FACE OFF in NYC: Cops dismantle Zuccotti Park / Roundup of related news and commentary

By Dave Lefcourt

Early this AM police raided OWS & forcibly removed protesters sleeping in tents. Dozens of arrests were made. Earlier Monday police closed down the Occupy Oakland encampment arresting 33 there. What these authorities fail to understand is their actions will only galvanize protesters resolve to continue their protests which are based on ideas, problems and issues which can’t be destroyed by dismantling their encampments.

Early this morning starting around 1:00 AM, police in riot gear raided Zuccotti Park in New York, home of Occupy Wall Street and forcibly removed protesters sleeping in tents. Dozens of arrests were made of those who refused to leave. Sanitation workers came and dumped belongings into trucks and cleaning crews from the owner of the park, Brookfield Properties followed using power washers. Protesters who left the area vowed to meet up later this morning in nearby Foley Square to plan their next move.

Earlier on Monday police closed down the Occupy Oakland encampment saying nobody will be allowed to sleep there anymore. Some 33 protesters were arrested there. Later in the day protesters returned to Frank Ogawa Plaza, the site of the encampment and held a rally and a march.

One would think the Mayors and police chiefs in the two cities were in close collaboration, keeping tabs on each other and seeing what methods and procedures their counterparts were using in order to shut down the encampments within their respective cities. In both instances, health, safety and fire hazards were the primary excuses used to justify the dismantling of the encampments.

What all these authorities fail to understand, whether in Oakland, New York, earlier in Denver, Boston, Atlanta et al is their actions only serve to galvanize the protesters resolve to continue their protests. The occupy movement is committed to non-violence and is based on ideas, problems and issues which can’t be destroyed by dismantling their encampments.

These tactics only make the movement stronger, gain more adherents and cast a greater light of shame on the authorities for rousting and arresting peaceful protesters.

To Mayors Quan in Oakland and Bloomberg in New York (and all other mayors considering similar methods in their jurisdictions) your strong arm tactics against the occupy movement in your cities are backfiring and will have and opposite effect than the one you intend.  

The Eviction Operation at Zuccotti Park
This post has been updated as of 12:28 pm

including city council member Ydanis Rodriguez. Blocks away, Mayor Michael Bloomberg held a press conference at which he declared that police would be now able to search all people entering the park. Read his press release, which contains the memorable phrase “no right is absolute,” here.

Tana Ganeva tweeted from Trinity at noon that religious leaders and occupiers were being arrested at the church.

had obtained a temporary restraining order “directing that occupiers be allowed back on the premises with their belongings.” This was meant to hold for several hours until a new hearing at 11:30.

However, after some members of the public re-entered the park, they were asked to leave again. At about 11 a.m, police were reportedly acting in contempt of the order, holding the park and preventing the mandated re-entry of the reconvened protesters.

was about to begin: 

Follow Jaffe and Ganeva for updates from the courtroom and churchyard, respectively.

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heaped protesters’ belongings together.

Cops reportedly told people these confiscated items would be available at the Department of Sanitation but protesters thought they had been disposed of completely. 

Almost all of downtown Manhattan was blocked off in various ways, and protesters were beaten for being both on the sidewalk and the street.

According to reports on Twitter, the OWS press team, and internal OWS listservs, downtown subways and the Brooklyn Bridge were shut down, airspace was blocked off, and a barricade was erected to prevent supporters who were alerted by text–and came to help–from entering.

Several bystanders who arrived to help were pepper-sprayed or beaten. Read this dispatch from Anna Lekas Miller for one such story: “The police came towards us. I was live tweeting when I realized there was a funny smell and something in my eyes that was making them burn… I was shoved against a wall by a cop with a riot shield telling me to, ‘Keep it moving.‘ …Their batons were out. It was violence.”

Kristen Gwynne, who also arrived on the scene after 1 am:

• #ows. Looking for alternate route in..ahh hang in there guys
• Cops everywhere. At least 1 pepper sprayed cops pushing us
• Holy shit this us crazy pepper spray, pushing us, beating and arresting peaceful protestors#ows
• These brutal tactics were used on supporters who were in the park and others who were trying to get in to protect the space, as well as some members of the press. LRADs (sound cannons) were seen and some say used, but as of yet but there have been no confirmed reports of them being used.

