BREAKING: New York City's deputy mayor says cleaning of protest encampment has been postponed

[jefferson_dem]

Source: AP

BREAKING: New York City's deputy mayor says cleaning of protest encampment has been postponed

Read more: http://twitter.com/#!/AP/statuses/124794070471159808

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A panoramic shot of the crowd:



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STATEMENT OF DEPUTY MAYOR CAS HOLLOWAY ON BROOKFIELD PROPERTIES POSTPONING THEIR CLEANING OF ZUCCOTTI PARK

“Late last night, we received notice from the owners of Zuccotti Park – Brookfield Properties – that they are postponing their scheduled cleaning of the park, and for the time being withdrawing their request from earlier in the week for police assistance during their cleaning operation. Our position has been consistent throughout: the City’s role is to protect public health and safety, to enforce the law, and guarantee the rights of all New Yorkers. Brookfield believes they can work out an arrangement with the protesters that will ensure the park remains clean, safe, available for public use and that the situation is respectful of residents and businesses downtown, and we will continue to monitor the situation.”

http://pastebin.com/GkXrYNwr

[aquart]

1. Well. Fancy that.

Kiss the AFL-CIO membership for me.

[timtom]

14. And the 240,000 signatories

on petitions that were submitted yesterday.

[dixiegrrrrl]

45. OWS reports 300,000 signatures AND support world wide:

The early morning announcement from the Mayor’s office in New York came after 300,000+ Americans signed petitions to stop the eviction, and flooded the 311 phone network in solidarity with those in Liberty Square.
At 6 AM this morning, 3,000+ New Yorkers, unions, students, and others joined the occupiers in the square to send a clear message to the 1% who want to silence this peaceful assembly of the 99%.
Donations poured into the protesters from Italy, England, Mexico and many other countries by everyday people hoping to help the movement grow.
http://occupywallst.org/

[PatrynXX]

51. did that

hadn't signed one until now because I saw it as a total provocation and I couldn't stand by without fighting on that one.

[Graybeard]

2. Eyeball to eyeball and Bloomberg blinked.

:woohoo:
.
.
:popcorn:

[tavalon]

32. This is really, really good

This is on the ground Democracy with a capital D.

[dixiegrrrrl]

41. Actually, he fled, out the back of a restaurant, when the crowd came to see him!

Wall Street Protesters Confront Bloomberg While He Dines at Top Restaurant, Leaves by Back Door Updated at 9:51 AM

As he dined at downtown's posh Cipriani restaurant, having endorsed a 7am clean-up of the 'unsanitary' Occupy Wall Street encampment, protesters attempted to deliver the mayor a petition with 310,000 signatures supporting the their right to remain in the park. But the mayor refused to come out of the restaurant, instead making his exit out of a back door.


see Hissyspit's post #54 on this thread he put up early in the am:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2113231

[stlsaxman]

3. Guess they didn't want to arrest 5000 people just a Lech Walesa arrived, huh?

:headbang:

[Bozita]

12. I would like to borrow that graphic. ... Mine seems soooo incomplete!

[stlsaxman]

16. my graphc is your (and everyones) graphic!

:hi:

[annabanana]

4. !! I guess the crowd got too big. And the park got too clean..

GOOD ON YA GUYS!! Keep it up!
http://www.livestream.com/globalrevolution

[dixiegrrrrl]

42. Did you see this great pic from early this am?

[jefferson_dem]

5. The crowd is chanting (very loudly!) "We are the 99%!" (VIDEO)

VIDEO: http://www.twitvid.com/6NYTF

[annabanana]

6. This is very good news. Every "postponement" is a victory. Too many

people showed up. The "rules" of Zucotti park changed midstream to "no lying down.. on the ground, on the benches, no sleeping bags no blankets.." They WERE going to "clean" the park let peole back with no gear..

WE cleaned the park, Lots and lots of people showed up and they know they can't move in and arrest all those people.

[Starlight]

20. The rules aren't new; those are the same rules in effect at the park for ages.

I work right across the street from the park. The rules that are posted are the same rules that have been in effect at the park for years. Some of the protesters may have been unaware of the rules, but they aren't new.

[a2liberal]

23. I don't have firsthand experience but

I did read somewhere that the no overnight camping rule was added at some point during the protest. Are you saying that's not true?

[daleo]

68. In the 1850's the rules allowed slavery

Rules aren't always right.

[a2liberal]

71. Huh?

I never said anything about the rules being right (or wrong, for that matter...)

[Starlight]

73. Yes, I'm saying that is absolutely not true. Overnight camping was always prohibited.

It's a very small park designed for office workers to have lunch and take breaks. It's never been a campground. The park has never even allowed "active recreation." I can't imagine how anyone would think that camping was ever allowed.

[dixiegrrrrl]

43. I loved their response to the rules: This is an occupation, not a picnic!

[Bragi]

7. Excellent. So what's the next pretext for police violence?

Maybe the City will have to clear the park so that, ahh, leaves can fall freely without dangerously landing on tents.

