New York City Mayor Bloomberg has asked the Wall Street Protesters to leave their encampment at Zuccotti Park in the financial district by Friday. Though the park is open to the public, it’s privately owned, and its landlords have asked the city to assist in clearing the park so that it may be cleaned.
Capital New York reports that the owners of the park, Brookfield Office Properties, wrote a two-page letter to NYPD Comissioner Ray Kelly regarding the “health and public safety issue that must be addressed immediately.”
According to the letter signed by Brookfield CEO Richard B Clark, one of the concerns is that if the park’s “underground lighting” system is “cracked, water could infiltrate the electrical system, putting occupants of the Park at risk of an electrical hazard.”
The company wants to clean the park of trash and debris and wrote, “we are again requesting the assistance of the New York City Police Department to help clear the Park so that we can undertake work at the earliest possible time.”
This sets the stage for Friday as a big showdown between NYPD and the protesters.
For their part, the protesters are asking for brooms to be donated so that they can clean up the park themselves today and tomorrow. Then, on Friday, they will form a human wall around the park and try to prevent the NYPD from entering.
I predict that the protesters will clean up the park, some will go back home, some will continue the protesting from other points around the city, and everyone in that human wall on Friday will be arrested.
The New York Post reports that the park’s owners say the protesters aren’t being permanently kicked out. They told the paper that “the cleaning will be done in stages and the protesters will be able to return to the areas that have been cleaned, provided they abide by the rules.”
One of the rules prohibits overnight camping. The rule against camping was only added after the protests began.
Bloomberg tells Occupy Wall Street Protesters to clear Zuccotti Park by Friday [Capital New York]
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So much for him saying they never had to leave, on Monday.
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/10/10-10
He probably forgot all the phone calls he’d get from the 1% stating they wouldn’t do business with them or would get tax officials to investigate him or something unless he got rid of the protestors.
No, they’ve been pretty consistent in saying that they can stay, but that it will need to be cleaned. Even in this article they state that they can go back after it’s cleaned.
Sounds like someone just got enough of a gift to make him one of the 1%
“the park’s owners say the protesters aren’t being permanently kicked out. They told the paper that “the cleaning will be done in stages and the protesters will be able to return to the areas that have been cleaned, provided they abide by the rules”
One of the rules prohibits overnight camping. The rule against camping was only added after the protests began.
So, yeah…they’ll get kicked out…at night. Nine-to-five doesn’t exactly sound like “occupying” to me.
They are arriving at 7 to clean in thirds over a 12 hour period.
That means that from 7-11 people will be asked to clear the first section. At 11, they wil be let back into that area and asked to clear the second area, to be cleaned from 11-3. Then the same thing will happen with the final third from 4-7.
I don’t see this as unreasonable, but the reaction of some folks that OWS should refuse to move, chain themselves to whatever they can or otherwise fight this particular action is just giving the cops and excuse to start arresting people (or worse).
In light of the new rule prohibiting overnight camping, what exactly do you believe will happen at 10:01 p.m. the night after they’ve cleaned the park?
you’re assuming it would only take four hours per third to clean up the debris left by several hundred people who have been using the privately-owned public park as a campsite.
They are cleaning the park in thirds. Each third will need to be completely cleared of people and anything they want to keep. When the cleaning is complete, people can return to the cleaned area.
http://peopleslibrary.wordpress.com/2011/10/13/cops-just-came-through-with-leaflets/
One of the rules prohibits overnight camping. The rule against camping was only added after the protests began.
Just because the rules have not thus far been enforced doesn’t mean they weren’t there to begin with. It also doesn’t mean they are going to start enforcing all of them.
Knowledge of the laws, restrictions and guidelines is NEVER a bad thing, especially with a movement like this and the momentum it’s gaining.
They probably never had a person try to camp there before, hence why no rule existed before now. It is completely legitimate that public parks do not allow camping.
Central park doesn’t allow you to camp there normally either: http://www.centralpark.com/news/360/free-summer-camping-in-central-park-has-lottery-for-spots
There are way too many issues with sanitation and safety to allow camping in most public parks.
