Brookfield Office Properties, owners of Zuccotti Park, put out the following statement this morning:
Brookfield appreciates the peaceful and professional response of the NYPD, the FDNY, and the Department of Sanitation, and thanks Mayor Bloomberg for his leadership. As had been widely reported, conditions in Zuccotti Park had become dangerous, unhealthy and unsafe. In our view, these risks were unacceptable and it would have been irresponsible to not request that the City take action. Further, we have a legal obligation to the City and to this neighborhood to keep the Park accessible to all who wish to enjoy it, which had become impossible.
As previously stated, Brookfield supports all citizens’ rights of peaceful assembly and freedom of speech.
Brookfield had hoped to reopen the Park this morning after it had been cleaned. The City and Brookfield, however, were notified of a court-ordered injunction regarding the use of the Park. As a matter of public safety, the Park will remain closed pending the resolution of this matter.
Our hope is to reopen the Park as soon as possible for the enjoyment of all members of the community in accord with the rules of the Park.
You’d think the owners of private property would have the right to evict squatters, especially after the squatters have spent two months turning the place into a landfill that chants. Well, that’s where you’re wrong, fascist!
With tensions simmering, Occupy Wall Street demonstrators surrounded the streets around the now-closed Zuccotti Park near Wall Street today as they waited for a Manhattan judge to decide whether they could go back inside.
Hours after the city forcibly evicted protestors, scrubbed down the park and closed it, Occupy Wall Street protests scattered across downtown Manhattan awaiting a judge’s decision on whether they could return…
Soon after the nighttime sweep, Occupy protesters went to a Manhattan judge, getting her to issue a temporary restraining order allowing them back inside. The city responded by closing the park.
Another judge, Michael Stallman, heard both sides this afternoon in Manhattan Supreme Court and was expected to render a decision later today on whether they can return to the park with tents and sleeping bags.
This just in: Stallman has ruled for the city. But laws only count when they give liberals what they want, so expect more kicking and screaming from these crybabies. And when I say “expect,” I mean “relish with great delight.”
To give you an idea of what a difference a day makes — especially when that day is spent by hardworking adults cleaning up a mess left by overgrown children — Buzzfeed has a great photo essay: 11 Photos of Zuccotti Before & After Eviction. Here’s one set:
If you think your freedom of speech is being curtailed when you’re evicted from property you don’t own and have befouled, you might be a liberal. These idiots were fine with Brookfield’s exercise of property rights when it meant the Occupiers were getting what they wanted. Then the Occupiers abused the privilege, so now they’re not getting what they want anymore.
And it’s not fair!
Which is their entire worldview in a nutshell.
P.S. Allahpundit:
The court could have ruled that the First Amendment doesn’t apply to Zuccotti Park because it’s privately owned, but it skipped that step and ruled more broadly that the new rules banning tents are permissible time, place, and manner restrictions in principle. In theory, that means even if OWS tries to move to a fully public park, the city could stop them from setting up a tent city. On to the appeal!
