Occupy D.C. members say this man tried to cut down their “Tent of Dreams.” (Photo by Sara Shaw)

Despite a request from U.S. Park Police that Occupy D.C. take down the massive blue tarp it draped over the statue of James B. McPherson yesterday, the “Tent of Dreams”—so named for the crescent moons, shooting stars, ponies and other fantastical symbols painted on—is still billowing from the monument to the Civil War commander who died at the Battle of Atlanta.

That didn’t stop one man from trying to take matters into is own hands. About 3:30 p.m., a scissors-wielding vigilante approached the tent and started cutting the strings anchoring the tarp to the circular fence that surrounds the statue’s base.

“This is my city,” the Examiner’s Aubrey Whelan reported the man exclaimed while sawing through the rope.

The rope-cutter, who has not been identified, slashed four of the tent’s anchoring strings before being surrounded by protesters on one side and Park Police officers on the other, Sara Shaw, a member of Occupy D.C. said in a phone interview. The man was then led away to a police car, though he was not handcuffed.

Shaw, said demonstrators promptly re-secured the tarp to the fence. Shaw also said Occupy D.C. offered to Park Police a trade-off: That they be allowed to sleep in the square in exchange for removing the “Tent of Dreams.” Officers patrolling McPherson, which has otherwise been calm today, said they were not authorized to make any such deals.

While relations between police and protesters have been mostly smooth today, Shaw said there’s been an uptick in the number of counter-protesters who have dropped in to express their dissatisfaction with Occupy’s continued presence. The tent-cutter, in addition to laying claim to the city, also made angry remarks about paying taxes and having equal access to public space, Shaw said. On her Twitter account, Shaw has advised her fellow protesters to react calmly. Some are breaking out into song to diffuse any moments of tension, choosing, among other numbers, selections from the musical South Pacific.

Hopefully for Occupy D.C., any other potential rabble-rousers are Rodgers and Hammerstein fans.