BOSTON -- A Suffolk Superior Court judge says Occupy Boston protesters can stay in an encampment on Dewey Square until Dec. 15.

After a four-hour hearing, Suffolk Superior Court Judge Frances McIntyre took both sides' arguments under advisement and said she would issue a ruling in two weeks time. Until then, she said, an injunction that bars the city from booting the protesters remains in place.

The protesters called the decision a "victory."

Occupy Boston protesters went to court Thursday to ask McIntyre for the right to stay in the encampment near the city's financial district, while the city was asking for the power to kick the demonstrators out of their two-month-old camp.

The legal confrontation has become a battle between public safety and public protest.

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An Occupy Boston protester, Kristopher Eric Martin, testified about the importance of the camp location in the financial district. The city said there were health and fire code violations because the camp is no longer a temporary dwelling.

"This now is not a symbolic location, it's a housing development. After 30 days, those tents became dwellings, and they don't comply with the law. Period," said city attorney Michael Ricciutti.

But the demonstrators said they should be given the chance to correct any problems.

"The chief executive of the city of Boston stated publicly that there is no imminent threat," said Occupy Boston attorney Howard Cooper.

The city fire department inspector said, however, that there are hazards in the camp. He said every Occupy Boston tent inspected contained "tons of combustible" materials.

“You’re one dropped match away from the sky falling,” said city fire marshal Bart Shea.

The protesters have argued all along that the encampment is a manifestation of their First Amendment free speech rights and they took their message to the streets of Boston on Wednesday night, carrying placards and shouting slogans as they paraded past the old Statehouse on Washington Street where British soldiers first fired shots at American colonists, sparking the Revolutionary War.

The group, which consists of about 250 to 300 protesters, went to a judge in mid-November and won a temporary restraining order that prevented the city from disbursing the camp. Now they will be in Suffolk Superior Court asking McIntyre for an injunction.

Their camp is one of the few remaining Occupy camps in the U.S. which were inspired by the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations in New York that decried corporate greed and economic inequality. The city, however, says it's time to disburse the squatters, with the police saying their presence has now become a health and safety hazard.

"There's been a significant number of crimes committed that we attribute to the people from Occupy Boston," said Boston police Commissioner Ed Davis.

Police said there have been numerous drug deals in the camp, a knife fight and hundreds of thousands of dollars in property damage. They say people in and around the camp are in imminent danger because of health and fire code violations.

"They're trying to build a case that we're doing down here is unsafe or unsanitary, and things we're trying to bring in are to help that," said protester Ariel Oshonsky.

But the city will not allow portable toilets or cold-weather tents. Occupy lawyers said demonstrators have a right to be there, even if the protest does get messy.

"The answer isn't to shut up the protesters. It's to buy a few more trash barrels," said attorney Howard Cooper.