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NY Times November 15, 2011
Police Clear Zuccotti Park of Protesters
By JAMES BARRON and COLIN MOYNIHAN
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg on Tuesday defended his decision to
clear the park in Lower Manhattan that was the birthplace of the
Occupy Wall Street Movement, saying “health and safety conditions
became intolerable” in the park where the protesters had camped
out for nearly two months.
Mr. Bloomberg said the city had planned to reopen the park on
Tuesday morning after the protesters’ tents and tarps had been
removed and the stone steps had been cleaned. He said the police
had already let about 50 protesters back in when officials
received word of a temporary restraining order sought by lawyers
for the protesters. He said the police had closed the park again
until lawyers for the city could appear at a court hearing later
in the morning.
“New York City is the city where you can come and express
yourself,” the mayor said. “What was happening in Zuccotti Park
was not that.” He said the protesters had taken over the park,
“making it unavailable to anyone else.”
The mayor’s comments at a City Hall news conference came about
seven hours after hundreds of police officers moved in to clear
the park after warning that the nearly two-month-old camp would be
“cleared and restored” but that demonstrators who did not leave
would face arrest. The protesters, about 200 of whom have been
staying in the park overnight, initially resisted with chants of
“Whose park? Our park!”
Law enforcement officials said about 150 people were arrested,
most of them in the park but some outside. Most were held on
charges of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
Among those arrested was City Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez, a
Democrat who represents northern Manhattan. He was with a group
near the intersection of Broadway and Vesey Street that was
attempting to link up with protesters at Zuccotti Park. The group
tried to push through a line of officers trying to prevent people
from reaching the park. Mr. Rodriquez was arrested and charged
with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
The operation in and around Zuccotti Park was intended to empty
the birthplace of a protest movement that has inspired hundreds of
tent cities from coast to coast. On Monday in Oakland, Calif.,
hundreds of police officers raided the main encampment there,
arresting 33 people. Protesters returned later in the day. But the
Oakland police said no one would be allowed to sleep there
anymore, and promised to clear a second camp nearby.
The police action was quickly challenged as lawyers for the
protesters obtained a temporary restraining order barring the city
and the park’s private landlord from evicting protesters or
removing their belongings. It was not immediately clear how the
city would respond. The judge, Justice Lucy Billings of State
Supreme Court in Manhattan, scheduled a hearing for Tuesday.
The mayor, at his news conference, read a statement he had issued
around 6 a.m. explaining the reasoning behind the sweep. “The law
that created Zuccotti Park required that it be open for the public
to enjoy for passive recreation 24 hours a day,” the mayor said in
the statement. “Every since the occupation began, that law has not
been complied with” because the protesters had taken over the
park, “making it unavailable to anyone else.”
“I have become increasingly concerned — as had the park’s owner,
Brookfield Properties — that the occupation was coming to pose a
health and fire safety hazard to the protesters and to the
surrounding community,” Mr. Bloomberg said. He added that on
Monday, Brookfield asked the city to assist in enforcing “the no
sleeping and camping rules.
“But make no mistake,” the mayor said, “the final decision to act
was mine and mine alone.”
Some of the displaced protesters regrouped a few blocks away at
Foley Square, with the row of courthouses on Centre Street as a
backdrop and police officers looking on. The protesters swapped
stories of their confrontations with the police and talked about
what to do next.
One protester at Foley Square, Nate Barchus, 23, said the eviction
was likely to galvanize supporters, particularly because a series
of gatherings had already been planned for Thursday, the protest’s
two-month anniversary.
“This,” he said, referring to the early-morning sweep, “reminds
everyone who was occupying exactly why they were occupying.”
At the park they had occupied since mid-September, workers using
power washers blasted water over the stone that covers the ground.
Soon the park caught the attention of people passing by on their
way to work who had become accustomed to seeing the protesters’
tents and tarps.
The operation to clear the park had begun near the Brooklyn
Bridge, where the police gathered before moving on to surround the
park. The protesters rallied around an area known as the kitchen,
near the middle of the park, and began putting up makeshift
barricades with tables and pieces of scrap wood.
Over the next two hours, dozens of protesters left the park while
a core group of about 100 dug in around the food area. Many locked
arms and defied police orders to leave. By 3 a.m., dozens of
officers in helmets, watched over by Police Commissioner Raymond
W. Kelly, closed in on those who remained. The police pulled them
out one by one and handcuffed them. Most were led out without
incident.