[jefferson_dem]

8. More on story here:

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_WALL_STREET_PROTEST?SITE=SCFLO&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[pnorman]

9. GREAT NEWS!!

K & R!

[peace frog]

10. Keep the pressure on, IT'S WORKING

[Bozita]

11. Maybe Bloomberg can go clean Central Park since Zuccotti is spotless

[Eric J in MN]

34. Or a subway station which is dirtier than Zuccotti Park. NT

NT

[TBF]

13. Asshole of the week -

[KurtNYC]

24. for delaying the "cleaning" ??

I don't get it.

[TBF]

25. Of course not - for coming up with that ridiculous excuse in the first place.

nt

[JDPriestly]

54. OWS is cleaning up after themselves -- probably better than

the park management's hired hands would do.

[Amonester]

40. Yep. The Whole World Is Watching that 1% a$$hole of the...

month (so far).

[RoccoR5955]

15. They were afraid of media scrutiny.

So many reporters there, that would anything have happened, if any police officer got out of line, it would have looked VERY bad for Bloomie.

This is a tactical victory for OWS!

[jefferson_dem]

17. "the whole world is watching."

Indeed.

[David Sky]

18. So many reporters, so many cell phones with cameras, so many

flip cameras, so much internet access, so much Youtube, so much trouble from last weekend.

And since when does a park get closed to be "cleaned" ?

[Starlight]

22. When it's so disgusting that the neighbors are complaining about the odor.

I don't know how people can insist that it was clean. It was absolutely vile. The smell was nauseating. Rotting garbage and human waste. Really, really nasty. :puke:

[DLnyc]

29. Well, I didn't find it that bad at all earlier this week, including

last night. And now it has been thoroughly scrubbed (by the protesters themselves) and things have been put in bins. So apparently you are a lot more sensitive than I am. And a lot more sensitive than the several thousand people who showed up early this morning and have been walking around quite happily without any evident sense of disgust or nausea. But different folks have different sensitivities, I guess.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

30. It didn't smell at all when I've been there.

[DireStrike]

38. Been down there many times and it's always fine. There's almost no garbage.

Volunteers have been on sanitation duty for a long time, so there's not much litter or trash. Can't speak to the human waste, though I never saw or smelled any.

Dunno what you're on about.

[JDPriestly]

56. That's how the homeless in the 99% have to live all the time.

That smell is the smell of frustrated humans who have lost hope.

If you don't like the smell, join in the effort to distribute economic resources more equitably.

If you don't join the struggle against injustice, you may be forced, as so many have been, by the accelerating economic downturn to join the ranks of the unwashed and unclean who are suffering from the injustice.

[RoccoR5955]

60. I was there, and it was not. There was a smell of rotten pork though.

I hope you get paid enough to post here. Yes I know that you will deny it. They all do.

[Dutchmaster]

26. I agree. I was just rolling out of bed here in the midwest to see what was going down . . .

. . . with OWS. This is a victory.

[barbtries]

19. i consider this

a victory for the occupiers, and by extension all of us. very happy to hear it.

eta BY extension dammit

[freeradicalm]

21. This is GREAT news!!!

They don't know how to handle this situation, we have all known all along that if mobilized they could not stand up to all of us and the status quo is showing their fear of that with every utterance they make. Go OWS, please don't give up!!

[Odin2005]

27. The Elites lost their nerve. BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

[slackmaster]

28. The city is regrouping. They don't have enough dump trucks for everyone.

[tavalon]

31. The people have spoken

It is as it should be. Push back all you want and we will grow stronger. You will not ignore us anymore.

[wial]

33. crackdown and arrests in Denver last night

but people can be seen regrouping on the live stream. The first group to return came in dancing :)

[lumberjack_jeff]

35. The park is in private ownership?

Is that common back east?

[RufusTFirefly]

36. It's a strange combination

From what I understand, Zuccotti is a privately owned public park.
The developers had to build the park in order to receive some zoning concessions from the city.
Its selection for the OWS folks was actually quite clever apparently.
Whereas "regular" public parks have opening and closing times, privately owned public parks do not. In other words, folks can stay there all night.

From what I've heard the park has had a long-standing metal sign that prohibits just a handful of activities, including bicycling, skateboarding and rollerblading.

Apparently the city -- without passing any ordinance -- attempted to add a new sign in the last few days that coincidentally prohibits a number of activities engaged in by the OWS folks. This sign is plastic but was made to appear like the metal sign. Not very convincing...

[JDPriestly]

57. There is some question as to whether the park was privatized

that is whether the existing park was purchased from the city by a private company or was created by the private company. Do you have a source for your information about the ownership and origin of the park?

