Protesters will not be allowed to bring tents and overnight gear to Zuccotti Park, a Manhattan judge ruled today, dealing a huge blow to the Occupy Wall Street movement that had called the place home for the past two months.
“The [protesters] have not demonstrated that they have a First Amendment right to remain in Zuccotti Park, along with their tents, structures, generators and other installations to the exclusion of the owner’s reasonable rights and duties to maintain Zuccotti Park, or to the rights to public access of others who might wish to use the space safely,” Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Michael Stallman wrote in a four-page decision.
“Neither have the applicants shown a right to a temporary restraining order that would restrict the city’s enforcement of law so as to promote public health and safety.”
Lawyers for OWS said that they’re weighing an appeal. They added that no matter what happens, the protests will continue.
“We’re going to continue to battle in the courts and our clients wil battle on the streets,” said lawyer Yetta Kurland.
The park was reopened after the ruling
With tensions simmering all day, demonstrators had spent hours surrounding the now-closed park near Wall Street as they waited for the judge’s decision.
The protest began Sept. 17 and many had been camped out at the park since then.
The city overnight forcibly evicted protesters, scrubbed down the park and closed it, arresting about 200 protesters.
Soon after the nighttime sweep, protesters went to a Manhattan judge, getting her to issue a temporary restraining order allowing them back inside. The city responded by closing the park.
PHOTOS: OCCUPY WALL STREET PROTESTS
EDITORIAL: TIME’S UP, CHILDREN
Stallman heard both sides this afternoon in Manhattan Supreme Court and ruled that protesters can’t camp out with tents and sleeping bags.
The lawyer for Brookfield Properties, Douglas Flaum, said his client was fine with having protesters in the park — but they want them to leave the tents and sleeping bags behind.
“We’re more than happy to have protesters come back in and protest, and use it 24 hours a day. But you can’t live there,” Flaum said.
A lawyer for the protesters, Alan Levine, had countered, “This is not a camping case.”
“The tents are there 24-7 as a part of speech,” he said, adding that it’s because people are camped out there around the clock that they’ve “inspired people all over the world.”
In the meantime, a new sign was posted in Zuccotti Park read it would only open from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. and that there was no lying down and no tents or sleeping bags allowed inside.
“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,” Mayor Bloomberg said this morning.
Several hundred ousted protesters marched north up Centre Street after the cleanup, clashing with police who in at least one case were seen using batons on a group crossing the street in a crosswalk and with a green light.
Protesters clash with police as they demand to return to Zuccotti Park. (Associated Press)
By 5:30 a.m., the newly-scrubbed Zuccotti was a far cry from the filthy mass of tents and blankets that had fouled the park for two months. All the tents were cleared and a heavy smell of disinfectant lingered in the air.
By 7 a.m. all the streets surrounding the park were open to the public. After 50 protesters returned to the park, minus their gear, they were allowed inside. A short time later, the city closed the park after learning about the injunction. That decision spurred another fracas between cops and demonstrators.
In court papers, the city said, “While the plaza must generally be open and accessible to the public, the owner can impose conditions on that invitation which can take the form of reasonable rules.
“Brookfield’s rules of conduct for members of the public using Zuccotti Park prohibit, among other things … camping, the erection of tents and other structures; the placement of tarps, sleeping bags and other coverings on the property; and 4) the storage of personal property on the ground, benches and sitting areas.”
Brookfield Properties thanked the city for clearing out Zuccotti.
“Brookfield appreciates the peaceful and professional response of the NYPD, the FDNY, and the Department of Sanitation, and thanks Mayor Bloomberg for his leadership. As had been widely reported, conditions in Zuccotti Park had become dangerous, unhealthy and unsafe,” the company said in a statement. “In our view, these risks were unacceptable and it would have been irresponsible to not request that the city take action. Further, we have a legal obligation to the city and to this neighborhood to keep the Park accessible to all who wish to enjoy it, which had become impossible.”
Meanwhile, the arrests of more than 200 protesters during and after this morning’s Zuccotti Park cleanup brings the grand total of those busted in Occupy Wall Street up well past 700, according to a defense lawyer at the center of the movement.
But of those 700 arrests, only three or four are for violent felonies, noted Martin Stolar, who is spearheading the volunteer effort by National Lawyers Guild lawyers to provide free counsel to those busted.
“The vast majority of these cases are mere violations,” like disorderly conduct, Stolar noted. About half of those arrested have already refused dismissal deal offers by the Manhattan DA’s office, telling their arraignment judges that they prefer to go to trial, Stolar said.
“Overall, it’s a very non-violent group of protesters,” the lawyer said. “Even the resisting arrest arrests are not violent, but cases where they did not assist in handcuffing, which is not violent.”
Some 60 protesters arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge last month were arraigned this morning in Manhattan Criminal Court, with more than half taking the DA’s deal.