NEW YORK (MCT) — New York’s mayor Tuesday defended the pre-dawn clearing of the Occupy Wall Street encampment, saying “inaction was not an option” as the nearly 2-month-old set-up became packed with tents and concerns grew that fires and other hazards could erupt.
Police in riot gear moved into Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan shortly after officers handed out notices to protesters at about 1 p.m. warning them the park was about to be cleared. It said residents could return after a clean-up but that they would no longer be permitted to set up tents, bring in sleeping bags, or camp there 24/7.
“Protesters 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,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a statement, promising that the privately owned park would reopen later Tuesday. Police said they had cleared it by about 4:30 a.m.
Throughout the night, a police helicopter could be heard thundering above the area.
Live video showed some protesters pulling down their own tents and leaving, but it also showed police dumping tents and other belongings into a huge pile to be taken away. Protesters were told they could retrieve their belongings later.
Bloomberg said the city acted in coordination with Brookfield Properties, which owns Zuccotti Park and which until Tuesday had let protesters remain there.
“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,” said Bloomberg, an apparent reference to the recent arrest of a man on sexual assault charges.
“The majority of protesters have been peaceful and responsible. But an unfortunate minority have not been — and as the number of protesters has grown, this has created an intolerable situation.”
A protester named Dave Harold, interviewed on the local all-news TV channel NY1, said he saw “a ton of cops in riot gear” as the raid began and that he joined a core group that refused initially to leave.
“A lot of us were ‘no, we’re not leaving.’ And then they just started pushing in and … slashing up tents,” said Harold.
