New York Supreme Court Justice Michael Stallman ruled this afternoon that the occupy campers will not be allowed to return to the Zuccotti Park. The city argued that the camp in the privately owned park posed threats to public safety and sanitary conditions. NYPD evicted the campers at 1 am this morning, but a city judge issued a restraining order hours later allowing the protesters to return.
More as the story develops.
Update: The WSJ reports:
A judge ruled against Occupy Wall Street protesters, upholding a move by New York City and the landlord of the privately owned plaza to clear tents and sleeping bags from Zuccotti Park and prevent protesters from bringing equipment back in.
Hours after police cleared the last protester from their encampment Tuesday, lawyers for the city and Brookfield Office Properties faced off with Occupy Wall Street representatives inside a courtroom.
Supreme Court Justice Michael Stallman weighed whether to extend a temporary restraining order that bars the city from enforcing park rules against tents, sleeping bags and other camping equipment. The original ruling came after police and sanitation workers had already swept all personal belongings from the two-month-old encampment, with more than 200 people arrested in the raid.
Update: Thanks to Dan Miller, here’s a link to Justice Stallman’s decision. Here’s the conclusion.
To the extent that City law prohibits the erection of structures, the use of gas or other combustible materials, and the accumulation of garbage and human waste in public places, enforcement of the law and the owner’s rules appears reasonable to permit the owner to maintain its space in a hygienic, safe, and lawful condition, and to prevent it from being liable by the City or others for violations of law, or in tort It also permits public access by those who live and work in the area who are the intended beneficiaries of this zoning bonus.
The movants 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, orto the rights to public access of others who might wish to use the space safely. 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.
The petitioner’s application for a temporary restraining order is denied.
Update: Here’s a live video stream from the park. Police haven’t allowed anyone back into the park but will remove the barricades at some point. The order specifically prohibits tents, tarps and similar supplies that can be used in overnight stays.
City mayors have obviously, and wisely, coordinated the occupy camp crackdowns. Word is that the Houston campers are being evicted this afternoon.
Update: Campers have been allowed back into Zuccotti Park. You can see it on the video stream linked above. They can’t camp there with tents and tarps anymore but they’re being triumphal about being allowed back in.
Update: According to a tweet that shot by in the occupy stream, NYC Mayor Bloomberg said that no more overnight stays will be allowed at Zuccotti Park. If that’s true, then the police will have a mess on their hands in a few hours, as there are already a few thousand people inside the park.
Update: The city will apparently enforce the 10 pm curfew in Zuccotti Park, and according to the man on the video stream, police have buses waiting to move the protesters…somewhere. At least, the buses are in the park rumor mill.
You know what I’d like to see? Someone fund a project to drop about 100 of the LiveU units they’re using to stream out of the park, into North Korea. That might accomplish quite a bit.
Update: NYPD just announced the new rules to the campers. No tents, tarps or sleeping bags, no laying on the ground, and no sleeping in the park. Backpacks apparently are also contraband now. The curfew is now about 3.5 hours away.
Update: There’s talk now of trying to get around the gear ban with Jak-Paks, jackets that have tents and sleeping bags built into them. The no laying down, no sleeping rule would seem to trump that idea.
Update: Now they’ve gone full hippie, singing some 60′s crap. LOL.
Update: Just when I got bored watching the hipster doofus with the live stream, he starts flirting with some hippie chick. I’m guessing one of the networks or HuffPo ends up hiring this dude when it’s all over. Right place, right time.
Here’s the text of the order.
Gee, only 7 weeks late.
Despite the most fervent wishful thinking on the Left, the Occupy protests don’t just embody the spirit of the movement- they ARE the movement. Without an actual, physical protest the whole thing will fall apart, as there is no coherent ideology or platform to sustain it. I suspect the leaders of Occupy Wall Street know this, and will either target another area to take over, or will be back in force to retake Zucotti Park. I don’t think this is going to end well.
The whole Occupy travesty is a pale, feeble imitation of the much larger and more robust (and more violent) anti-war movement of the 60′s. It is a completely orchestrated ‘virtual movement’ that appears much larger as portrayed by its progressive and media backers.
In an age of “reality shows”, teleprompter ‘eloquence,’ styrofoam Greek temples, spoiled brats like the Kardashians and Hiltons who are famous for being famous, and the modern young’s contempt for intellectual and physical property rights, it’s no wonder that we can have this faux movement phenomenon.
As was said above, this whole thing should have been ended much sooner. Had it been Giuliani, he would have been gracious for a week or so, and then have sent in the NYPD to roust the bums out. There is nothing ‘peaceful’ about the #OWS behavior, even when they’re not outright violent. The absence of overt violence does not constitute “peaceful” behavior in-and-of itself. Disturbing the peace, creating a public nuisance, breeding crime, etc., are not peaceful or civilized behavior. Where are the “Civility” lecturers now?
The most disturbing aspect of all this has been the supine compliance by those to whom we entrust the public safety and public order. The almost depraved indifference that municipal authorities in any number of American cities have shown to these encampments is alarming.
Unfortunately, there’s a tendency to surround “protesters” of any kind with a First Amendment aura of sacredness. Presumably, anyone occupying a space in the name of a cause is exercising his inalienable rights but people living and doing business and going about their affairs in that same space are not exercising any kind of rights at all.
By setting the precedent of allowing those who are “protesting” to camp out in public places, I expect that the ACLU will champion the right of any homeless person who wants to set up a tent anywhere they want, as long as they’re “protesting”. I assume that protesting the fact that they have no free health care and no jobs has also been established as a precedent. What homeless person wouldn’t be able to claim that their tent is their protest camp for that?
“the police will have a mess on their hands in a few hours”
Less of a mess than before, as there are fewer places to hide weapons.
Watching the live stream at the link is creepy; the crowd is mindlessly chanting whatever somebody yells out. They sure seem like empty-headed sheeple who are easily manipulated. Maybe somebody should start handing out brown shirts…
Observation:
Hard to be anti-war when it’s Barry the Boss war.
To the tune of ” Shame on You” by the
Indigo Girls:
My friends they live to protest
No time to find a job
So they camp out in the public parks
and show us they’re all slobs
They got drugs and theft and robberies
and ptomaine food on ice
And if you go down to Zuccoti park
they give you STDs and lice
And the people say
No no no
Shame on you
no no no
Shame on you
Shame on you.
They got Anti- Zionist Communists
with bull horns, wearin’ capes,
But be careful after dark if you’re female
You might end up gettin’ raped
And if you own a store within ten blocks
better think about shuttin’ down
If you tell them something’ they don’t like
they just might burn you to the ground
And the people say
No no no
Shame on you
no no no
Shame on you
Shame on you.
They say they all hate the Wall Street gang
“ cause they’re the dirtiest people around
But if you go down to Zucotti Park
The stink’ll knock you down
They want a tuition bailout
and an income guaranteed
Whether they work or not, you know
But we condemn that corporate greed!
And the people say
No no no
Shame on you
no no no
Shame on you
Shame on you.
Gonna be really disappointed if cops don’t bring the fire hoses, tear gas, billy clubs, and shields. There IS a correct way to do this.
– rousted and now augmenting the smell in Occupy San Francisco.
I was watching Tim Pool at the live feed.. he didn’t put up with any #ows people that tried to censor his feed.. He’s an idealist, sure, but he did a good job bringing an inside perspective of ows to the world..
What I learned is, there are a whole bunch of ignorant people at ows and they don’t want to accept any facts that change their narrative.
Tim Pool’s email is timpoolchi@gmail.com