I was up most of the night following Mayor Bloomberg’s NYPD eviction of the original Occupy Wall Street demonstration at Zuccotti Park, as it happened, via live streaming video (which may still be rolling at this hour right here) and via Twitter.
The surprise eviction by hundreds of cops in riot gear after midnight in NYC was done as protesters were told to suddenly clear the park for “health” reasons. In other words, Bloomberg threw hundreds or thousands of folks onto the streets of NYC in the middle of the night, for their health.
You can scroll through much of what happened tonight (in reverse order) via http://Twitter.com/TheBradBlog.
If I can offer any order out of the pointless, NYPD-caused chaos tomorrow, I will. Hopefully by then, others will have offered sufficient coverage.
Suffice to say for now, at least, what thousands of us witnessed tonight was appalling. At least those of us who sought it out, as none of the NYC local channels were covering it live and neither were any of the cable news channels MSNBC, CNN or Fox. As a matter of fact, other than citizen media streaming live on the Internets, only Al-Jazeera jumped in to offer live coverage.
Hours on end, thousands of peaceful demonstrators were roaming and marching the streets after being evicted from the park, all of the belongings, tents, gear, from two months of the Occupation in the park — including thousands of books from The People’s Library and their bicycle-powered generator — were trashed and thrown into garbage trucks.
Network news helicopters were reportedly grounded during the raid, as air space above the park was shut down and — perhaps most maddeningly — media were not allowed into the park itself as the park was cleared, and as the last of the demonstrators who refused to leave were evicted, arrested, and, reportedly either tear gassed or pepper sprayed (though that is not confirmed — because media were not allowed in the park!)
First Amendment, RIP.
I took a “quick poll” of my Twitter followers late at night to ask who would be hurt the most by the events of tonight, #OWS or Bloomberg? The vast consensus — all but one — replied to say that Bloomberg would be hurt, and that OWS would grow because of this. I don’t know if that’ll prove to be the case or not, but if I had to guess, I’d say they’re probably right. The entire thing does seem to have been incredibly stupid and ill-considered on the part of Bloomberg and the NYPD.
Too tired to add links to any of the above, or offer more tonight. But, as I say, scroll through my Twitter page for detailed coverage of much of what happened tonight. If need be, I’ll try to fill in any holes tomorrow. Signing off at 3am PT (6am in NYC as crowds continue to try and regroup as the sun will soon rise.)
UPDATE: Read about the horrifying experience of Mother Jones journalist Josh Harkinson with an NYPD cop, as he snuck back into Zuccotti after the park had been cleared of media…
UPDATE 11/16/11: After the riff-raff was cleared from the park, they were replaced by upstanding folks hired by Brookfield Properties, the “owner” of the public park, as security. One of those fine folks called a citizen journalist a “faggot” on video, in the bargain. Details/video…
A New York state court judge order the removal stopped, and ordered that they may return with their belongings, including tents: Link to Order
Thanks to Dredd and the long list of lawyers who put this complaint together for renewing my faith in my brethren at the bar. It sure does need frequent renewing.
Democracy Now covered the Police State takeover of Freedom park live this morning. See http://www.democracynow.org Democracy Now was again the only media to cover a major protest event.
I believe democracynow showed the protesters belongings being thrown away too, didn’t they? While MSM is saying that the belongings were returned to the occupiers? Little differences like this are picked up by the Guardian and the world ..Amy Goodman , in an interview with Brian Lamb asked the question, “What would be the difference if WE had state media?”
What moral authority does the United States have now with such naked displays of fascism and hypocrisy? Are US leaders and the fascist mainstream media still going to continue pontificating “human rights” to China and the rest of the world?
A live update of the court proceedings is HERE.
Such irony that Mayor 1% gave orders to gas his own people and have them beaten w/ batons for their ‘health and safety’.
OWS lost the case, at least as far as using tents and “camping” at Liberty Park is concerned.
The NAZIS HAVE FINALLY WON. The Occupy hits the MF 1% right between the eyes………….the fact that they hate the Occupy movement because these people have caught on.
In 1932, Gen. Smedley Butler tried to do the ‘right thing’ by turning in the NAZI TRAITORS (American BUSINESSMEN (gag)who had put together a plan in 1932 to prevent FDR from going to war with their good ‘friend’ Hitler by taking overthe gov. then. But, of course, they were the 1% then, and so nothing at all was done. So, boys and girls, these traitors had sons (Geo) who grew up to put their traitorous father’s dream into place.