Mangus, yesterday, being led away after trying to cut down Occupy D.C.’s “Tent of Dreams.” (Photo by Sara Shaw)

In what was perhaps the liveliest moment at McPherson Square yesterday, a man, clearly fed up with the four-month presence of Occupy D.C., tried to take down the protest movement’s latest display. The man attempted to cut down the, so-called “Tent of Dreams”—a massive blue tarp painted with celestial bodies and unicorns and draped over the statue of the Civil War hero James B. McPherson—with a pair of scissors while barking at the demonstrators to “get out of my city.”

After being prevented from shearing away at the ropes anchoring the tarp to the fence that surrounds the statue, the man was led away by U.S. Capitol Police. He wasn’t arrested, just removed from the scene for his own well-being. Today, we know a bit more about this fellow.

Steve Dingledine, who writes for Georgetown Patch, has the good fortune to live in the same building as the would-be de-tenter. His name is Rick Mangus, and even though he says participated in the anti-Vietnam movement, he’s clearly having none of the mic-checked, open-air, “we-are-the-99-percent” stuff of Occupy Wall Street and its local affiliate. In a statement to Georgetown Patch, Mangus writes:

I am a retired, tax paying and law abiding citizen of Washington, DC and have been so for over twenty years. I am also a child of the 60’s and 70’s and have been in many anti-war protests of that time against the Vietnam War. This past Tueday, January 31, 2012 the activist spirt came alive again, but not against a war in a far-off land but the defiling of our city, by people with no direction or purpose, people who sole cause is to start trouble, to ruin our heritage and to be confrontational with ALL who disagree with them.

That afternoon I went down to McPherson [Square] to make my opinion known by cutting-down the illegal tarp that cover the statue in the park of General McPherson and was greeted by a hostile and violent opposition to my action by the so-called peaceful protesters. I had to be escorted out of the area by the United States Park Police who feared for my safety. I plan to return in the future to the square, because I do believe in the First Amendment, but not in a dictatorship or mob rule.

Note that Mangus said he’ll be revisiting McPherson, continuing his opposition to Occupy D.C. and its big blue tarp. If we see him out there, we’ll definitely be talking to him. Hopefully he’ll have left the scissors at home.