Cops break up #OccupyCityHall encampment,
seven arrested after scuffles
BY TODD MAISEL AND ROBERT
POZARYCKI
The month-long occupation of City
Hall Park was brought to an end
early Wednesday morning as NYPD
offi cers broke the #OccupyCityHall encampment
up.
Offi cers dressed in full riot gear arrived
at the park at about 3:30 a.m. on July 22
and told the occupiers to leave peacefully,
or risk arrest. According to NY1 News,
scuffl es reportedly broke out between offi
cers and a few demonstrators; seven were
taken into custody, with charges pending.
Sanitation and cleaning crews were already on scene cleaning the plaza.
Later on Wednesday, Police Commissioner
Dermot Shea confi rmed seven total
arrests. One was picked up for attempted
assault after hurling a brick at a police offi -
cer; the brick defl ected off the cop’s shield,
so there were no injuries. Six others were
removed from the park, but Shea expects
they will be released on summonses.
There were about 70 people still living
inside the park when cops moved in,
WABC-TV reported. Shea indicated there
were between 40-50 people on site when
police arrived.
“A lot of planning went into the operation
for the safety of our offi cers,” Shea said
during Mayor Bill de Blasio’s daily press
briefi ng Wednesday. The mayor said the
decision to raid the encampment, which
had been in the works for weeks, was made
about 10 p.m. Tuesday.
Police offi cers took down the makeshift
shelters that occupiers had set up. Sanitation
and Parks Department crews were also
brought in to help clean the public park at
the corner of Centre and Chambers Street.
Shea said that the NYPD gave the occupiers
an opportunity to gather their belongings
and leave City Hall Park. Attorneys
were on site to advise the occupiers of their
rights. Aside from the seven arrested, the
other occupiers left on their own accord,
or accepted services provided by the city.
During the cleanup, the NYPD recovered
a number of bricks and sticks, as well
as assorted drug paraphernalia.
The sweep took place hours after an
amNewYork Metro report documented
the deteriorating conditions at City Hall
Park, as well as the issues occupiers face.
The operation ended a long-term encampment
that began back on June 24
as an ongoing call to demand that city
lawmakers “defund” the NYPD. A week
later, the City Council and mayor agreed
upon a new city budget that shifted a billion
dollars in funding away from the NYPD
toward other services.
The NYPD moved to close down #OccupyCityHall where nearly 100 homeless people
with some protestors were still encamped at City Hall Park early this morning.
Sanitation and cleaning crews were already on scene cleaning the plaza.
A handful of protestors stood by as cops guarded the plaza during clean-up.
While that was enough for some of the
occupiers to leave, others remained. The
occupiers sought to turn the park into their
own space, setting up their own security
patrols to keep police out.
However, the occupiers had vandalized
nearby government buildings with foul
graffi ti and became involved in scuffl es
with reporters attempting to cover their
occupation. Over the past few weeks, the
occupation turned City Hall Park into
an eyesore that sparked fear among local
residents and workers.
Some demonstrators were present as
workers were cleaning the plaza, many had
expected the clean out to happen.
A protestor who identifi ed herself only as
Suki, said her friend was having a seizure
and police handcuffed him anyway.
“He was on the fl oor but they didn’t
care,” Suki said as she waved a poster at the
police occupying the plaza she was sleeping
in only hours earlier. “They raided us at 4-5
in the morning, after an infi ltrator, probably
working with the NYPD started a fi re
when the cops were just standing around.
We did know it was coming, and everything
PHOTOS BY TODD MAISEL
was destroyed all belongings – there are a
lot better ways to do what they did, let me
tell you.”
Shamaine Laster, representing an organization
called Our Lives Matter, accused
a blond woman of being a police infi ltrator
who he said set a fi re to distract from the
police assault.
“There is defi nitely a right way they
should’ve done it,” said Laster, who has
been commuting to the site to help the
homeless. “They should’ve called us to the
round table and say we don’t want nobody
hurt, but we want this ended. We could’ve
tried to reason to try to keep the space,
all they had to do was communicate, not
coming bombarding your way in here. We
had over 40 homeless people depending
on us for feeding, clothing, giving them
educational material – where did they
all go – some are locked up, and the rest
dispersed back into the city.”
Gabriel Quinoines, 22 of the Lower East
Side, said he worked as a “de-escalator”
assisting clinical social workers helping
those with mental illness and homelessness.
He said the occupation brought to
the fore the problems of mental illness and
homelessness.
“Everyone here is traumatized to a certain
extent, and everybody deserves help,”
Quinoines said. “A lot of people even inside
were scared of what they were witnessing,
but we put a spotlight on the problem
here, that there were individual examples
and you couldn’t run away from it. And
all of a sudden you loved it, cared for it,
and wanted to help. They are an eyesore
for every community where homelessness
has been predominant and I just want to
help – you can’t run away from it.”
4 July 23, 2020 Schneps Media