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On March 12th, 2012 at 7pm protesters from Occupy DC gathered at McPherson Square with the purpose of voicing their discomfort with the signing, by President Obama, of H.R. 347.

H.R. 347, also known as the Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act, passed the House 399-3 last week, and on Thursday it was signed into law by the President. H.R. 347 is a modified version of an old law which restricted entering or blocking public areas closed off by the Secret Service while an individual, under their protection, is passing through; The law also included major public events.

Occupy movements all over the U.S. are well aware of this law as it has been used to shunt protestors at major political events into “free speech zones”. Police may use this law at their discretion when events such as the G8 or other bilateral conferences are taking place.

The modified version added a few areas, within the District of Columbia, to the federally protected areas in the list. In addition, the new version got rid of part of the language from the original law, which noted that protesters were entering a protected area “willfully and knowingly” H.R. 347 deletes the word “willfully,” meaning that prosecutors no longer need to prove that someone knew what they were doing was illegal to convict them. http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-761010?hpt=hp_bn1

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I think they've done it to include prosecution for trespassing on White House and VP's residence property in the Federal statute, rather than leaving it to the District of Columbia courts, as was previously the case.

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