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Yeah um, what the happens next? They can't disobey a judge's order
Police then failed to follow the court order.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/15/us/new...html?hpt=hp_c1
New York (CNN) -- A New York judge issued an order Tuesday morning allowing Occupy Wall Street protesters to return to Zuccotti Park, just hours after scores of police in riot gear ordered them out and tore down their tents.
The order from New York Supreme Court Judge Lucy Billings allows protesters to bring tents and other equipment back into the privately owned park where the now-global Occupy movement began.
Police, however, did not immediately let them in.
Soon after the ruling, a large group of demonstrators -- some of them apparently holding the court do ents -- marched back to Zuccotti Park and presented the do ents to police.
"We have a court order," the group chanted, as it wielded signs and circled the Lower Manhattan park. "You don't have authority over a judge," they yelled at police.
At least two people were seen jumping over a metal barricade before they were forcibly removed by authorities.
Video of the park showed security officers picking up one protester and tossing the individual over the fence.
City officials, meanwhile, said they had intended to allow protests to resume at the park, but added they would not allow demonstrators to set up tents or camp. The park will remain closed until officials sort out the legal situation, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.
"We have an obligation to enforce the laws today, to make sure that everybody has access to the park so everybody can protest. That's the First Amendment and it's number one on our minds," he said. "We also have a similar, just as important obligation to protect the health and safety of the people in the park."
A hearing was scheduled for 11:30 a.m. ET to discuss the order.
The operation to clear the park began around 1 a.m., according to Bloomberg, with police handing out notices from the park's owner, Brookfield Office Properties, that said the continued occupation posed a health and fire hazard.
"You are required to immediately remove all property, including tents, sleeping bags and tarps, from Zuccotti Park," the note said. "That means you must remove the property now."
Police in riot gear then moved into the park, evicting hundreds of protesters.
Dozens of protesters who had camped out at the Lower Manhattan park since September 17 linked arms in defiance. Many chanted, "Whose park? Our park" and "You don't have to do this."
Police arrested more than 100 people, according to Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne.
New York City Council member Ydanis Rodriguez was among those arrested, after he rushed down to the park when he heard police were evicting protesters, his spokesman, David Segal, told CNN.
Medical crews treated three people for minor injuries, Bloomberg said. A police officer was also hospitalized after experiencing heart palpitations, he said.
Continuing concerns about public health and safety and the impact of the protests on nearby businesses, as well as the rights of others to use the park, prompted city officials to dismantle the camp, Bloomberg said. While the city has a long history of embracing free expression, cir stances at the park had become "intolerable," he explained.
The Occupy Wall Street website video-streamed the eviction under a banner headline that read, "NYPD is raiding Liberty Square." Liberty Square is the former name of the park.
While many protesters left without resisting, many others moved to the center of the park to an area known as the "kitchen." There, they built barricades with tables to keep police away.
The air was thick with smoke, which some protesters said was from tear gas that officers lobbed.
Others said officers took thousands of books from the camp's makeshift library and tossed them in Dumpsters.
"In an immense show of force, police have shown their presence," said Kanene Holder, a spokeswoman for the Occupy Wall Street movement. "I've seen how agitated the police are and some (are) pushing and shoving to remove us."
CNN could not confirm those accounts, as police kept journalists a block and a half away from the park during the raid.
However, CNN was able to obtain footage of piles of clothing, tents and tarps made by police as they cleaned out the park.
One protester told CNN he was awakened by "shouting and screaming" and wasn't sure what was going on. He said he didn't find out about the order to vacate until later.
By 4:30 a.m., the Lower Manhattan park was clear, with about 40 city crews in orange vests scraping up trash and pressure washing sidewalks.
After briefly reopening around 8 a.m., the park closed again as city officials learned of the court order. About 50 people who had been allowed back in were asked to leave.
Tuesday morning, several hundred protesters marched from Foley Square, where they had gathered after Zuccotti Park was cleared, to City Hall, chanting "We are unstoppable, another world is possible" and "This is what democracy looks like."
Bloomberg said Occupy demonstrators "must follow the park rules if they wished to continue to use it to protest."
"Protesters -- and the general public -- are welcome there to exercise their First Amendment rights, and otherwise enjoy the park, but will not be allowed to use tents, sleeping bags or tarps and, going forward, must follow all park rules," Bloomberg said.
"The law that created Zuccotti Park required that it be open for the public to enjoy for passive recreation 24 hours a day. Ever since the occupation began, that law has not been complied with, as the park has been taken over by protesters, making it unavailable to anyone else. ... The park was becoming a place where people came not to protest, but rather to break laws, and in some cases, to harm others," the mayor said.
Many protesters complied with the order to remove property, he said, but police and the city's Sanitation Department "assisted in removing any remaining tents and sleeping bags."
While most protesters were peaceful, "an unfortunate minority" were not, Bloomberg said, prompting reports of businesses being threatened and complaints regarding noise and unsanitary conditions.
Bloomberg said he and Brookfield Properties had become concerned about hazards posed by the encampment. "But make no mistake -- the final decision to act was mine," he said.
"Protesters have had two months to occupy the park with tents and sleeping bags," the mayor said. "Now they will have to occupy the space with the power of their arguments."
Many of the hundreds who left quickly reassembled two blocks away, chanting, "We are back together."
