Cops are investigating an Occupy Wall Street protester who made threats on Twitter yesterday about killing police officers.
“We won’t make a difference if we don’t kill a cop or 2,” someone with the Twitter handle Smackema1 posted about 11:40 p.m. to Ustream, which showed footage of the protests at Zuccotti Park.
Police also said they were separately investigating threats made to two cops and their families yesterday.
In all 73 demonstrators were arrested yesterday and early today, including two for assaulting a police officer, police said.
Christopher Geist, 38, who is homeless, allegedly squeezed a cop’s crotch and tried to steal his gun. He was charged with assault, attempted robbery, and forcible touching, cops said.
Activist Cecily McMillan, 23, was taken to Beekman Hospital for a seizure she had when she was arrested during the protests. Police then brought her to Midtown South, where cops said she elbowed a police officer, causing an eye injury, authorities said. She was then taken to Bellevue Hospital for psychiatric treatment.
Meanwhile, Occupy protesters today accused police of beating several demonstrators when cops kicked them out of the park, as video surfaced today appearing to show an OWS “medic” having his head slammed into a window, cracking the glass.
One protester, Chris Casuccio, said police gave little warning before kicking them out of the park, where demonstrators gathered yesterday to chant and hold impromptu meetings to mark the movement’s six-month anniversary, and that several protesters were beaten.
Police moved in around 11:30 p.m. Detective Brian Sessa says the protesters were arrested after they started breaking the park rules against setting up tents.
It was unclear how many of the 73 detained were still in custody today. Police say they have no information about whether protesters were beaten.
Workers were hosing down the park this afternoon as a handful of protesters watched from outside metal police barricades.
Protesters first arrived at Zuccotti Park Sept. 17, and the encampment swelled to the hundreds over the next two months until cops cleared it Nov. 15, citing safety and sanitary concerns.
— with AP