Gettin' Spicy Up In Here, Up In Here

[prole]

October 13, 2011, 2:30 pm

Facing Eviction, Protesters Begin Park Cleanup

By ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS

Robert Stolarik for The New York Times

Occupy Wall Street protesters at Zuccotti Park swept and scrubbed on Thursday afternoon, hoping to stave off even temporary eviction.

 

Updated, 9:21 p.m.| Young people in knit hats and jeans scurried around Thursday wielding brooms and trash bags, moving mountains of sleeping bags, backpacks and jackets out of the way.

 

By cleaning up Zuccotti Park on their own, they were trying to persuade the park’s owner, Brookfield Properties, to back down from its plan to send in cleanup crews Friday morning and begin to enforce new rules on the use of the park that would end the Occupy Wall Street protest, at least in its current form.

 

But as the day wore on, it seemed that the protesters’ efforts to placate Brookfield might, in the end, not matter, and all sides were girding for a Friday showdown. The police said they were ready to step in if the company asked for help in removing protesters or enforcing the new rules, while protesters planned to form a human chain around the park and, using Facebook and Twitter, called on sympathizers to join them.

 

Some protesters saw the cleanup as tantamount to an eviction notice, and they vowed to stand their ground, even if it meant being arrested. “This is a public park privately held — I don’t even understand what that means,” Travis Nogle, a 32-year-old protester and “earthship builder” from San Francisco said as he changed his shoes and prepared to pitch in with the cleanup. “We have a constitutional right to protest.”

 

Zuccotti Park, a plaza that takes up an entire downtown block, is owned and maintained by Brookfield but open to the public. While the police have confronted and arrested demonstrators during marches in the streets and on the Brooklyn Bridge, they have largely left the Zuccotti Park protests untouched, allowing the people there to camp out around the clock while ringing the park with barricades and dozens of officers.

 

But in a letter to the police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, this week, the company’s chief executive, Richard B. Clark, said that sleeping protesters were blocking walkways “at all hours of the day and night.” The letter said that there had been neighborhood complaints of “lewdness, groping, drinking and drug use” and that the company had not been able to perform its daily maintenance.

 

“We fully support the rights of free speech and assembly,” he wrote, “but the matter in which the protesters are occupying the park violates the law, violates the rules of the park, deprives the community of its rights of quiet enjoyment to the park, and creates health and public safety issues that need to be addressed immediately.”

 

The company circulated a notice in the park Thursday explaining its plan: it would clean a third of the park at a time, allowing protesters to return to each section once the job was done. More important, however, was the company’s vow to enforce new rules that it imposed after the protest began about a month ago, which seem aimed at the very essence of the occupation: no camping, no tents, no tarps, no sleeping bags, no lying on the ground or on benches, and no storage of personal property on the ground or walkways “which unreasonably interferes with the use of such areas by others,” the company said in its notice.

 

While demonstrators tried to tidy up the park Thursday — at one point a power washer was obtained, but there was no water available to pump through it — Scott M. Stringer, the Manhattan borough president, called on City Hall officials to try to reach a deal with the protesters. And the New York Civil Liberties Union issued a statement, saying: “The city must not use the cleanup as a pretext for mass arrests. To do so would be a violation of the spirit of the First Amendment and the spirit of dissent.”

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg received a decidedly mixed reception when he went to Zuccotti Park Wednesday night to announce the cleanup.

 

Thirteen City Council members wrote in a letter to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg that they supported a cleanup, but added, “The new rules you are enforcing, however — in particular the prohibition on sleeping bags and gear — is an eviction notice and potentially an unconstitutional closing of a forum to silence free speech.”

 

But Brookfield, in a statement, seemed intent on carrying out its plans: “As sections of the park are cleaned, they will re-open to the public. All are welcome to enjoy the park for its intended purpose as an open neighborhood plaza, in compliance with posted rules.”

 

City Hall issued its own statement Thursday afternoon, standing behind Brookfield’s decision to clean its own park and demand that protesters abide by their rules. “We will continue to defend and guarantee their free speech rights, but those rights do not include the ability to infringe on the rights of others, which is why the rules governing the park will be enforced,” said Marc La Vorgna, a spokesman for Mr. Bloomberg.

