Protesters with the Occupy Wall Street movement threatened on Thursday to block efforts to clean up the Lower Manhattan park where they set up camp nearly a month ago, raising concerns of a showdown with authorities.
While New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has said the protests against economic inequality can continue as long as laws are obeyed, the private owner of the publicly accessible Zuccotti Park said the park needs to be cleaned.
Owner Brookfield Office Properties plans to clean the park where several hundred protesters have been sleeping on Friday, a move that demonstrators believe is a ploy to remove them.
«Seems likely that this is their attempt to shut down #OWS (Occupy Wall Street) for good,» protesters said in a statement on Thursday. «We know where the real dirt is: on Wall Street … We won’t allow Bloomberg and the NYPD to foreclose our occupation. This is an occupation, not a permitted picnic.»
Brookfield Office Properties representatives, escorted by police, handed out notices to the protesters on Thursday to tell them that the park would be cleaned in three stages and would reopen for public use consistent with park regulations.
But the rules ban camping, tents or other structures, lying down on the ground, placing tarps or sleeping bags on the ground and the storage personal property — everything the protesters have been doing since they set up on Sept. 17.
«Brookfield respects the rights of free speech, assembly, and peaceful protest,» the company said in a statement.
Police said they will be on hand to ensure public order, but it is up to Brookfield Office Properties to enforce the rules of its park. Police will only become involved if laws are broken or if an official complaint is made by the park owners.
«I’m worried there is going to be a riot,» said Lauren DiGioia, 26, who has spent the past week at Zuccotti Park and is a member of Occupy Wall Street’s sanitation committee. «It is most definitely a ploy to get us out.»
buenosairesherald.com