And it begins…
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_WALL_STREET_PROTEST?SITE=TXWIC&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Its a gamble, they’re estimating that the crowds will disperse with a slight push and form weaker groupings that quickly dissipate
…of course, if they’re wrong, the arrests/beatings etc. will enrage a lot more people that just have a thing for police brutality in general, there is a point where all the alex jones’ police state nutters start to march, when that happens were all f**d cuz those people tend to have a short fuse and a personal arsenal
“Bloomberg Tells Occupy Wall Street Protesters To Leave Park By Friday”
My parents also told me to finish school in 4 years but we all know how THAT turned out.
I managed it in three months
My cat got its masters in one afternoon
The private owners have been pretty cool with it all so far, even though they didn’t need to be. Even further, they just said that they can come back. Get out of there and let them clean it.
Maybe if they were such freaking slobs they wouldn’t need clean up crews to come in and clean up after them.
Well, if people weren’t “slobs” there should be a shitload of people out of work. Maids, hotel cleaning staff, parks & rec clean up, stadium clean-up, etc
would not should
Hey you want to rent a room and be a slob, or be one at home and then hire someone to clean up after you that once thing but to go to a public place and be a slob so someone else has to pay to clean up after you is completely different.
Have you never been to an event with thousands of people? it’s messy, even if it’s a god damn maid’s convention.
@ In brightest day… : I’m sure StarKillerX has been to plenty of events where thousands of people have made a mess (like baseball and football games and patriotic parades in hometowns across America. But because that connection doesn’t jibe with his notion that these protesters must be lazy slobs (10% unemployment nationwide is the result of widespread laziness!) he can’t possibly acknowledge such a thing.
Oh sure I’ve been to many events where people were slobs, but I don’t excuse those either. Would you have an issue if a coworker came over to your house tosses shit all over inside your house if so why should that be any different?
The cause is meaningless to being a slob. I’m in my officer 70+ hours a week. I often eat here and a few times have even slept in it, but it remains clean, you know why? Nope we don’t have a cleaning lady for the offices, it stays clean because I clean up after myself and don’t expect someone else to.
If we were talking about wear and tear of having a a few thousand people tramping about that’s one thing, but we are talking about garbage laying about from those thousands of people.
Never use a public garbage can, sink, urinal, or toilet again, then. Oh, and don’t eat in a restaurant, cafeteria, or food cart.
Live from the intellectual Consistency Games… Consistency 1, StarKillerX, 0.
And if you think they need everyone out to empty the garbage cans then you really need to get out more or stop deluding yourself.
Are you actually comparing people throwing shit on the ground with people eating in a restaurant or cafeteria? Really? LOL!
They’re not slobs, but no professional cleaning has been done in the park since the occupation started. When you have as large a group of people as are there, it’s going to need to be cleaned, even if everyone there is OCD about cleanliness.
What would have to be cleaned up if they cleaned up after themselves?
Watering and cutting grass, raking up leaves, possibly cleaning up bird crap, emptying litter bins, just regular stuff.
You’re working with NO data here. Only assumptions.
Also : Your avatar shows an abundance of class. Keep that around, asshole. It helps us identify who’s who.
What does her/his avatar have to do with class and why does it make her/him an asshole?
Do you have some sort of issue w/ people that like the Fox TV hit The Simpsons? Do you not like Homer Simpson? Against cartoon x-rays? I don’t get it.
Also, how do know she/he is an asshole, do you have ANY data to go off of for that accusation or you just making an assumption like StarKillerX was?
I think we’re seeing different avatars. I see Steve Jobs with 666 across the forehead, and I don’t think it’s cached data as I tried it on a PC that hasn’t touched this site before and it showed the same.
Based on videos that the protestors have posted of the park, it looks very trashed. Crap all over the place, and huge amounts of space taken up by what appear to be “art sculptures”. It’s seriously burning man condensed into a very small space (which is exactly the type of people that I thought were there based on many of the earlier videos).
You have a ton of people in a very small place. Regardless of their intentions, it is going to get trashed. By the looks of it though, it doesn’t look like they are helping anything.
I’m getting tired of people on here defending these people merely based on the fact that they agree with them, not based on facts. I agree with protesting against wall street, but I would not defend many of their actions.
