No one is really quite sure what’s going to happen this afternoon when the permit for the October 2011/Stop the Machine protest that’s spawned a tent city inside Freedom Plaza expires, but if some protesters are to be believed, many will be heading back up to McPherson Square to join up with Occupy DC.

While the organizers of the Freedom Plaza protest — which, it should be noted, is a completely different protest than Occupy DC — seem generally intent on maintaining their tent city inside the plaza, not every protester seems willing to clash with the Park Police when the the demonstration’s paperwork expires. (Given how interactions between demonstrators and the Park Police usually go down, it’s kind of hard to blame them.)

Of course, the Park Police haven’t actually confirmed that they’ll pursue the arrest of anyone still protesting inside Freedom Plaza this afternoon — but we wouldn’t put any money against it. The protest’s stage, sound system and food tent will be packed up between 10 and 2 today, at which point we’d expect some kind of movement.