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SQUATTERS PREPARE FOR SIEGE!
NEW YORK (USA) -- Homesteaders on East 13th Street in Manhattan have been
preparing for a massive police assault that they expect to commence at
approximately 4 A.M. (EST) Tuesday. The Police Department told Stanley
Cohen, the squatters' attorney, to be at 13th St. by 4 A.M. and to expect
a "cast of thousands."
The over 100 squatters who live in three buildings on East 13th St.
(between Avenues A and B) and their supporters have been making
preparations all day for the coming attack. In two of the 3 buildings
bicycles were welded to the fire escapes and windows were welded with
bars. In another building, barbed wire was prepared. The mood was tense
as squatters and their supporters met today an anticipation of the
City-authorized police attempt to take away their homes.
On one of the buildings what appeared to be Christmas decorations and
wreathes were placed outside windows. Draped over another squat was a 15
foot banner with the word: MOVE. MOVE was a organization in Philadelphia
that was annihilated and burned-out by the Philadelphia City government
in the late 1970s. The squatters fear that the NYC government under
Mayor Guiliani plans to similarly obliterate the squatter presence in NYC
with "police terror." The 13th St. squats are located in the Ninth
Precinct of the NYPD, a precinct which has distinguished itself by
excessive brutality and violations of civil and constitutional rights,
most notably the Tompkins Square Park police riot of 1988 and the closing
of TSP in 1991 to evict an encampment of homeless people.
The MOVE banner was chosen not only as a statement about what the City
was attempting, but also to express support and solidarity for former
MOVE and Black Panther Party activist Mumia Abu Jamal, currently on death
row and awaiting execution in Pennsylvania. The writer and director of a
recent play about Jamal which played at the Theater For The New City this
month is a squatter in one of the buildings on 13th St.
A photographer was told this morning that the cover story for Tuesday in
NEW YORK NEWSDAY, a daily paper, would be on the 13th St. squatters. The
press evidently expects a major media event, perhaps even another WACO.
The press interest, the squatters fear, means that they expect many
injuries, violence and a possible riot.
The 13th Street squatters represent the center of a squatter movement in
the Lower East Side/East Village. For the last 10 years squatters have
fought City attempts to evict them. Most of the people in the buildings
are young (in their teens and 20s), punks and counter-cultural types. To
the extent that they have any politics, it is anti-government and
anti-corporate. Many are anarchists.
Squatters believe that the coming attempt at eviction is part of the
gentrification process in the neighborhood. In the 1990's, City
government has conflicted with Lower East Side squatters, homeless,
peddlers and low-income tenants. Real estate agents, banks, large
landowners and the City, the squatters claim, have united to gentrify the
community and in so doing displace poor residents.
Squatter fear of police brutality is rooted in many bitter confrontations
with the Ninth Precinct over the years. The NYPD officers dislike
squatters in general and punks and housing activists in particular. When
the assault begins, residents fear, police will brutalize squatters and
their supporters especially once they are inside the buildings and out of
view of photographers and video cameras. The possibility of a MOVE or
WACO-type outcome is very real.
Beginning at 4:30 P.M. Monday residents and their supporters gathered in
front of the 13th St. squats. A press conference and rally was held.
Supporters were asked to observe from the street and come into the
buildings. Several hundred supporters, at least, will gather in the
early morning hours on 13th St. in anticipation of the assault.
Squatters hope that if they can hold off the police until 9 A.M. they can
go into court to try to obtain an injunction. A massive military-like
presence of the police that will involve squads of riot police,
helicopters, police snipers on rooftops, and vans is likely. The
squatters claim that they will avoid violence but will defend their homes.
PLEASE contact the NYC government, especially the Mayor's Office, to
demand that the assault be called off to avoid bloodshed and injuries.
Jerry Levy, Adjunct Instructor of Economics, Pratt Institute