Jeremy Baratta, a 32-year-old Army veteran, called the health concerns that authorities cited a pretext.
"It was fairly clean," he said of the park. "No urine or fecal matter. There weren't things strewn about."
Since the protests began in September, the encampment at the park had taken on an air of permanency, with tents covering the public plaza from one end to the other. Protesters said they were there for the long haul.
Last month, Bloomberg had ordered protesters to vacate the park so Brookfield workers could clean it, but Brookfield changed its mind after it said it was "inundated" with calls.
On Monday, police in Oakland, California, conducted a similar raid when they moved in to the Occupy encampment at Frank Ogawa Plaza near City Hall and tore down tents. Officers made 33 arrests.
There, too, the park is reopen to protesters, but city officials will enforce a ban on camping in the park with an around-the-clock police presence.
The Tuesday morning eviction of Zuccotti Park comes ahead of plans by the protesters to "shut down" Wall Street on Thursday -- to mark the two-month anniversary of their movement.
Baratta, the Army veteran, said that the movement will continue whether or not the park serves as a base.
"You're going to have to deal with us," he said. "We're not going to show up for an hour and then leave. They're going to have to acknowledge us."
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Just good old police, upholding our freedoms by disobeying a judge's direct order.
Yeah um, what the happens next? They can't disobey a judge's order
People were READING THE COURT ORDER to police, who completely ignored it. They should all be held in contempt of court and lose their jobs, IMO. If you or I disobeyed a judge's order we'd go to jail.
Yeah i'd like to see the police fired and put in jail, i'd like to see Bush and Cheney tried for war crimes, etc but it ain't gonna happen. Some people in this country are above the law, as are some corporations who pay no taxes etc, America is no longer a free democracy and we need to either revolt or get used to it because it's only gonna get worse imho.
http://www.metro.us/newyork/local/ar...py-wall-street
It's not just protesters who are furious with Mayor Michael Bloomberg's decision to clear out Zuccotti Park today. Elected officials from Harlem to Brooklyn are calling the move "sneaky" and "legally questionable."
"Given the NYPD's sneaky tactics early on, I am not surprised by the NYPD's efforts to use the cloak of night as a shield for their brazen violation of the First Amendment," said Brooklyn Councilman Jumaane Williams, who was at Zuccotti Park this morning for the eviction. "I expected this would happen; I just did not know when."
Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez, who represents Northern Manhattan, was arrested early this morning near Zuccotti Park. He is currently being held in Central Booking, according to his communications director.
"Mayor Bloomberg made a needlessly provocative and legally questionable decision to clear Zuccotti Park in the dead of night," said Public Advocate Bill de Blasio this morning. "That some media and observers were prevented from monitoring the action is deeply troubling. "Provocations under cover of darkness only escalate tensions in a situation."
Bloomberg said the decision to evict the protesters was his and his alone, although he made the call after complaints from nearby business owners and Brookfield. Bloomberg was supposed to be in Washington, D.C. today but just moments ago announced he canceled the trip and will remain in New York City.
Bloomberg defended his decision earlier today:
“Some have argued to allow the protestors to stay in the park indefinitely – others have suggested we just wait for winter and hope the cold weather drove the protestors away – but inaction was not an option. I could not wait for someone in the park to get killed or to injure another first responder before acting," he said, referring to an EMT who was injured last week while removing a mentally ill man from the park. "We must never be afraid to insist on compliance with our laws."
speak now or forever hold your peace america
I bet the local residents, workers, and small business owners are happy to have the dregs of society removed from the park.
Up twinkles
How do you think the judge who issued the order feels Darrin?
Darrin doesn't concern himself with needless burdens like "facts".
I bet there are local residents, workers, and small business owners that are protesting.
I bet there aren't any corporation owners there though. They're probably happy.
Time for the Obamavilles to be shut down.
Bloomberg is happy. He acknowledged the order from the judge but said he hadn't been officially served so he has no compulsion to act.
What does that say about the power trip elected officials are on? It would be HILARIOUS if he was found in breach of order, but we know that won't happen.
Huh, the criminals are still there at the exchange?
People are probably tired of seeing stuff like this:
Why? Is there a time limit on free speech?
I can't handle your creativity, man. It's just too much.
Who's tired, Darrin? Do you have a source, or are you just casting random aspersions with no factual backing?
The Occupy protesters are idiots but they have every right to be idiots as long as they aren't breaking any laws imho. Pigs just bein pigs nothing to see here.
That's the problem.
If they can stop the: ting in the streets, sexual assaults, shootings, vandalism, assualting police, obstructing commerce, etc., I have no problem with their little camp out.
You are a 40 year old low level engineer. You are much, much closer to those that you consider 'the dregs of society' than you are to the corporate financiers that you so fervently defend.
You also are intellectually lazy which results in you blithely parroting your mailers instead of researching who the rank and file of the people at these protests are. Its sad too because your intentional deceptions about your sources indicate you know how reprehensible such laziness is.
Thing is that there are some homeless folks there but the OWS people do not just arbitrarily throw them out because of some unfounded notions of superiority as you like to espouse.
You aren't superior to code-breaker.
If they're breaking so many laws, why did a judge overturn the eviction order, Darrin? Why are you claiming to know US law better than a federal judge?
Unlike Fuzzy Lumpkins who lives with his parents and considers himself morally superior to those of us that work and pay taxes.
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