Silver Rocket Bitches!
15th November 2011, 06:09 AM
They fail to mention the total media blackout during this raid, including (according to protestors) blocking off airspace.
New York City police in riot gear swept into a Lower Manhattan park early today to remove hundreds of Occupy Wall Street demonstrators who had been camping there for more than eight weeks to protest income inequality (http://topics.bloomberg.com/income-inequality/).
The action followed similar moves that shut camps in Oakland, California (http://topics.bloomberg.com/california/), and Portland, Oregon (http://topics.bloomberg.com/oregon/). New York police and the park’s owners told protesters at 1 a.m. local time to remove items including tents and sleeping bags, after which city workers cleared remaining belongings, Mayor Michael Bloomberg (http://topics.bloomberg.com/michael-bloomberg/) said. The park will remain closed until the city can review a judge’s restraining order seeking to allow protesters to return with their belongings, the mayor said.
“The First Amendment protects speech,” the mayor said in a press conference at City Hall. “It doesn’t protect the use of tents and sleeping bags to take over public space.”
Protesters will be allowed to return without tents, sleeping bags or tarps, and must follow park rules, he said.
New York police have avoided a confrontation with demonstrators camped in a public park that’s privately owned near the World Trade Center site (http://topics.bloomberg.com/world-trade-center-site/) since the owner postponed clearing sections for cleaning in mid-October. In cities across the country, crime combined with poor sanitary conditions and complaints of losses at local businesses have eroded tolerance for the camps as expressions of free speech.
Birthplace of Movement
Hundreds of protesters have slept in tents and under tarps since Sept. 17 in Zuccotti Park, which is both the birthplace of the protests and the physical symbol of what has grown into a global movement. The park is a public space owned by a real estate company, Brookfield Office Properties Inc.
Demonstrators outside St. Paul’s Cathedral (http://topics.bloomberg.com/st.-paul%27s-cathedral/) in London (http://topics.bloomberg.com/london/) held a press conference today to express support for Occupy Wall Street (http://topics.bloomberg.com/wall-street/) and called for a protest outside the U.S. embassy.
The New York police operation came after organizers announced they would mark the two-month anniversary of the movement this week with plans to (http://occupywallst.org/) “shut down Wall Street” and “occupy the subways.”
“Some politicians may physically remove us from public spaces -- our spaces,” activists said in a statement released at 2:25 a.m. local time. “You cannot evict an idea whose time has come.”
About 200 people were in the park when police using loudspeakers told protesters to leave or face arrest, said Chris Porter, 26, a welder from Indiana (http://topics.bloomberg.com/indiana/) who joined the protest in the park about a month ago.
‘Destroyed Everything’
Police broke down tents and “destroyed everything” while forcibly removing protesters who had locked arms, he said. The Associated Press (http://topics.bloomberg.com/associated-press/) said about 70 people were arrested, citing Paul Browne (http://topics.bloomberg.com/paul-browne/), a police spokesman.
“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,” the mayor said in the release.
“We have been in constant contact with Brookfield and yesterday they requested that the city assist it in enforcing the no sleeping and camping rules in the park,” Bloomberg said. “But make no mistake -- the final decision to act was mine.”
The mayor is founder and majority owner of Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP.
Camp Facilities
The one-square block space hosted a medical tent, kitchen area serving three meals a day, library, comfort station doling out underwear, sweaters, pants and blankets, and tables offering media outreach and legal guidance.
Protesters at Zuccotti have evaded eviction and confrontation with New York police before. Thousands of people convened in the early morning hours of Oct. 14, leading Brookfield to postpone a scheduled cleaning.
Hundreds of protesters arrested last month during a demonstration on the Brooklyn Bridge are scheduled to start appearing in court today to face disorderly conduct charges.
More than 900 people have been charged in connection with the protests since mid-September, including about 700 arrested during the Oct. 1 bridge demonstration, according to police.
