Don’t bother checking the real estate listings for New Jersey’s youngest village. Built less than two week’s ago, it’s already disappeared. “Bushville,” which was built June 1 by the Kensington Welfare Rights Union (KWRU), sat in an abandoned lot across from a Dunkin’ Donuts in Jersey City. The tiny community only consisted of two ramshackle tents—one medical and one dormitory—and a kitchen shack. It seemed harmless, but Jersey City Police deemed it threatening enough to tear down. “It's a fire hazard,” remarked one officer, who refused to give his name. "This is private property. None of these lots down here are abandoned." It might seem strange to set up camp in an abandoned lot in Jersey City, but Bushville is no ordinary village. A form of political protest, Bushville is just one of many projects that KWRU has organized since 1995 to raise awareness of poverty issues.Its residents were demanding "economic human rights"--housing, healthcare, education, and a living wage. KWRU's past actions include marches, building tent cities, and free food distribution. In Philadelphia, they organized a "Ridgeville" and a "Clintonville" and several of these tent city projects have led to takeovers of abandoned buildings to house residents. During the 2000 Republican National Convention, a previous incarnation of Bushville was a center of activism. From the beginning, the Bushville in Jersey City was the subject of police harassment. Local police officers greeted tent city residents on June 2nd by threatening to turn their children over to child services. Later that morning, the Jersey City Police Department towed three of the protesters’ cars while NYPD officers observed from the Dunkin' Donuts across the street. The Bushville residents got their cars back by the middle of the day, after revealing inaccuracies in police reporting of the incident. But the harassment didn’t stop there. Two evenings after it was built, nearly a dozen officers from the Jersey City Police arrived at 12:30 A.M. with a dump truck and orders to break down and haul away the encampment, evicting the two-dozen people living there. Four members of KWRU were charged with "posting signs without authorization." Their equipment, which includes children's toys and camping gear, is currently being held by order of the Jersey City Police. KWRU is being charged $150 per day for storage of the seized equipment. "I don't know why they can't just leave them alone," said onlooker Elena Gonzalez. "They ain't even using that property." On June 14, KWRU rebuilt Bushville a couple of blocks away from the previous site, perched beneath the New Jersey turnpike. Local police reaction seemed friendly this time, but the next morning Jersey State troopers dismantled the encampment while activists were off discussing their plans for a "Poor People's March" against the Republican National Convention. Activist Tim Dowlin vows that "no matter how many times we're harassed by the police, Bushville is going to happen. All we have is our voice, and they're trying to take that away." Dowlin says that Bushville may be set up in various boroughs of New York City depending on what happens in the coming weeks. KWRU is determined to maintain a presence in the New York area in the months leading up to the RNC.