Zuccotti Park Owner’s Letter to Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly on Occupy Wall Street

[The Straight Story]

Zuccotti Park Owner’s Letter to Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly on Occupy Wall Street

Conunissioner Raymond W. Kelly
New York City Police Department
One Police Plaza
Room 1400
New York, New York 10038
Facsimile: [phone]

Dear Commissioner Kelly:

As you know, for over three weeks, Zuccotti Park (the “Park”) has been used by “Occupy Wall Street” and other protesters as their home base. The Park is owned by a Brookfield affiliate and was recently renovated at Brookfield’s considerable expense as an amenity for the general public. It is intended to be a relaxing tree-filled oasis in the midst of the hustle and bustle of Lower Manhattan. We fully support the rights of free speech and assembly, but the manner in which the protesters are occupying the Park violates the law, violates the rules of the Park, deprives the community of its rights of quiet enjoyment to the Park, and creates health and public safety issues that need to be addressed immediately.

Within the Park, the protesters have set up living spaces with tarpaulins, mattresses, sleeping bags, tables, bookshelves, gasoline-powered generators and other items that arc inconsistent with the rules and normal public use of the Park. At all hours of the day and night, protesters arc sleeping on benches and walkways, blocking normal pedestrian access to the general public and preventing cleaning and maintenance workers from performing necessary upkeep. When not blocked by protesters, the walkways throughout the Park are blocked by the various items and equipment brought to the Park by the protesters.

We are extremely concerned about dangers posed by damage that may have been incurred within the Park and by materials and equipment brought into the Park by the protesters. Brookfield protocol and practice is to clean the Park on a daily basis, power-washing it each weeknight, and to perform necessary inspection, maintenance and repairs on a regular, as-needed basis. Since the occupation began, we have not been able to perform basic cleaning and maintenance activity, let alone perform more invasive repairs. For example, if the lenses to the underground lighting have become cracked, water could infiltrate the electrical system, putting occupants of the Park at risk of an electrical hazard or causing short-circuiting which would result in repairs requiring the Park to be torn apart for re-wiring. Any such repairs would force the Park to be closed to the public for indeterminate periods of time, depriving the City of a vital green space. Moreover, we are concerned about the fire safety hazard that gasoline and the gas-fired generators pose to the Park’s occupants.

After weeks of occupation, conditions at the Park have deteriorated to unsanitary and unsafe levels. The Park has no toilets and while the existing trash receptacles have always been more than adequate to accommodate normal waste in the Park, those receptacles are no longer even close to sufficient and the resulting trash accumulation is attracting rodents.

Additionally, we have received hundreds of phone calls and e-mails from concerned citizens and office workers in the neighborhood. Complaints range from outrage over numerous laws being broken including but not limited to lewdness, groping, drinking and drug usc, to the lack of safe access to and usage of the Park, to ongoing noise at all hours, to unsanitary conditions and to offensive odors. We have received complaints of harassment, one woman stating that she was verbally abused in front of her 5-year-old child and complaining that she had a package stolen from her as she tried to cross the Park.

full letter here:
http://publicintelligence.net/zuccotti-park-owners-letter-to-police-commissioner-raymond-kelly-on-occupy-wall-street/

[Scuba]

1. Hey, democracy gets messy.

[Cid_B]

3. There are legitimate complaints in there...

... and if OWS wants to be taken seriously as anything other than a bunch of dirty drug using hippies, they should address the issues and control their people.

[Frank Coffin]

5. My observation is quite the opposite

I do not see any dirty, drug using hippies.

On the contrary: I see well dressed people, holding signs, and doing their jobs.

People rolling cigarettes. None of them are dirty hippies - just young people who's making cigarettes for people who wants to smoke.

People who does the drum circles - White, black, young, old, domestic, foreign.

The letter is full of pure unadulterated BULLSHIT.

[LiberalFighter]

2. Where does Richard B Clark live?

Protestors might enjoy visiting his place.

[Frank Coffin]

4. Who wants to bet that the complaints are from the 1%'ers?

I call bullshit on the letter and its complaints.

When I was there last week, it was very clean, and they even had this "gray washing" station (this was before the announcement) to accomodate their massive amount of people, and looks like people were enjoying themselves.

People drink water. People take medication. You call it drinking and drug use? A little cannabis NEVER harms anyone.