The Police Department’s chief spokesman, Paul J. Browne, told The
Associated Press that 70 people had been arrested in the park,
including some who had chained themselves together.
The officers had gathered between the Brooklyn and Manhattan
Bridges earlier and rode in vans to the one-square-block park.
They entered about 1 a.m.
As they did, dozens of protesters linked arms and shouted “No
retreat, no surrender,” “This is our home” and “Barricade!”
The mayor’s office sent out a message on Twitter at 1:19 a.m.
saying: “Occupants of Zuccotti should temporarily leave and remove
tents and tarps. Protesters can return after the park is cleared.”
Fliers handed out by the police at the private park on behalf of
the park’s owner, Brookfield Properties, and the city, spelled out
the same message.
A number of other arrests were reported just outside the park, as
police tried to move supporters of the protesters away from the
park. Details were not immediately available. There were several
additional arrests after the park was cleared when protesters who
refused to leave a nearby street were taken into custody.
The police move came as organizers put out word on their Web site
that they planned to “shut down Wall Street” with a demonstration
on Thursday to commemorate the completion of two months of
encampment, which has prompted similar demonstrations across the
country.
The move also came hours after a small demonstration at City Hall
on Monday by opponents of the protest, including local residents
and merchants, some of whom urged the mayor to clear out the park.
Before the police moved in, they set up a battery of klieg lights
and aimed them into the park. A police captain, wearing a helmet,
walked down Liberty Street and announced: “The city has determined
that the continued occupation of Zuccotti Park poses an increasing
health and fire safety hazard.”
The captain ordered the protesters to “to immediately remove all
private property” and said that if they interfered with the police
operation, they would be arrested. Property that was not removed
would be taken to a sanitation garage, the police said.
Some of the protesters grabbed their possessions. “They’re not
getting our tents down,” one man shouted. People milled around,
and some headed to the edges of the park.
By 1:45 a.m., dozens of officers moved through the park, some
bearing plastic shields and wearing helmets. They removed tents
and bedding materials, putting them on the sidewalk. Some
protesters could be seen leaving the park with their belongings,
but a core group of more than 100 hunkered down at the
encampment’s kitchen area, linking arms, waving flags, and singing
and chanting their refusal to leave the park.
They sang “We Shall Overcome” and chanted at the officers to
“disobey your orders.”
“If they come in, we’re not going anywhere,” said Chris Johnson,
32, who sat with other remaining protesters near the food area. He
said that the protest “has opened up a dialogue that hasn’t
existed since I’ve been alive.”
About 2 a.m., police officers began using a vehicle equipped with
a powerful speaker to issue their orders. City sanitation workers
tossed protesters’ belongings into metal bins, while some
protesters dug in at the center of the park by using heavy bicycle
chains to bind themselves to park trees and to each other. Some
donned gas masks and goggles.
But by 3 a.m., the police closed in on the remaining protesters
and began arresting them.
About 200 supporters of the protesters arrived early Tuesday after
hearing that the park was being cleared. They were prevented from
getting within a block of the park by a police barricade. There
were a number of arrests after some scuffles between the two
sides, but no details were immediately available. After being
forced up Broadway by the police, some of the supporters decided
to march several blocks to Foley Square.
Several Occupy Wall Street protest encampments across the
country have been cleared by police after problems have occurred,
including ones in cities like Oakland, Salt Lake City and
Portland, Ore.
A handful of protesters first unrolled sleeping bags and blankets
in Zuccotti Park on the night of Sept. 17, but in the weeks that
followed, the park became densely packed with tents and small tarp
villages.
The protest spawned others and attracted celebrities and
well-known performers. It became a tourist attraction, inspired
more than $500,000 in donations and gained the support of labor
unions and elected officials while creating division within City
Hall and the Police Department.
Mr. Bloomberg had struggled with how to respond. He repeatedly
made clear that he does not support the demonstrators’ arguments
or their tactics, but he has also defended their right to protest
and in recent days and weeks has sounded increasingly exasperated,
especially in the wake of growing complaints from neighbors about
how the protest has disrupted the neighborhood and hurt local
businesses.
Mr. Bloomberg met daily with several deputies and commissioners,
and as more business owners complained and editorials lampooned
him as gutless, his patience wore thin.
Joseph Goldstein, Matt Flegenheimer, Rob Harris, Steve Kenny,
Corey Kilgannon and Sarah Maslin Nir contributed reporting.
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