you just can't - we have laws, and the laws have to be obeyed."
Things could have gotten out of hand, but they did not.
"That sense of responsibility that the troopers were going to behave responsibly and do their job with a professional level that couldn't be matched, that was very comforting," Hickenlooper said.
The protestors are now on land that belongs to the City of Denver, so it's the Denver Police Department's responsibility.
Friday, Denver Police said officers would not come out to the park unless laws were being broken, and camping there after 11 p.m. would still be considered illegal. But there's been no word if they will force people out of the park or plan on making any arrests.
The arrests and the threat of more have not deterred the protesters. On Friday, they made it clear that one of the top goals was to get those who were arrested back onto the street.
Of the 23 people who were arrested, protesters say about six were held on bond, mainly because of past charges. To help, demonstrators pooled their money over the course of the day to help get those people out of jail.
9Wants to Know ran background checks on all 23 people who were arrested. Seven had prior arrests in Colorado, 16 have never been in trouble with Colorado law enforcement before.
"I did not witness one person threaten any act of violence. I did not witness one person touch a cop," Sean, a protester who declined to give his last name, said.
"Those who were arrested last night, they gave the ultimate sacrifice for us," Clay Wilson, another demonstrator, said. "There was a large group of us who were at the Denver County courthouse today and we were taking notes to find out how much the bail was."
After enlisting the help of a bail bondsman, the total came to about $500. By using the collections they gathered over the course of the day, the group was able to post that.
Taking care of the bond situation is only one small issue the group's general assembly has been trying to address. The group admits it has no leader and every person gets the chance to speak. The attitude for Friday night is the same it was for Thursday - each person should make an individual choice of whether to stay overnight.
"They are going to sleep individually where they can. A lot of us are going home for the night and are going to reconvene tomorrow," Terry Burnsed, a protester, said.
The group plans to stay on the sidewalk and keep moving to keep from breaking any laws. But that is not a long-term solution.
"We are not sure how we can solve that just yet so at subsequent general assembly meetings of Occupy Denver we are going to keep that discussion going and what evolves will evolve," Burnsed said.
On Saturday, Occupy Denver is holding a large march that starts at Civic Center Park and then will move to the Federal Reserve building, before heading to several other downtown banks before circling back to the park. They are expecting a large turnout.
State Patrol released a timeline of the events on Friday:
2:45 a.m. - State troopers began issuing orders by utilizing the PA system in CSP vehicles. The orders indicated that the unlawful group should remove themselves from Lincoln Park. These orders were issued a total of three times before teams were deployed.
3:08 a.m. - The CSP and Denver Police deployed Crowd Control Units in the area around Lincoln Park. The intersections of 14th Avenue and Lincoln Street were closed, as were Colfax Avenue and Broadway.
3:24 .a m. - After these teams were deployed a final warning was given to those that remained in the park unlawfully. This warning ordered people to disperse from Lincoln Park. The crowd control units began moving into Lincoln Park. The CSP removed unlawful demonstrators and structures.
6:30 a.m. - 21 arrests were made by the CSP in the next 15 minutes as they removed unlawful demonstrators that had created a human chain by linking arms.
7 a.m. - Another team was deployed to clean the park of all the debris and trash. Xcel began the work of repairing the power sources that were damaged as a result of use on part of the Occupy Denver Group.
The majority of the crowd dispersed by 9 a.m., according to CSP.
State Patrol says all items that were collected in the park were taken to the CSP Academy. People who want to collect them can call the Executive Security Dispatch Center after noon on Tuesday.
Twenty-two people were arrested for unlawful conduct on public property.
Heather Turner, 25, was also cited on a misdemeanor marijuana charge. Noah Levine, 19, was also arrested on suspicion of making a false report. Background checks conducted by the 9Wants To Know investigators show neither Turner or Levine had been arrested previously in Colorado.
Fourteen other protestors arrested Friday morning also came back with clean rap sheets in Colorado: 24-year-old Scianda Long, 32-year-old Barbara Gawlowski, 24-year-old Tiffany Rosengrant, 23-year-old Aaron Stuckner, 23-year old Richard Klassen, 26-year-old Matthew Carlton, 29 year old Elisha Capracota, 27-year-old Christopher Burkhardt, 24-year-old Vincent Lopez, 26-year-old Justin Jeffries, 32-year-old Ryan Hartman, 20-year-old Jordan Brody, 28-year-old Cory Donahue and 38-year-old Kerri Kellerman.
Protestor Caryn Sodaro, 46, was arrested in Weld County last year for felony bribery (attempt to influence a public official), the same charge she was also arrested on in 2009.
The only prior arrest for 25-year-old Matthew Velasquez was a 2009 DWAI arrest in Westminster.
Protestor Charles Howe, 30, was arrested in 1999 for narcotics possession.
Patrick Marsden, 31, was arrested in August for obstruction of police, damaging property, tresspassing and graffiti, all misdemeanor charges.
Protestor Jonathan Shepard, 27, was picked up for a drug charge and resisting arrest in August 2011 and a misdemeanor larceny in 2009.
The criminal history of protestor Kristopher Norvell, 23, dates to 2006 and includes a DUI arrest in Lakewood in 2011.
Aaron Petrovich, 40, the only protestor arrested Friday for assault, has the most extensive criminal history in Colorado of any of the protestors taken into custody. Petrovich was arrested for misdemeanor assault and harassment in Colorado Springs in 2000, along with several counts of fraud, burglary and domestic violence in a 2005 case. In 2009, he was arrested for tresspassing and larceny and picked up again in 2011 for shoplifting.
None of the protestors arrested Friday appear to have been charged in connection with the 2008 mass protests during the Democratic National Convention in Denver.
(KUSA-TV © 2011 Multimedia Holdings Corporation)