MANCHESTER — Officially, it was a trial in Circuit Court-Manchester District Division Friday for 17 Occupy Manchester participants cited at Veterans Park last October for violating the 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. park curfew ordinance. Five of them were also arrested and charged with criminal trespass for refusing to leave the park after being ordered to do so by police.

But the defense, which argues the defendants were simply exercising their U.S. and New Hampshire Constitutional rights, presented a full day of testimony about how increasing economic inequality, the political power of wealthy individuals and corporations and inadequate governmental response to citizen petition led to the evolution of the Occupy movement and prompted the defendants' encampment.

Defense witnesses testified that Occupy Manchester was simply doing what the New Hampshire Constitution's Article 10 authorizes and even directs them to do: “whenever the ends of government are perverted and public liberty manifestly endangered and all other means of redress are ineffectual, the people may, and of right ought to reform the old, or establish a new government.”

Witnesses said Occupy Manchester residents were exercising their guaranteed free speech rights in a public park. Restrictions on that right are unconstitutional, they contend.

The prosecution presented no witnesses.

New Hampshire Peace Action executive director Will Hopkins led off the carefully constructed defense position, describing the frustrations of ordinary citizens in trying to get their voices heard.

He described the lack of congressional response to issues raised in repeated letters, emails and petitions. He said trying to get a meeting with members of New Hampshire's congressional delegations took a year of weekly visits to their local offices to get brief, unproductive meetings. Hopkins said his status as an Iraq veteran probably had more to do with getting his “meetings” than anything else.

“Occupy is a tactic. Staying in one place until your grievances are addressed,” said Hopkins. He said it unites Republicans, Democrats and Independents frustrated that “we no longer have a way to seek redress of our grievances.”

Matt Lawrence, who described himself as an artist and unemployed landscaper who is a victim of the lagging economy, said the encampment began at Victory Park because the police needed Veterans Park for the Footrace for the Fallen. Why make enemies with the police, he said, “when they are working guys just like us.”

He said the Occupy group fed, clothed and housed homeless people who showed up. “We took direct action,” he said. “We just started feeding people who needed it.”

The encampment later moved to Veterans Park, where the encampment could provide more visibility. “It's also a tactic in itself,” said Lawrence,

Rep. Seth Cohn, R-Canterbury, said he attended several Occupy General Assemblies out of curiosity. “I was interested in what I was hearing,” he said. “I agreed with quite a lot of it.”

The first-term legislator said he has learned in Concord that ordinary people aren't listened to as much as lobbyists. He said he's seen public liberty and financial issues affected by lobbying. “I think special interests on both sides are the problem,” he said.

Cohn said he told those at the Veterans Park encampment that under the First Amendment and Article 10 they had: “Not just the right, but the obligation to do what they were doing.”

Rutgers School of Law professor James G. Pope, whose specialties are constitutional, labor and civil disobedience law, said social movements have played a key role in overturning “wrong” court decisions like Plessy v Ferguson, which authorized “separate but equal” schools for blacks and whites.

Under questioning by defense attorney Barbara Keshen, Pope described a “gigantic shift” in the distribution pattern of income in the past 30 years. In the 1960 and early 70s, he said, CEO income was about 24 or 25 times that of the average worker. He said it began to rise rapidly in the late 1970s, during a period of government policy changes, and by 2010 the ratio was 243 to 1.

Pope said laws and court decisions have also eroded protections for workers and labor unions, all of these shifts coincidental with increases in lobbying. In just 12 years, from 1998 to 2010, lobbying spending went from $1.44 billion to $3.51 billion.

“These trends continue through both Republican and Democratic administrations,” he said.

Pope said positive changes occur when social movements arise as a reaction and evolve until they displace interest groups and political parties, citing the relatively recent impact of the civil rights and women's rights movements. But little “r” republican moments go all the way back to the conditions and groups that evolved and led to the American Revolution and the establishment of the United States, said Pope.

The final defense witness was Arnie Alpert, New Hampshire program coordinator for the American Friends Service Committee, who had high praise for the conduct of police, especially Manchester Police Capt. Robert Cunha, who delivered the curfew enforcement message earlier in the day and later supervised the citation and arrest process.

Alpert, who said it was essential for those in the park to stand up for their beliefs and show their commitment that night, admitted: “I did give a little pep talk.” He said the defendants accepted citations knowing they would have a day in court, testing whether fundamental rights would be protected.

Instead of closing arguments, Judge William Lyons gave the prosecution and defense until July 3 to submit memos.