Hours after a large-scale police raid on Dewey Square razed the Occupy Boston camp, city leaders praised police for executing the peaceful arrests of 46 protesters. Meanwhile protesters gathered throughout the day to celebrate those who insisted on taking a stand against eviction.
Protestors gathered around 6 p.m. for an interfaith prayer service on Boston Common, followed by a general assembly meeting that was intended to decide the movement’s next steps.
With a crowd fluctuating between 50 and 300, members floated such ideas as setting up general assemblies around the city or occupying closed schools and foreclosed homes. But little was decided except agreeing to continue meeting, and the crowd dispersed by 10:45.
The end of the day was in keeping with the relatively calm dismantling of the Occupy Boston camp in the early morning hours. According to city leaders, the orderly end of the Boston protest - in contrast to confrontations in other cities - lay in seeds sown in the encampment’s beginning.
Boston police officers made a point of getting to know several core leaders of the Occupy group, talking to them daily, strolling through their Dewey Square encampment, exchanging private cellphone numbers, and forging a bond of trust.
Even as police swept through the square in a predawn raid to end the 10-week occupation, the department’s point man, Superintendent William Evans, called one of the group’s leaders to apologize for not being able to give them a heads-up.
In the delicate balance between public safety and free speech that defined the relationship between police and protesters, there was, several city leaders said yesterday, a large swath of common ground.
“From day one, I was sympathetic to the movement because they had issues working-people cared about,’’ Mayor Thomas M. Menino said in an interview with the Globe. “The rich get richer. . . . The other folks lose ground.’’
Police supervisors underwent special civil disobedience training in the three weeks leading up to yesterday’s action. Officers had to learn how to “not take the bait if someone is in your face screaming,’’ superintendent-in-chief Daniel Linskey said in an interview.
They also scrutinized YouTube videos from other police encounters with Occupy protesters across the country to see what worked, and more importantly, what didn’t, Linskey said.
Throughout the occupation, police strategy was one of “less is more,’’ said police Commissioner Edward F. Davis.
That translated to assigning just 16 patrol officers and two sergeants to handle the raucous crowd of 1,000 protesters Thursday night, after a Suffolk Superior Court judge ruled that the city could close down the encampment in Dewey Square. Menino had issued a deadline of midnight Thursday to vacate the square.
“Our motto was to kill them with kindness,’’ Evans said. “You didn’t see a helmet or sticks. And no way were we going to mace that crowd.’’
The protesters, part of a worldwide movement that drew attention to economic inequality but has been evicted from parks in other major cities, moved into the square, across from the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, at the end of September.
Protesters hunkered down Thursday night in anticipation of a raid after the mayor’s deadline, and as many as 1,000 people gathered on the square. But by Friday morning only two people were arrested after they had blocked Atlantic Avenue along the edge of the square.
Friday night, about 200 protesters gathered again, texting and tweeting rumors that police were gearing up to move in the wee hours yesterday morning.
Protesters grew antsy, beating drums, chanting, and wondering whether any police action would come. Some seemed exasperated and ready for the action to start.
Then, as the camp and reporters stood hushed in the minutes before 5 a.m. Saturday, a man ran into Dewey Square from the direction of South Station, yelling, “They’re coming! They’re coming!’’
More than 250 officers had arrived at 3:30 a.m. at headquarters in Roxbury for roll call. They were ordered to meet at the Boston Convention Exhibition Center in South Boston by 4 a.m.
At 5 a.m. sharp, a column of police vans and transport vehicles meant to carry prisoners rolled up from the convention center to Summer Street, turning onto Atlantic Avenue. Uniformed officers filed out of each vehicle and calmly walked up Atlantic, forming a line at double-arm distance. Officers with bullhorns warned protesters to leave or face arrest.
“Good morning. You are trespassing on Greenway property,’’ they said. “If you have property, take it with you.’’
Protesters began rousing people from tents, shouting “Wake up! Wake up!’’
Occupy Boston protesters used tweets, live video streams, and an emergency text message system to alert supporters. At 4:59 a.m., a text message was sent out: “We’re getting raided. Come to Dewey now!’’
Police quickly swarmed the area, many equipped with plastic handcuffs. They began ripping the tents apart, carrying the pieces to a garbage truck, and throwing wood, cardboard, and furniture into piles along the sidewalk.
Demonstrators dashed to the north corner of the park and sat in a semicircle, linking arms. “Tell me what democracy looks like,’’ demonstrators chanted. “This is what democracy looks like.’’
Each protester was searched for sharp objects, then placed in one of the wagons.
Some acted like rag dolls, making their bodies go limp so officers had to carry them to the trucks. Several protesters changed their minds and said they would leave, rather than be arrested. Some begged to be arrested.
Alison Nevitt, 48, was among those who remained on the square, staying in formation with fellow protesters. For more than 20 minutes, the protesters waited to be arrested, chanting, singing, and whispering to one another.
Then, she said, dozens of officers in black tactical gear approached the protesters.
“All of a sudden, someone said, ‘Look!’ And we saw this phalanx of guys in black uniforms coming toward us,’’ Nevitt said. “It was a little scary.’’
While Nevitt said she was not harmed by police, she recalled hearing other protesters yell in pain when they were yanked up by their plastic cuffs. One woman who rode with her in a police wagon had swollen wrists that were cut by the cuffs.
Around 11 a.m., the 14 women arrested at Dewey Square were released from the South Boston police station. Several went straight to the District 4 police station in the South End to join about 40 protesters who waited to greet the arrested men as they were released.
Andrew Inglis, 33, of Brighton, was the second man bailed out, walking out of a side door around 2 p.m. He was met with chants, cheers, and a tray of blueberry muffins.
“It was a very orderly process,’’ Inglis said, carrying his belongings in a clear plastic bag from the station. “I was very impressed by how Boston police handled the whole situation.’’
John Ford, 30 - the Occupy Boston librarian who developed a cult following during the course of the occupation - was released shortly afterward. As he walked out the door, he raised his right fist in the air and chanted, “We are unstoppable; another world is possible.’’
Davis said that the cost of police overtime during Occupy Boston is “nearing $1 million.’’ The figure does not include the costs to other city departments, for health inspections, and other services during the encampment. But Dot Joyce, a spokesman for Menino, said that other costs associated with monitoring, evicting, and cleaning up after Occupy Boston would be minimal.
Soon after police moved in at 5 a.m. and the protesters were cleared from the area, crews rolled in to restore the Rose Kennedy Greenway.
The protesters have maintained from the start of their stay on Dewey Square that they would pay to have the park resodded when the occupation ended.
So far, Occupy Boston has collected almost $4,000 of a $15,000 goal in an online fund to pay for the restoration.
While little was decided at last night’s meeting, group members did agree to meet back on the Common at 1 p.m. today, when protesters will share their war stories from the police raid that closed the Dewey Square tent city.
Try BostonGlobe.com today and get two weeks FREE.Maria Cramer, Travis Andersen, Martin Finucane, Akilah Johnson, David Abel, and Peter Schworm of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Correspondents Patrick D. Rosso and Derek Anderson also contributed.