Woke up this morning at 4:30, fumbled in the dark for iphone, discovered that Zucotti Park was/is in the middle of being evicted, eviscerated. At least 400 cops in full riot gear, 5000 donated books thrown in dumpster, media helicopters overhead, Brooklyn Bridge, all subways closed, 70 arrests so far, chanting chanting: “Whose park? Our Park!” and “You don’t have to do this!” From occupywallst.org:
Updates
- 3:36 a.m. Kitchen tent reported teargassed. Police moving in with zip cuffs.
- 3:33 a.m. Bulldozers moving in
- 3:16 a.m. Occupiers linking arms around riot police
- 3:15 a.m. NYPD destroying personal items. Occupiers prevented from leaving with their possessions.
- 3:13 a.m. NYPD deploying sound cannon
- 3:08 a.m. heard on livestream: “they’re bringing in the hoses.”
- 3:05 a.m. NYPD cutting down trees in Liberty Square
- 2:55 a.m. NYC council-member Ydanis Rodríguez arrested and bleeding from head.
- 2:44 a.m. Defiant occupiers barricaded Liberty Square kitchen
- 2:44 a.m. NYPD destroys OWS Library. 5,000 donated books in dumpster.
- 2:42 a.m. Brooklyn Bridge confirmed closed
- 2:38 a.m. 400-500 marching north to Foley Square
- 2:32 a.m. All subways but R shut down
- 2:29 a.m. Press helicopters evicted from airspace. NYTimes reporter arrested.
- 2:22 a.m. Frontpage coverage from New York Times
- 2:15 a.m. Occupiers who have been dispersed are regrouping at Foley Square
- 2:10 a.m. Press barred from entering Liberty Square
- 2:07 a.m. Pepper spray deployed — reports of at least one reporter sprayed
- 2:03 a.m. Massive Police Presence at Canal and Broadway
- 1:43 a.m. Helicopters overhead.
- 1:38 a.m. Unconfirmed reports of snipers on rooftops.
- 1:34 a.m. CBS News Helicopter Livestream
- 1:27 a.m. Unconfirmed reports that police are planning to sweep everyone.
- 1:20 a.m. Subway stops are closed.
- 1:20 a.m. Brooklyn bridge is closed.
- 1:20 a.m. Occupiers chanting “This is what a police state looks like.”
- 1:20 a.m. Police are in riot gear.
- 1:20 a.m. Police are bringing in bulldozers.
As usual, under cover of darkness. Shame. Shame. So this is, at some level, coordinated, this attempted, city by city teardown of all that is good.
Admittedly, my view on this early morning, still dark out here in central Indiana, between the coasts, between the massive police tear-downs in New York and Oakland/Portland, here, at least so far, the local Occupy camp remains undisturbed.
Here’s a WTHR media report from November 6th.
The Occupy protests and demonstrations have been going on for a month. Occupy Indianapolis has dwindled to just a handful of people, but the effort is going strong in Bloomington.
The protestors are living off of donated food, like a vegetarian soup made by a supporter.
“People need to band together to make a statement about the way things are in our country,” said Becky Gavin.
There is now a library in Peoples Park in Bloomington. Police had told the Occupiers that tents and camping would not be allowed a month ago. Now, tents cover almost every inch of lawn and a campfire burns in the middle of the park.
“There is a city policy that people are not allowed to camp here, but there is no actual law against it,” said Tim Michael.
“Democracy is ugly. It takes a long time to get people to agree on anything and we have that kind of patience,” said Michael.
Since Occupy Bloomington started, a steady stream of people have been coming and going from the park. Some of the demonstrators have day jobs and others are not there for the occupation.
More than a handful of Bloomington’s homeless have found a hassle-free place to sleep among the occupiers. Saturday, a 50-year-old homeless man died in one of the tents. Efforts to revive him failed, according to the coroner’s office, he died of natural causes.
“If there is a problem, we generally settle it ourselves and we go from there,” Michael said.
Settling problems is the reason the protestors are there, the reason behind many of the signs that hang from their library ceiling. The reason, according to the protestors, that they occupy the park.
“One of the really funny misconceptions that seems to come up in the media, that in this day and age, with the Internet, that everything should be done lickety-split, like instantaneously,” said Michael.
In other words,they have no plans to end their occupation of Peoples Park anytime soon.
Meanwhile, here’s ABC this morning:
And here’s the very latest from occupywallst.org
9 AM Post-Raid and General Assembly
Posted 21 minutes ago on Nov. 15, 2011, 6:57 a.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
New Yorkers! Meet at 9am at Canal and 6th Avenue. Spread the word…
This movement can’t be contained in one square block in lower Manhattan. It is bigger than that. You can’t evict an idea whose time had come.
Show your support. Turn out en masse….