[RufusTFirefly]

58. This is what I heard

This morning on Democracy Now during an interview with Michael Ratner from the Center for Constitutional Rights (the speaker is the show's co-host, Juan Gonzalez:

But could you talk about this particular park—because it’s—the protesters, in choosing it, really were brilliant, in the sense that it’s not a public park that has a closing hour, but it was actually one of these parks that was allowed to be built by a private developer in exchange for getting a higher building that the developer wanted to build—and what that means in terms of what the legal rights of the protesters are in this particular park?

Here's the entire interview.

[Dont call me Shirley]

37. The upper class must protect their false image at all cost.

They, at this time, cannot appear to be the bullies and conivers that they really are. Their false image is evrything to them because it is the mechanism they use to trick and steal from people.

[Enthusiast]

48. Never forget this:

"The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater."
— Frank Zappa

[unionworks]

39. Bad News?

I just saw this article that suggests riot police are enroute to the park. Anyone have any info?

http://m.ibtimes.com/occupy-wall-street-eviction-protesters-remain-peaceful-will-the-nypd-violence-arrests-video-231412.html

[dixiegrrrrl]

44. Try this site for better information:

http://occupywallst.org/

[SoapBox]

46. Was that postponed until they can Storm Trooper their way in under the cover of darkness?

...around 2AM on a Saturday or Sunday?

[isuphighyeah]

49. That's what I'm worried about.

This is the American version of the French Revolution.

[dixiegrrrrl]

50. "I don't call them bankers... I call them 'French Revolution re-enactors.'" -- Andy Borowitz...n/t

[Kurska]

47. THE WORLD IS WATCHING BLOOMBERG THE WORLD IS WATCHING. N/T

[SemperEadem]

52. OWS took away their reason for going in--they cleaned up behind themselves already

that removed bloomberg's reason. They called his bluff and now he has to back down.

the only thing left to him or someone else in the 1% now is to hire Xe to come in and do some Fallujah bullshit on the OWS protesters.

[jimlup]

53. The People United Will Never Be Defeated!!!!!!!!

[malthaussen]

55. Actually

"the people united" have been defeated many times, but it makes a nice slogan.

-- Mal

[denese]

59. the people have not been united

in a very long time. In case you haven't noticed Mal

[jimlup]

66. But the point is rather straightforward actually

And was noticed by 15th century philosopher John Locke. The mystery is why the people don't just stand up for themselves because when they really do the controllers are helpless in asserting their will. It is a paradox that they are able to so much of the time. The "illusion" of authority is what I would call this. When the people see that it an illusion then they can invoke change - it happens very rarely but it does happen.

[UrbScotty]

61. NYC Withdraws Cleaning Evacuation Order in Face of Defiant Occupy Wall Street Protesters

Source: Democracy NOW!

Occupy Wall Street protesters are celebrating in Manhattan’s Financial District today after successfully defying orders to evacuate the encampment they have held for nearly four weeks. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg had said Zuccotti Park — renamed Liberty Plaza by protesters — would have to be cleared by 7:00 a.m. following a request by its owners that it be cleaned. Thousands of people began congregating in the square overnight amidst concerns the cleaning order was a pretext for evicting the protesters. Hours later, New York City officials announced the request to clear the park had been withdrawn. We go live to Zuccotti Park to speak with Democracy Now!'s Ryan Devereaux. "At about 6:00 in the morning, a march of union members arrived to Liberty Square, and the reception was one of pure joy, chanting, cheering," Devereaux says. He describes how protesters allocated $3,000 from their treasury to purchase cleaning supplies and then "spent the better part of all day yesterday cleaning this plaza, making sure that it was as clean as possible when the inspectors would arrive, giving the city absolutely no excuse to say that this was a unsanitary place." We also speak with New York City Council Member Jumaane Williams, who is one of many local officials who have lent their support for the occupation. "I think everyone kind of understands that this is a great movement going on," Williams says. “More importantly, it's something that should be supported, just like we supported all the other movements that were going on around the world."

Read more: http://www.democracynow.org/2011/10/14/nyc_withdraws_cleaning_evacuation_order_in

[Kingofalldems]

62. What happened to the so called 'violence' I saw trumpeted today?

These are great Americans! Bless them!

[ixion]

63. so much for the Tea Party meme about OWS not cleaning up after themselves...

:woohoo:

[kenfrequed]

64. Hell yes!

There needs to be a news story specifically about this!

This also counters that worthless Bush strategist last week on Bill Mahers complainst about bathrooms and the tea party being mroe organized.

[RufusTFirefly]

65. C'mon! Whadja expect?

After all, the Tea Party thinks the President is a socialist.

If that's not batshit crazy, I don't know what is.

[The Vrude]

67. Fantastic news.

Thanks for this post!

[Fire Walk With Me]

69. This means they'll come without warning late at night.

[Kennah]

70. Bloomie had to first go clean out his undershorts, after he shit himself

[99th_Monkey]

72. Music to my hungry ears, water on my parched desert,

This is one of those watershed moments, and I just need to celebrate that, here, now.

Nuff said.