New York police and fire personnel removed dozens of gasoline cans and six generators from Zuccotti Park, where Occupy Wall Street protesters have camped almost six weeks, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.
The equipment, which helped power computers and mobile phones and keep people warm as temperatures dipped near freezing, are safety hazards and illegal, Bloomberg said today on his weekly WOR radio show. Forecasts call for rain and snow in the metropolitan area tomorrow.
The material won't be allowed back into the park in Lower Manhattan, Bloomberg said. The occupants cooperated with law enforcement and the sweep produced no violence, he said.
“Our first two concerns are First Amendment and safety, and this was safety,” Bloomberg said. “People were courteous and understanding. The story of this morning is that there was no story.”
Mark Bray, a spokesman for the group, said the action was “a pretext to make the protest less sustainable and more difficult for us.” Occupiers have about 14 fire extinguishers, he said.
The demonstrators, who arrived in the privately owned park Sept. 17, inspired thousands to take to the streets from Toronto to Tokyo to protest economic inequality and what they call corporate greed. Protesters say they represent “the 99 percent,” a nod to data from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office showing the top 1 percent of earners saw inflation-adjusted, after-tax earnings grow by 275 percent between 1979 and 2007. Those with incomes in the bottom fifth saw an 18 percent jump.
Occupiers have vowed to remain at the site near the World Trade Center even as temperatures plummet.
“We were advised by city officials after the action had been undertaken,” Melissa Coley, a spokeswoman for Brookfield Office Properties Inc., which owns and operates the public park, said in an e-mailed statement. “We continue to be concerned with safety conditions in the park and are supportive of this action.”
The company hasn't asked city officials to enforce park rules barring sleeping bags, tents and lying down.
Removing the generators is “another form of control,” said Kanaska Carter, a 26-year-old musician from Canada who said she's been at Zuccotti since Sept. 17. “It's another tactic to make us feel inferior and vacate the park. But it's not going to happen.”
She said the protesters were considering building igloos and heating tents by charging batteries during the winter.
“We're going to stay no matter what the weather,” said Stacey Hussler, 38-year-old midwife's assistant from Florida camping in the park.
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Today, police arrested Dustin Taylor, 34, of Wheelersburg, Ohio, near Zuccotti Park and charged him with menacing after he threatened to stab a Fox 5 reporter in the throat with a pen, said Paul Browne, a department spokesman. That brings the number of arrests made in connection with the protests to about 970, he said.
A march from Bryant Park near 42nd Street and Sixth Avenue to the offices of Bank of America Corp., Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo & Co., Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. is planned for 1 p.m. local time, according to an e-mail yesterday from the demonstrators.
The group plans to deliver 6,000 letters to the banks and a singing telegram to Citigroup Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit, with the assistance of a choir and marching band.
The mayor is founder and majority owner of Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP.
--Bloomberg News--
