Photo by ekelly80.

It’s illegal to set up a tent in most public places in the District, just as the “Median Man,” a homeless resident who famously lived in a tent on a median under the Ninth Street overpass next to I-395, learned a few years ago. But what’s the difference between a homeless encampment and the protesters at McPherson Square and Freedom Plaza? Not much beyond the First Amendment, it seems.

The Post’s Tim Craig touches upon the issue today in an interesting article about how the District’s 6,500 homeless residents are reacting to the new tent cities that have popped up in the city, much as they have throughout the country. According to Craig, some have taken kindly to the protesters, while others simply expect that they’ll be gone once the first snow hits.

But one interesting outtake relates to how the protests have flummoxed police and provoked complaints about double standards:

Robert Brown, 51, who said he’s been homeless for six months, questioned why the park service has decided not to enforce the ban on camping in downtown parks.

“If we had set up tents, the police would be here in a second, and they just come and get to do what they want,” Brown said.

Patricia Mullahy Fugere, executive director of the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, also sees “a double standard” by the park service. But Fugere hopes that the protesters remain because she thinks they are creating a platform “for discussion about those who are on the lowest public tier.”

It’s a good point. If the Occupy D.C. protesters were truly homeless, they would have been moved right away. As Councilmember Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) told Craig, that’s probably best — after all, living outside in a city isn’t particularly safe or sustainable.

By and large, though, the protesters aren’t homeless, but rather simply individuals exercising their First Amendment rights. But when do police and local officials know when those rights have gone too far, especially if the conduct is something that would otherwise have been prohibited to begin with?

It’s questions like these that has just about anyone in a position of authority hoping that the increasingly chilly weather drives everyone out of McPherson Square and Freedom Plaza, because this could only get more awkward as the months drag on.