Headlines on Friday afternoon: NYPD Maces Groups of Protesters, NYPD Beats Some More Protesters, Protesters Who Weren’t Resisting are Beaten and Charge with Resisting Arrest, etc.
Public Park Made Private After Unanimous Vote
And renamed “1% Park”
+1%
It’s already a private park.
Privately owned public space.
http://gothamist.com/2011/10/08/zuccotti_park_owners_may_not_be_abl.php#photo-1
Thanks for the link! There is some really good info in there.
So if you don’t want to get caught up and “innocently beaten and arrested”, leave by Friday afternoon.
Common sense.
Change “Protestors” to “Trespassers on private property” and the first two headlines would be correct. The third is too biased to easily change.
Protesters*
They are not trespassing on private property. The park is privately owned, but open to the public 24/7. Brookfield is not allowed to restrict access to the park as per the agreement they made with the city when they built 1 Liberty Plaza.
That comment contradicts itself – it’s privately owned but not private? The owners can request that the city enforce certain rules I am sure and not sleeping overnight in a park is one of them.
It does not contradict itself. The park is owned by a private entity, but it is mandated to be open to the public around the clock. This means that the private entity that owns the park cannot restrict access to the park. Read up on the history of Zuccotti Park and why it is there. The builders of 1 Liberty Plaza were restricted in how high their building could be. In negotiations with the city they agreed to build this publicly available, privately owned park so they could make their office tower higher than zoning regulations allowed. Part of that deal was 24/7 access to the park by the public. I can’t make it simpler than that.
Flawless Victory.
You can close public property for renovations or if it becomes a health hazard. It would then be trespassing to not leave. They want to close sections of it for cleaning, so they are then trespassing. To think that you can’t trespass on public property is insanity.
As soon as you are asked to leave and you refuse, you are then trespassing on public property. I would be astounded if the same extension of rules for public property trespassing wasn’t extended to this private land used for public access.
“…no law … abridging … the right of the people peaceably to assemble…”
Really? So what do you call it when public parks close at night? If they have to close a public space for a reason that doesn’t involve discriminating against a certain group, they are perfectly within their rights. If that space is then closed to everyone, they would be trespassing.
Some may argue they’re trying to force them out of the park, but both their planned actions (doing it in segments to ensure they aren’t completely out of the park), and words indicate otherwise.
Public Accommodation
Headlines on Monday Morning: Protestors refused to leave park. Decry awful sanitary conditions that they’re forced to stand in.
Yeah, I’m expect that as well.
Pete Puma approves of this message & will show up alongside the NYPD to straighten out those protesters on Monday. Be there or be square !
He can be easily thwarted … just offer him tea and ask him, “how many lumps?”
I fail to see how this is unreasonable. They’re not being thrown out, they can come back straight away (well, more or less). Get the hell out, let them clean up your crap, move back in and pick up where you left off. Seems simple to me.
It isn’t unreasonable.
I came to realize in my own city’s Occupation – that you will find people with different ideas and issues when it comes to protesting/logistics/etc.
Not everyone agrees, not everyone thinks the same.
And of course, the media will pretty much focus on the more ridiculous people.
Well those are the people the viewers want to see so of course they will.
Yeah, i have a feeling they’ll leave and then be told “Whoops! You’re actually not allowed to come back, sorry about that!”
One of the rules prohibits overnight camping. The rule against camping was only added after the protests began.
Not even the same.
Will they be Febrezing the entire area as well? I imagine the park could stand some serious air-freshening.
It doesn’t smell any worse than the rest of NYC. The #OWS folks have done a remarkable job of keeping things sanitary.
I was thinking more along the lines of thousands of people who haven’t showered in days, occupying one single location.
You don’t visit NYC much, do you? Spend a little time on a crowded subway car. The #OWS folks don’t smell any worse than that.
Sorry, no. I’m not privileged enough to bask daily in the glorious odor that is the NYC subway.
I wouldn’t consider it a privilege…
Why do so many people think that the occupiers never ever leave?
This is not a handful of people standing their ground, it is a living movement, with people coming and going. People who work days, go at night; people who work nights go during the day. The folks who live in the city or have friends there can go home to sleep and shower. Folks are busing in from out of town during their days off and then turning around and going back home to work, school or family.
Yes, the park is continuously occupied, but not by all the same people all the time.
