Cops shut down Union Square and kicked out a large crowd of Occupy Wall Street protesters, arresting nine demonstrators early this morning, just days after larger clashes at the group’s former encampment downtown.
Police surrounded the historic park with metal barricades just after midnight, citing a longstanding — but apparently often unenforced — rule that the park be closed in the overnight hours, as a crowd of more than 100 taunted officers.
The latest eviction follows larger clashes Saturday night at Zuccotti Park, where the anti-greed protest group had gathered to mark the movement’s six-month anniversary. In that confrontation, police arrested 73, including a homeless man who tried to grab an officer’s gun and a woman who elbowed an officer in the face, police said.