Well, good: Portland Maine clears out another squatters camp.

(Far larger a few weeks ago before the coming eviction was announced, this area is not as industrial as it appears in this picture: the second building on the left is owned by Free Range Sea Food, a (terrific) retail and wholesale fish monger, and it marks the beginning of a mile-long stretch of retailers and restaurants).

Protesters fail to stop Portland homeless camp clearance

PORTLAND, Maine — Several dozen protesters gathered Tuesday morning in Harbor View Memorial Park, attempting to stop municipal workers from clearing the city’s last large homeless encampment.

Their effort was not successful.

As police and heavy equipment arrived around 8 a.m., protesters blocked access to the park’s lower entrance, lining vehicles along Commercial Street and forming a human chain. However, police ticketed and towed the vehicles while work crews began clearing the park via the upper entrance, along York Street, where there were no protesters.

Safety-jacketed, rake-welding workers from Portland’s parks department checked to make sure tents were empty before waving in front loaders to crush and haul away debris, abandoned belongings and trash. Other workers picked through the former abodes, removing dozens of propane gas cylinders. Some used 3-foot-long grabbers to pick up spent hypodermic needles.

Tuesday’s clearance comes after being postponed twice before. Originally planned for Dec. 19, it was postponed until Dec. 28, when bad weather forced officials to put it off again.

Portland removed similarly large encampments from the Bayside Trail, the Fore River Parkway Trail and Deering Oaks Park in the fall. The state also removed an encampment from a parking lot on Marginal Way around the same time.

The city of 60,000 built a $25 million homeless shelter last year and staffed it with social workers and drug counselors, but it remains half-full because of potential residents’ aversion to curfews and no-drug rules.

So okay, move ‘em out. I’m pleased to see that the police towed away the cars of the white, liberal protesters; I’ve long wondered why this isn’t done to other protesters around the country who block streets and highways. An impoundment and towing fee of a couple of hundred dollars isn’t harsh enough for my taste — I’d shoot them — but it’s better than simply giving them tickets that will later be dismissed, and it might give at least some of the wokesters pause.