Protesters’ power grows

(CORRECTION, Oct. 16, 1 p.m.: I thought I had heard in the media that Brookfield Properties had willingly allowed the protesters to stay from the beginning, and that is what I said in the original posting of this entry late last night. But that was not correct. Rather, Brookfield wanted them to leave from the beginning. As Wikipedia reports, “The park, formerly called Liberty Plaza Park, was created in 1968 by United States Steel in return for a height bonus for its adjacent headquarters at the time of its construction. That building is now known as One Liberty Plaza.” Evidently when Brookfield acquired the property it inherited the duty to keep the park open 24 hours a day, and the protesters’ occupation of the park was protected under that rule. So when Brookfield, weeks ago, requested the city to remove the protesters, police commissioner Raymond Kelly replied that the protesters were within their rights and could not be removed. If this is correct (and I will check it out further today), there does not appear to be any way that the protesters can ever be removed. Only winter—not the City of New York—will remove them. I am deleting the original two paragraphs of this entry which incorrectly stated that Brookfield could have had the protesters removed but declined to do so.)

(FURTHER UPDATE AND CLARIFICATION, Oct. 16, 4:30 p.m.: While Brookfield, as Commissioner Kelly said on September 28, could not simply bar the protesters from the park, it did have control over the conditions on which the protesters could use the park, and thus had and has the effective authority to end the 24/7 occupation, an authority which, unfortunately, it has so far chosen not to exercise. See later entries here, here, and here, which together provide sufficient factual and legal background to understand the situation.)

The October 15 New York Post reports:

Wall Street protesters declare ‘victory,’ vow to continue

Now it’s war!

Newly emboldened Occupy Wall Street activists yesterday declared victory over the city—and vowed even bigger protests today—as a red-faced Mayor Bloomberg was forced to cave on plans to roust them from a lower-Manhattan park to clean it after the site’s owner got cold feet.

“They’re going to need an army to stop us now!” gloated Allison Schwartz, 22, a Brooklyn waitress who was among those occupying Zuccotti Park after the abrupt about-face on the cleanup and an ensuing skirmish between cops and protesters.

At least 15 people were arrested in the clash, which began after hundreds of jubilant activists began marching into the streets and hopping barriers.

“I can’t believe it. I thought it was all over. [The city’s retreat] changes everything. I’ve never been more confident that we are all going to make a difference,” Schwartz said.

Another Occupy Wall Street member, unemployed Brooklyn resident Joseph Vitulli, crowed, “The city tried to intimidate us. They threatened us and tried to put us in our place.

“But we showed them what we are all made of,” said Vitulli, 32, who has been sleeping in Zuccotti Park for the past week along with hundreds of others protesting the federal bailout of Wall Street and its executives’ excessive salaries.

“We’re on a roll. Nothing can stop us now.”

PHOTOS: WALL STREET PROTESTS

MIKE: POLS LOWERED THE BROOM

LOCAL SHOPS CLEAN UP, TOO

EDITORIAL: SHOWDOWN POSTPONED

The protesters vowed to continue their movement today with a mass march on a Chase bank branch—where they plan to close their accounts—followed by a rally at the military recruitment center in Times Square.

The group’s glee was in stark contrast to their anger only a day earlier, when the Bloomberg administration announced plans to have people leave the park for a “section-by-section cleanup” yesterday morning. Organizers said the move was a pretext to boot them permanently.

At the time, Brookfield Properties, which owns the park, had requested police enforcement of its planned cleanup.

Occupy Wall Street responded by giving the city petitions signed by 300,000 people objecting to the protesters’ removal. And several thousand people turned out at the park in anticipation of the ejection early yesterday morning.

At 6:20 a.m., 40 minutes before the deadline for occupiers to vacate, Bloomberg’s deputy mayor, Cas Holloway, said Brookfield officials had informed the city that they were “postponing their scheduled cleaning of the park.”

VIDEOS:

MARCH ON WALL STREET TURNS VIOLENT

POLICE SCOOTER RUNS OVER PROTESTER

PROTESTERS AND NYPD CLASH

PARK CLEANUP POSTPONED

Bloomberg blasted Brookfield for bowing to political pressure.

Brookfield said, “At the request of a number of local political leaders, Brookfield Properties has deferred the cleaning of Zuccotti Park for a short period of time while an attempt is made to reach a resolution.”

In an incident partially caught on video, an observer for the National Lawyers Guild was apparently pinned by a police scooter that had allegedly knocked him down and trapped his leg. Police suggested he had intentionally put his leg under the scooter.

In another videotaped incident, a police supervisor punched a protester in the face from behind.

That protester, who identified himself to the Web site Gothamist as Felix Rivera-Pitre, said he had earlier “shot the cop a look.”

“I remember seeing my earring on the ground next to me, and it was full of blood,” he told Gothamist. “I was completely dumbstruck. I’m HIV positive, and that cop should get tested.”

Those arrested were expected to face charges including assault, disorderly conduct, interfering with governmental administration and resisting arrest.

“You had a large number of individuals breaking the law by remaining on the street, disrupting traffic, and some of those individuals [were] resisting officers and fighting with them when they were being arrested,” said NYPD spokesman Paul Browne.

He said the NYPD was reviewing video of the scooter run-in.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at October 16, 2011 01:08 AM | Send