 

Some protesters have pointed out that the mayor’s longtime girlfriend, Diana L. Taylor, is on the board of directors of Brookfield.

 

According to Jerold S. Kayden, a lawyer and professor of urban planning and design at Harvard University and an expert on private parkland, New York City gives the owners of public spaces like Zuccotti Park the right to impose “reasonable” rules of conduct. While many private parks and plazas have nighttime curfews, Zuccotti and others — created under an earlier zoning law — are generally required to be open to the public at all times. “I would suspect that the city might view rules against sleeping overnight and permanent occupation to be reasonable,” he said. “But reasonableness is in the eye of the beholder.”

 

Still, the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators held out hope they could forestall the Brookfield cleanup by taking care of their own sanitation. The cleanup efforts were slow at first, with only a handful helping in the morning.

 

“Every action you see here is autonomous,” said Fred Pantozzi, a protester filling plastic bags with trash.

 

“Autonomous enough for people not to be doing it,” added another protester, Henry Perkins, a 21-year-old student at the University of Alabama.

 

Gradually, however, more people heeded the call. Volunteers taped off sections of the park, hauled off debris and scrubbed walkways clean.

Some said that if the police took away their sleeping bags they would sleep in the park sitting up.

 

A girl in a purple plaid jacket and short skirt said this was not a good idea. “If we stay up all night without sleeping bags we’re going to get sick and we’re going to look crazy on TV,” she said. “Activist burnout is a real thing. If you can take one night to sleep at a friend’s house and rest up.”

 

Mr. Perkins was putting abandoned clothing into clear plastic bags. He said he had not had a shower in five days, but somehow managed to keep fairly clean. He hoped the protesters would not be evicted. “My autonomous plan is to wake up before they get here and to be out of the way,” he said. “I will move quadrant by quadrant. I hope they don’t kick us out.”

[prole]

Protesters: 1

the State: 0

[JayB]

[video:youtube]

 

 

 

[prole]

Just went to Occupy LA. It was awesome.

[Choada_Boy]

Sweet. Much improved over some dumb cunt windbag corporate whore sycophant droning on through a mouthful of lobster thermidor on the Senate floor trying to further enrich his Koch brothers overlords. "This group makes decisions by consensus!" Participatory Democracy!

[prole]

Git dat money out. Find a local credit union near you.

[akhalteke]

"This group makes decisions by consensus!" Participatory Democracy!

 

Except their "decisions" have no bearing on the rest of the World. Just an excuse to blow off work and get high with their buddies anyways...

[Crux]

 

“The bottom line is the police know policing, not the governor and not the mayor.”

 

New York cops defy order to arrest hundreds of ‘Occupy Albany’ protesters

[tvashtarkatena]

"This group makes decisions by consensus!" Participatory Democracy!

 

Except their "decisions" have no bearing on the rest of the World. Just an excuse to blow off work and get high with their buddies anyways...

 

I don't think so.

 

This event is costing wall street banks ALOT as people who become aware of the issues (due in no small part to the protests) take their money out of big banks and move it to smaller venues.

 

Look for this story coming up. It's happening.

[Crux]

 

Today in juxtaposition, courage and cowardice:

[ZimZam]

Today in juxtaposition, courage and cowardice:

[video:youtube]

[G-spotter]

If we used hamsters for money instead of dollar bills, it'd be possible to put your money in a cage and have more money in the morning. Now THAT'S WHAT I CALL INVESTMENT!

[KaskadskyjKozak]

If we used hamsters for money instead of dollar bills, it'd be possible to put your money in a cage and have more money in the morning. Now THAT'S WHAT I CALL INVESTMENT!

 

prole would put them somewhere else. just sayin...

[tvashtarkatena]

If we used hamsters for money instead of dollar bills, it'd be possible to put your money in a cage and have more money in the morning. Now THAT'S WHAT I CALL INVESTMENT!

 

You could buy stuff with your head.

 

 

[G-spotter]

They'd call it a snake market instead of a bear market.

[ZimZam]

Here's more to the Oakland story Fractured skull

[Crux]

[video:vimeo]

Footage of Scott Olsen being shot by Police at Occupy Oakland from Raleigh Latham on Vimeo.

