adminpark that has become the epicentre of the worldwide movement protesting corporate greed.
About 70 people were arrested in the early hours of yesterday morning, including some who chained themselves together, while officers cleared Zuccotti Park so that sanitation crews could clean it.
Police in riot gear filled the streets, car lights flashing and sirens blaring. Protesters, some of whom shouted angrily at police, began marching to two locations in Lower Manhattan where they planned to hold rallies.
Protesters at the two-month-old encampment were told they could come back after the cleaning, but under new tougher rules, including no tents, sleeping bags or tarps, which would effectively put an end to the encampment if enforced.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a statement yesterday that the evacuation was conducted in the middle of the night “to reduce the risk of confrontation in the park, and to minimise disruption to the surrounding neighborhood.”
He said after the cleaning, protesters would be allowed to return but “must follow all park rules.”
The National Lawyers Guild says it has obtained a court order that allows protesters to return to the park with tents. The guild says the injunction prevents the city from enforcing park rules on the protesters.
Concerns about health and safety issues at Occupy Wall Street camps around the United States have intensified, and protesters have been ordered to take down their shelters, adhere to curfews and relocate so that parks can be cleaned.
Hundreds of former Zuccotti Park residents and their supporters were marching along Lower Manhattan before dawn yesterday and threatened to block Broadway during the morning rush hour. Others gathered near Foley Square, just blocks from Zuccotti Park, where they can’t get arrested.
Some protesters refused to leave the park, but many left peacefully.
Police also came armed with klieg lights, which they used to flood the park, and bull horns to announce that everyone had to clear out.
Jake Rozak, another protester, said police “had their pepper spray out and were ready to use it.”
Occupy encampments have come under fire around the country as local officials and residents have complained about possible health hazards and ongoing inhabitation of parks and other public spaces.
Anti-Wall Street activists also intended to converge at the University of California, Berkeley for a day of protests and another attempt to set up an Occupy Cali fornia camp, less than a week after police arrested dozens of protesters who tried to pitch tents on the campus. The Berkeley protesters will be joined by Occupy Oakland activists who said they would march to the UC campus in the afternoon. Police cleared the tent city in front of Oakland City Hall before dawn Monday and arrested more than 50 people amid complaints about safety, sanitation and drug use. – AP/USA Today.
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