One day without a shower can be one day too many for some.
I see tents, I assume people are staying at least overnight. It’s not a radial leap of conclusions I’m making here.
Just try getting that B.O. out. By now it’ll have penetrated the tree bark.
If these protests last much longer, Febreze should consider making a Hippie strength version.
________________
Cartman: Mr. Garrison, why do poor people smell like sour milk?
Mr. Garrison: I don’t know, Eric, they just do.
I’ve been fairly supportive of these groups in my personal blog as well as facebook posts (and I have a lot of tea party-leaning friends) but the mess these guys are creating doesn’t lend any recognition to them. It makes them look like a bunch of pigs.
Have you seen a sports stadium after a few hours? And these people have been there for WEEKS. I think they’re not doing too badly, though if I was at that one I’d have designated a volunteer “clean up crew.” We’ve been keeping our OccupyState pretty clean, and I alone prowled for trash and was not even able to fill one grocery plastic bag.
Humans are pigs. Have you looked at a landfill lately?
It’s odd that they’re picking Friday, it has to be so it will do the least media damage.. If you want to get the least amount of attention always drop stories on a Friday. This has to be somewhat political..
I suspect that they’re also doing it on Friday because Saturday is the 10th anniversary of the war in Afghanistan and there are major protests planned for that day all over the country. NYC, though, is the birthplace of the Occupy movement, so it’s expected t hat they will get a very large turnout. Zuccotti Park needs to be cleaned up before the numbers (potentially) double.
I’m still trying to figure out why they don’t just all move to Times Square. It’s not a “park”, so the after-dark rules don’t apply, and they can completely fuck up tourist foot-traffic, 99% of which is going to megacorp owned retailers in the area. Win-win.
Then you do not understand the protesters. This is about WALL STREET. They are not against retailers. You seem to imply wall street and corporations are the same thing. They are pissed about the bailing out of financial institutions while foreclosing and destroying PEOPLE.
And how many banks have headquarters on Wall Street?
Downtown New York is a lot nicer than Stamford, CT or Weehawken, NJ.
And you don’t understand these protests if you think they are all there because of Wall Street. Just read the signs, you’ll see the anti-war loonies, the pro-illegal immigration loonies, gay rights loonies, pro-union loonies, etc….
I call them loonies simply because they are attracted to any left wing protest where the media will be to push their cause but then it’s claimed they are there to protest what the original protesters.
“You have free speech and peaceful assembly rights.”
“Oh yeah, but you have to comply with all the lawyer-speak regulations in this 20lb tome first.”
Inalienable my ass.
Do I have the right to camp in your yard?
If you have a signed agreement from tre_zombie that says your yard is open to the public at all hours, then yes, you can.
This is not a simple issue of private vs public property. This private property has very specific rules and agreements that force it to be accessible to the public 24/7.
last i recall you have the right to eat my fruits in the yard and the most i can do is claim trespassing
Wait they’ve been assembling on private property this whole time? I’m actually extremely surprised the owners have let this go on as long as they have. Did they get the owner’s blessing to demostrate there?
Then again I’m not sure of all the legalese involved in a quasi-public “park” owned by individuals.
It’s private property that’s open to the public due to a building agreement in the late 60s. It has to remain accesible to the public, but the public still has to follow the rules that the private owner creates.
Interesting.
Even though the park is on private property, they have an easement with the city to make that a public park accessible at all hours. Another commenter further up elaborated that it was an agreement between the city and the developers of 1 Liberty Plaza.
Why even bother protesting? If you’re just going to up and leave whenever they ask you to, what’s the point? Doesn’t anyone remember when protestors were hardcore?
This, +1,000. Finally, someone gets it. Nine-to-five occupiers….riiiiight.
They should be kicked out anyhow. While I agree with the protesters, the actions they’ve chosen to take to achieve their goals are a complete waste of time.
Protesting works for minor things. It is a waste of energy to attempt to use it to effect major change.
No Gun = No Change. Look up the words “Revolution” and “Civil War”. You can’t accomplish either by peaceful protesting and since our elections are fueled by corporations, voting doesn’t work either.
So if in your opinion, someone’s movement is a waste of time, the rest of us should kick them out of where ever they are.