[akhalteke]

Here's more to the Oakland story Fractured skull

 

In contrast the previous night, few police officers appeared to be in the immediate area.

Mayor Jean Quan said Oakland supports the protesters' goals but had to act Tuesday when a small number of them threw rocks, paint and bottles at the police.

"We had, on one hand, demonstrators who tried to rush banks, other demonstrators saying don't do that, and we had police officers, for the most part, 99 percent, who took a lot of abuse," the mayor said. "So yesterday was a sad day for us."

 

I am sure this young man learned early in the Corps, that you CAN be guilty by association and WILL pay for the actions of those which you choose to surround yourself.

 

Pity it happened, but actions have consequences.

[prole]

I am sure this young man learned early in the Corps, that you CAN be guilty by association and WILL pay for the actions of those which you choose to surround yourself.

 

Pity it happened, but actions have consequences.

 

Worship authority much?

[j_b]

As if anything that happened that night justified shooting someone in the head with a gas canister from 10-15' away (then, purposefully gassing those trying to get him out of there). That's seriously fucked up.

[billcoe]

I'd like to congratulate the occupiers for attracting some support. Now you are clearly as racist as you claim the Tea Partiers are. David Duke supports you in your international Zionist banker and Jew Hater crusade.

 

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/former-kkk-grand-wizard-david-duke-supports-occupy-wall-street-movement

[j_b]

"some support" LOLZ

 

OWS has more support from Americans than any presidential contender (including Obama), despite the smears you morons and the corporate media are peddling on the airwaves.

Edited October 29, 2011 by j_b

[ZimZam]

Pity it happened, but actions have consequences.

 

The consequences being, now the rules of engagement have changed. We aren't Syria. That was a fucking head shot clear and simple. You're a weapons expert, deny that. Hell you'd have violated the UCMJ if that had been a Haji. And what's up with pussy po-po lobbing CS at those helping the wounded. The mayor talked about protesters rushing private business. Fine. Protect them. This is bullshit. Yes actions do have consequences. Here's what happens now.

...and it'll be some innocent cop just doing his job, not the pu-says who had their lunch money jacked in school, and now wear a badge and think they are tough guys.

[tvashtarkatena]

Here's more to the Oakland story Fractured skull

 

In contrast the previous night, few police officers appeared to be in the immediate area.

Mayor Jean Quan said Oakland supports the protesters' goals but had to act Tuesday when a small number of them threw rocks, paint and bottles at the police.

"We had, on one hand, demonstrators who tried to rush banks, other demonstrators saying don't do that, and we had police officers, for the most part, 99 percent, who took a lot of abuse," the mayor said. "So yesterday was a sad day for us."

 

I am sure this young man learned early in the Corps, that you CAN be guilty by association and WILL pay for the actions of those which you choose to surround yourself.

 

Pity it happened, but actions have consequences.

 

Way to blame the victim.

 

Nice.

 

What the hell are you fighting for, exactly (other than a paycheck and bennies, I mean)?

 

 

Edited October 29, 2011 by tvashtarkatena

[prole]

Cops need to get out of the way. What are they protecting in most of these cases anyway, the grass? Trumped up "sanitation" beefs? It's nonsense and is creating more problems than necessary.

 

 

What's the constitutional right to assemble without the space to do it?

 

NASHVILLE: State troopers for the second straight night arrested anti-Wall Street protesters for defying a new nighttime curfew imposed by the Republican governor, in an effort to disband an encampment near the state Capitol in Nashville.

 

And also, for a second time, a Nashville night judge dismissed the arrest warrants.

 

The Tennessean newspaper reported early Saturday morning that Magistrate Tom Nelson told troopers delivering the protesters to jail that he could "find no authority anywhere for anyone to authorize a curfew anywhere on Legislative Plaza."...

 

...Troopers arrested 26 people this time. All were charged with trespassing; two were also charged with public intoxication; and one was also charged with criminal impersonation, Department of Safety spokeswoman Jennifer Donnals said. The judicial commissioner refused to issue warrants for any of the charges.

Edited October 30, 2011 by prole