Shaping the Future of NYC

This is a recent article from New York Times about Occupy Wall Street.

In September they began to gather, their encampment growing by the week. The police, confronted with a populist movement that put down roots in the financial district, were unsure of how to respond to Occupy Wall Street. At some marches, protesters were arrested for veering off the sidewalk into the street; at others, the police ordered protesters off the sidewalk.

Tents were banned early on, then tolerated, then banned again. The mayor said he was going to clear the encampment in October to clean up Zuccotti Park, then balked before finally going through with it a month later, when he sent the police in to clear the camp, in the middle of the night, with little warning.

Now, with Occupy Wall Street’s resurgence, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s response to the protest movement has not been ambivalent. Asked at a news conference on Monday if he had a strategy to prevent large-scale arrests of protesters, Mr. Bloomberg said: “You want to get arrested? We’ll accommodate you.”

While saying that the protests make for “great theater,” he dismissed them as ineffective. “If you have something, really, to say, that would be a great contribution, nobody can hear you when everybody’s yelling and screaming and pushing and shoving,” Mr. Bloomberg said.

On Saturday, the first major conflict between the Occupy Wall Street movement and theNew York Police Department since Jan. 1 took place, with the police arresting 76 protesters. Many of those happened after the police declared the park closed on Saturday night, and ordered everyone out.

On Monday, City Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez said he was going to ask the Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, to hold hearings to review the police actions. He said he also believed that the Police Department was “using brutal excessive force against peaceful people” during some of the arrests.

Another councilman, Jumaane Williams, questioned whether the police had the authority to close the park on Saturday night, an act that led to many of the arrests. A law enforcement official said the Police Department had decided to declare the park closed because of concerns about vandalism. The official said several electrical outlets at the park had been damaged, though on Saturday night the police told protesters that the park was being cleared so that it could be cleaned.

While most of the arrests were for misdemeanors, three people were charged with felonies: a 23-year old Wisconsin woman accused of elbowing a police officer in the face; a man accused of trying to snatch a gun and a radio from a police sergeant; and a 25-year-old California man accused of pushing an officer, the police said.

On Monday afternoon, a dozen uniformed officers ringed the park in groups of three and four, watching as a smattering of protesters and tourists mingled. One officer said he was not even aware that there had been any arrests over the weekend. There was little indication that the officers on duty — who were detailed to the park from precincts in the Rockaways, the East Village and Bensonhurst, Brooklyn — had received new instructions differing from those in effect last fall.

One officer said that as far as he knew there was only one special rule that the police were enforcing. “Right now, the only rule is you can’t stay overnight,” he said, adding, “No tents, and no tarps or sleeping bags.”

The officer said that beyond that, the police were there just to ensure that there were no fights and to respond to crime. He gestured at a nearby protester, 38-year-old Justin Stone-Diaz, who was at that moment yelling, “Off the buses and into the park!” at a passing bus.

“That guy there — the one yelling — he’s all right,” the officer said. “He’s not bothering anyone.”

A police spokeswoman, Deputy Inspector Kim Y. Royster, said police operations at Zuccotti Park were “assessed daily.”

NYT: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/20/nyregion/with-return-of-wall-street-protesters-mayor-no-longer-seems-ambivalent.html?_r=1&scp=10&sq=occupy%20wall%20street&st=cse