The Sign That Could Evict the Wall Street Occupiers
On or before Oct. 13, someone affixed flimsy signs announcing new rules for the use of Zuccotti Park to the granite walls enclosing the place where anti-Wall Street protesters have camped for almost a month. UPDATED
UPDATE:
The Occupy Wall Street legal team says the new rules cannot be used to evict the protesters while they are in the park.
On or before Oct. 13, someone affixed flimsy signs announcing new rules for the use of Zuccotti Park to the granite walls enclosing the place where anti-Wall Street protesters have camped for almost a month.
The rules — which were clearly crafted to bring the demonstrators’ occupation to an end — forbid members of the public to camp, set up tents, store and place tarps, sleeping bags and other personal property, remove items from the trash and lie down anywhere. They amount to a suspension of permanent peaceful assembly in the square. See the wording in the photograph below. –ARK
Correction: This post originally said NYPD officers had posted the signs. Truthdig could not confirm that information.
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Occupiers rang in the New Year on Saturday night with a game of tug-of-war with the NYPD at Zuccotti Park. Instead of rope, however, activists and police officers struggled over the metal barricades that have surrounded the area since late September. Dawn Sunday saw the barriers replaced and the park closed to the public.
Over a pair of steaming coffee cups, I was told that a secret faction has developed within New York City’s Occupy movement, made up of big-name celebrities and would-be leaders, some of whom look determined to steer the movement in a direction of their choosing.Over a pair of steaming coffee cups, I was told that big-name celebrities and would-be leaders look determined to steer the movement in a direction of their choosing.
Neither Brookfield Properties nor the NYPD wants journalists asking questions about an unmarked truck that has been pointing a surveillance camera at protesters in Zuccotti Park for the past few weeks. So much so that a police officer declared journalist Nick Turse’s note-taking at the site to be illegal and ordered him to leave.
You may wonder what kind of goons Brookfield Properties -- the owners of Zuccotti Park -- hired to secure the area after Occupiers were evicted from the premises early Tuesday morning. At least one careless bigot numbered among the crowd.
If you are wondering why outraged young people around the globe are chanting such similar slogans and using such similar tactics, it is because they have seen more clearly than their elders through the neoliberal shell game.
As members of the OWS encampment in New York City head into what promises to be a brutal winter, activists with differing notions about where the movement should go next can all agree on one thing: survival. (more)
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