The demonstrators refer to themselves on signs and in slogans as “the 99 percent,” a reference to Nobel Prize- winning economist Joseph Stiglitz (http://topics.bloomberg.com/joseph-stiglitz/)’s study showing the richest 1 percent control 40 percent of U.S. wealth.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-15/u-s-mayors-crack-down-on-occupy-wall-street.html
New York City police in riot gear swept into a Lower Manhattan park early today to remove hundreds of Occupy Wall Street demonstrators who had been camping there for more than eight weeks to protest income inequality (http://topics.bloomberg.com/income-inequality/).
The action followed similar moves that shut camps in Oakland, California (http://topics.bloomberg.com/california/), and Portland, Oregon (http://topics.bloomberg.com/oregon/). New York police and the park’s owners told protesters at 1 a.m. local time to remove items including tents and sleeping bags, after which city workers cleared remaining belongings, Mayor Michael Bloomberg (http://topics.bloomberg.com/michael-bloomberg/) said. The park will remain closed until the city can review a judge’s restraining order seeking to allow protesters to return with their belongings, the mayor said.
“The First Amendment protects speech,” the mayor said in a press conference at City Hall. “It doesn’t protect the use of tents and sleeping bags to take over public space.”
Protesters will be allowed to return without tents, sleeping bags or tarps, and must follow park rules, he said.
New York police have avoided a confrontation with demonstrators camped in a public park that’s privately owned near the World Trade Center site (http://topics.bloomberg.com/world-trade-center-site/) since the owner postponed clearing sections for cleaning in mid-October. In cities across the country, crime combined with poor sanitary conditions and complaints of losses at local businesses have eroded tolerance for the camps as expressions of free speech.
Birthplace of Movement
Hundreds of protesters have slept in tents and under tarps since Sept. 17 in Zuccotti Park, which is both the birthplace of the protests and the physical symbol of what has grown into a global movement. The park is a public space owned by a real estate company, Brookfield Office Properties Inc.
Demonstrators outside St. Paul’s Cathedral (http://topics.bloomberg.com/st.-paul%27s-cathedral/) in London (http://topics.bloomberg.com/london/) held a press conference today to express support for Occupy Wall Street (http://topics.bloomberg.com/wall-street/) and called for a protest outside the U.S. embassy.
The New York police operation came after organizers announced they would mark the two-month anniversary of the movement this week with plans to (http://occupywallst.org/) “shut down Wall Street” and “occupy the subways.”
“Some politicians may physically remove us from public spaces -- our spaces,” activists said in a statement released at 2:25 a.m. local time. “You cannot evict an idea whose time has come.”
About 200 people were in the park when police using loudspeakers told protesters to leave or face arrest, said Chris Porter, 26, a welder from Indiana (http://topics.bloomberg.com/indiana/) who joined the protest in the park about a month ago.
‘Destroyed Everything’
Police broke down tents and “destroyed everything” while forcibly removing protesters who had locked arms, he said. The Associated Press (http://topics.bloomberg.com/associated-press/) said about 70 people were arrested, citing Paul Browne (http://topics.bloomberg.com/paul-browne/), a police spokesman.
“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,” the mayor said in the release.
“We have been in constant contact with Brookfield and yesterday they requested that the city assist it in enforcing the no sleeping and camping rules in the park,” Bloomberg said. “But make no mistake -- the final decision to act was mine.”
The mayor is founder and majority owner of Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP.
Camp Facilities
The one-square block space hosted a medical tent, kitchen area serving three meals a day, library, comfort station doling out underwear, sweaters, pants and blankets, and tables offering media outreach and legal guidance.
Protesters at Zuccotti have evaded eviction and confrontation with New York police before. Thousands of people convened in the early morning hours of Oct. 14, leading Brookfield to postpone a scheduled cleaning.
Hundreds of protesters arrested last month during a demonstration on the Brooklyn Bridge are scheduled to start appearing in court today to face disorderly conduct charges.
More than 900 people have been charged in connection with the protests since mid-September, including about 700 arrested during the Oct. 1 bridge demonstration, according to police.
The demonstrators refer to themselves on signs and in slogans as “the 99 percent,” a reference to Nobel Prize- winning economist Joseph Stiglitz (http://topics.bloomberg.com/joseph-stiglitz/)’s study showing the richest 1 percent control 40 percent of U.S. wealth.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-15/u-s-mayors-crack-down-on-occupy-wall-street.html