  From Poynter, more on the suppression of the press: 

  Journalists said they were shut out and roughed up as the New York Police Department cleared Zuccotti Park of Occupy Wall Street protesters in the early morning hours Tuesday. “I’m w/ a NY Post reporter who says he was roughed up by riot police as Zuccotti was cleared,” tweeted Brian Stelter of The New York Times. “He thinks violence was ‘completely deliberate.’ “ Julie Walker, a freelancer for NPR, and Jared Malsin were reportedly arrested. Josh Harkinson, a staff writer for Mother Jones, made it into the park and observed the police arresting protesters (which he described in tweets later), but said hewas hauled out when he told a police officer he was working for Mother Jones. ”I decided it would be better to stay out of jail and keep reporting on what’s going on tonight, so I let him haul me out, arguing with him,” he tweeted. Josh Stearns

  From Gothamist, an explanation of how cops and local doormen refused to allow photography:

  chained themselves to trees in Liberty, and some early reports indicate the NYPD cut down the trees in order to remove the demonstrators.” 

  Around 7 am, the following terms were trending on Twitter in New York City:

  • Foley Square
  • Zucotti Park
  • The NYPD
  • Broadway and Pine
  • LRAD
  • #OFS
  • #mediablackout
  • Lower Manhattan

  Timeline of Violent NYPD Raid on Occupy Wall Street

  3:36 a.m. Kitchen tent reported teargassed. Police moving in with zip cuffs.

  3:33 a.m. Bulldozers moving in

  3:16 a.m. Occupiers linking arms around riot police

  3:15 a.m. NYPD destroying personal items. Occupiers prevented from leaving with their possessions.

  3:13 a.m. NYPD deploying sound cannon

  3:05 a.m. NYPD cutting down trees in Liberty Square

  2:55 a.m. NYC council-member Ydanis Rodríguez arrested and bleeding from head.

  2:44 a.m. Defiant occupiers barricaded Liberty Square kitchen

  2:44 a.m. NYPD destroys OWS Library. 5,000 donated books in dumpster.

  2:42 a.m. Brooklyn Bridge confirmed closed

  2:38 a.m. 400-500 marching north to Foley Square

  2:32 a.m. All subways but R shut down

  2:29 a.m. Press helicopters evicted from airspace. NYTimes reporter arrested.

  2:22 a.m. Frontpage coverage from New York Times

  2:15 a.m. Occupiers who have been dispersed are regrouping at Foley Square

  2:10 a.m. Press barred from entering Liberty Square

  2:03 a.m. Massive Police Presence at Canal and Broadway

  1:43 a.m. Helicopters overhead.

  1:38 a.m. Unconfirmed reports of snipers on rooftops.

  1:34 a.m. CBS News Helicopter Livestream

  1:27 a.m. Unconfirmed reports that police are planning to sweep everyone.

  1:20 a.m. Subway stops are closed.

  1:20 a.m. Brooklyn bridge is closed.

  1:20 a.m. Police are in riot gear.

  1:20 a.m. Police are bringing in bulldozers. 

  blogged his experience on this “emotional night”:

  Campers across the park quickly climbed out of their tents screaming, “WAKE UP THE POLICE ARE HERE!” I ran into the library and let the handful of people sleeping in there know what was happening, then unlocked and pulled the OWS POETRY ANTHOLOGY from the shelves and strapped them to my body, then climbed atop a table in the park and read poems from the anthology. Immediately, the people of Liberty Plaza launched into action, a group of about a hundred protesters took to the kitchen and U-Locked/tied themselves down. After reading the third poem, the cops began to enter the park and I realized that I would most likely lose all of my possessions so I quickly grabbed a bag of my personal stuff, ran into the library and dumped a bunch of boxes of books onto the floor to make the cleaning up more difficult for the cops then ran my personal stuff and a few amazing books to a friends house around the corner. I naively thought I could get my stuff to my friends house and then re-enter the park but could only get to the corner of Liberty and Broadway after prepping myself for a long night. 

  At Pandagon, Amanda Marcotte had these thoughts to offer on the destruction of the library and what it symbolizes:

  Media Bistro is reporting that the NYPD destroyed over 5,000 books that have been amassed in the OWS library over the past two months. The young protesters who were volunteering as librarians tweeted the ordeal of watching what has come to be, historically speaking, the symbol of authoritarian governments oppressing its citizens. 

  OWSLibrary The People’s Library NYPD destroying american cultural history, they’re destroying the documents, the books, the artwork of an event in our nation’s history.

  Right now, the NYPD are throwing over 5,000 books from our library into a dumpster. Will they burn them?