Kind of got an ego problem there, don’t you?
The movement is not a waste of time..but the way they are going about it is a waste of time, energy and taxpayer dollars to clean up after the mess.
I agree with what they are complaining about.. just not the way they are complaining.
Yeah!!! You need guns to affect massive change. Just look at Ghandi.
Man….he was an amazing shot with a sniper rifle wasn’t he? Just awe-inspiring…brings a tear to my eye.
The Jews were big proponents of passive resistance in WW2. Guess how well that worked out for them…
Okay, if someone tries to put me in a concentration camp I’ll make an attempt at killing them.
But we’re not exactly approaching that extreme situation yet.
Some people from the sixties, the Phillippines, and Egypt would like to have a word with you…
TL; DR “Okay, you had your fun. Go on home now protestors (since we’re obviously not taking you seriously).”
If they listen to Bloomberg, wouldn’t the 99% be giving in to the 1%?
Please vacate the area or we will be forced to unleash Tony Baloney!
gotta give the fbi time to plant bugs throughout the park guys, clear out
NYPD?? If it’s private property why isn’t the company getting a security firm to secure it?
Stop using taxpayer money to have police do this rent-a-cop type work.
They will probably hire those two women from the Baltimore Walmart to do the cleaning.
Please, please, get the hell out so I can get my morning coffee from Ali again….The smell is freakin terrible. Everytime I walk by at night, they’re just playing bongo drums and dancing like clowns. This is really nonsense, we’re not talking about the 70′s here looking for equal rights for women and all races, we’re talking about confused, lazy people looking for hand outs and a cause, any cause, because they have nothing else to do. It’s really just sad.
Yeah ,because being pissed off at the people who put us in this economic mess is just silly /s
And Hilarity will be sure to ensue in 3-2-1….
At least it gives the protesters a little notice to bolster their forces and the media more time to:
A: Not Cover It
B: Cover it as a farce
C: Be there in full force because its a slow news day
As we all learned from the movie Office Space, employers let people go on Fridays so why not take a queue from that? By the way, Friday is Hawaiian Shirt Day. So, you know, if you want to, go ahead and wear a Hawaiian shirt and jeans
bogus reason. are there sidewalks?
[url]http://www.aclu.org/blog/tag/peaceful%20protest[/url]
Once again … the “reason & fairness” versus the “We’ll do what we want in our Mob.”
Mobs have always been the gathering place for people that have no self-identity so they Mob up
to be part of something. There are Mobs and there are Demonstrations. BIG DIFFERENCE,
So far NO ONE has identified what the “Occupy” across the nation really stands for. It IS known the food and prodding is by Pelosi types once again using the “folks” to do their dirty work and dismemberment of a sane society. LOOK at the mob, Listen to their “rantings.” They sound like Nancy Pelosi …. rants and ridiculous stupid statements. So, I conclude it must be a Liberal group of uninformed “folks.”
Public complaint and even demonstrations are fine … but do them “Cleanly” and “Peaceably” with maturity and NO FORCE as the Tea Party Demonstrations. I belong to neither group but I respect the saneness of the Tea Party no matter what they stand for.
is this propaganda? I have my opinion.
This is a copy of the full letter. I fully encourage any of you who haven’t read it yet to do so. Please keep in mind that Bloomberg’s gf is on the Brookfield Property’s payroll, and visible signs of the protesters having upkept sanitary and structural conditions have been obvious on their videos and livestream. Also, no time frame has been given as to how long the ‘stages’ of the cleaning are supposed to take, and the letter goes so far as to suggest there are ‘terrorist’ materials in the care packages. http://www.scribd.com/doc/68565148/Zuccotti-Park-Owner-s-Letter-to-NYPD-Commissioner-Kelly-on-Occupy-Wall-Street
They said the same thing in Madison. They had to clear the protesters out of the capitol building to “clean it” and then they’d be let back in. Guess which part of that *didn’t* happen?
The solution is simple. The damn dirty hippies should buy the property. Then they can do whatever they want with it. As long as they are going to trash private property, they should have the courtesy to not trash other peoples’ private property.
Besides, their protest has gone on for over a week. It’s time for them to go home and go back to their jobs, or back to school, or something productive and beneficial to the community.