Occupy Wall Street - Evicted From Zuccotti Park by the NYPD
Notice handed out to Occupy Wall Street campers in Zuccotti Park by Brookfield Properties (via EmilyPhanNgo)
Live Streaming video from inside Zuccotti
Overhead video from the CBS News helicopter
[1:34 am] – At approximately 1am, reports came in that the NYPD had surrounded Zuccotti Park, where Occupy Wall Street has set up camp, and was announcing that anyone who did not want to be arrested needed to leave the park. The notice, seen above, was handed out to the Occupy Wall Street campers and appears to state that the camp is being broken up due to health and fire safety concerns.
[1:39 am] – You can also follow updates from OccupyWallSt.org
[1:42 am] – A clearer view of the full notice handed out by Brookfield Properties:
Image via @newyorkist
[1:50 am] – The text of the eviction notice
Notice of requirement to remove property from Zuccotti Park
Attention please: This announcement is being made on behalf of the owner of this property, Brookfield Properties, and the City of New York.
The City has determined that the continued occupation of Zuccotti Park poses and increasing health and fire safety hazard to those camped in the park, the City’s first responders, and to the surrounding community.
You are required to immediately remove all property, including tents, sleeping bags and tarps from Zuccotti Park. That means you must remove the property now. As has previously been announced, the storage of these materials at this location is not allowed. We also require that you immediately leave the park on a temporary basis so it can be cleared and restored for its intended use.
You will be allowed to return to the park in several hours, when this work is complete. If you decide to return, you will not be permitted to bring tents, sleeping bags, tarps and similar materials with you.
As noted above, once the park has been cleared of tents, sleeping bas and tarps you will be allowed to return subject to the rules governing the use of this park. The sooner the clearing is accomplished, the sooner you can return. The park will be open for public use once it is cleared and restored.
If you fail to immediately remove your property, we will do so and transport it to the Department of Sanitation parking garage at 650 West 57th Street, where you will be able to recover it as of noon today, with proper identification. If you fail to immediately leave the park or in any manner interfere with efforts to remove property from the park, you will be subject to arrest.
[1:59 am] – Listen to live streaming audio from WBAI, Pacifica Radio from Tony Bates, who is on scene at Zuccotti.
[2:01am] – Tarps are being torn down, the People’s Library is being dismantled
[2:07 am] – Some photos of the scene at Zuccotti
View from Broadway and Liberty via @newyorkist
[2:14 am] – Follow news updates from DNAInfo
[2:22 am] – A Twitter list of people on the ground at Zuccotti
[2:28 am]
Zuccotti Park tents and belongings being piled up and removed (via @newyorkist)
[2:32 am] – NYTimes coverage as police clear out Zuccotti
[2:39 am] – Official word from the NYC Mayor’s Office via Twitter:
Occupants of Zuccotti should temporarily leave and remove tents and tarps. Protestors can return after the Park is cleared. #ows – @NYCMayorsOffice
[2:57 am] – Zuccotti continues to be cleared out of all possessions, with large piles of tents and tarps being loaded into Department of Sanitation trucks. It’s unclear whether they are being disposed of, or taken to the Dept. of Sanitation parking garage as per the Brookfield / NYPD announcement above.
[3:03 am]
Police line Zuccotti (via JoseEsparza)
[3:18 am] – Live coverage from The Brooklyn Ink
[4:33 am] – At least 70 arrests have been made inside Zuccotti, per Paul Browne, NYPD spokesperson
Zuccotti, totally cleared (via @JoshHarkinson)
[4:46 am] – Al Jazeera English reports on the scene at Zuccotti:
[4:54 am] – Sanitation trucks haul away the contents of Zuccotti Park
Line of Sanitation trucks heading to Zuccotti (via @tedalexandro)
Tents being loaded into City garbage trucks
[5:09 am] – Mayor Bloomberg expected to hold a press conference about the eviction of Occupy Wall Street at 8am this morning (via @viewofadam)
[5:15 am] – Stories on the clearing out of Zuccotti now up at CNN, NPR, and the WSJ.
Zuccotti Park cleared out (via @colvinj)
[5:50 am] – Protesters have regrouped in Foley Square, and are planning how to recover and what their next steps should be. There will be a meeting at Canal St. and Sixth Ave at 9am.
[6:04 am]
Video of the confusion earlier via Russia Today on Youtube
[6:17 am] – Statement from Mayor Bloomberg on the clearing and re-opening of Zuccotti Park
Via BNO News:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 15, 2011
No. 410
www.nyc.gov
STATEMENT OF MAYOR MICHAEL R. BLOOMBERG ON CLEARING AND RE-OPENING OF ZUCCOTTI PARK
“At one o’clock this morning, the New York City Police Department and the owners of Zuccotti Park notified protestors in the park that they had to immediately remove tents, sleeping bags and other belongings, and must follow the park rules if they wished to continue to use it to protest. Many protestors peacefully complied and left. At Brookfield’s request, members of the NYPD and Sanitation Department assisted in removing any remaining tents and sleeping bags. This action was taken at this time of day to reduce the risk of confrontation in the park, and to minimize disruption to the surrounding neighborhood.
“Protestors were asked to temporarily leave the park while this occurred, and have been told that they will be free to return to the park once Brookfield finishes cleaning it later morning. Protestors – 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.
“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 protestors, making it unavailable to anyone else.
“From the beginning, I have said that the City had two principal goals: guaranteeing public health and safety, and guaranteeing the protestors’ First Amendment rights.
“But when those two goals clash, the health and safety of the public and our first responders must be the priority.
“That is why, several weeks ago the City acted to remove generators and fuel that posed a fire hazard from the park.
“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 protestors and to the surrounding community. 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. But make no mistake – the final decision to act was mine.
“The park had become covered in tents and tarps, making it next to impossible to safely navigate for the public, and for first responders who are responsible for guaranteeing public safety. The dangers posed were evident last week when an EMT was injured as protestors attempted to prevent him and several police officers from helping a mentally ill man who was menacing others. As an increasing number of large tents and other structures have been erected, these dangers have increased. It has become increasingly difficult even to monitor activity in the park to protect the protestors and the public, and the proliferation of tents and other obstructions has created an increasing fire hazard that had to be addressed.
“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. Others have cautioned against action because enforcing our laws might be used by some protestors as a pretext for violence – but we must never be afraid to insist on compliance with our laws.
“Unfortunately, the park was becoming a place where people came not to protest, but rather to break laws, and in some cases, to harm others. There have been reports of businesses being threatened and complaints about noise and unsanitary conditions that have seriously impacted the quality of life for residents and businesses in this now-thriving neighborhood. The majority of protestors have been peaceful and responsible. But an unfortunate minority have not been – and as the number of protestors has grown, this has created an intolerable situation.
“No right is absolute and with every right comes responsibilities. The First Amendment gives every New Yorker the right to speak out – but it does not give anyone the right to sleep in a park or otherwise take it over to the exclusion of others – nor does it permit anyone in our society to live outside the law. There is no ambiguity in the law here – the First Amendment protects speech – it does not protect the use of tents and sleeping bags to take over a public space.
“Protestors have had two months to occupy the park with tents and sleeping bags. Now they will have to occupy the space with the power of their arguments.
“Let me conclude by thanking the NYPD, FDNY, and the Department of Sanitation for their professionalism earlier this morning. Thank you.”
