Occupy Wall Street: Judge Rules Against Tents, Sleeping Bags
The protestors can come back but they can't spend the night.
A judge ruled against Occupy Wall Street protesters, upholding a move by New York City and the landlord of the privately owned plaza to clear tents and sleeping bags from Zuccotti Park and prevent protesters from bringing equipment back in. Hours after police cleared the last protester from their encampment Tuesday, lawyers for the city and Brookfield Office Properties faced off with Occupy Wall Street representatives inside a courtroom.
Supreme Court Justice Michael Stallman weighed whether to extend a temporary restraining order that bars the city from enforcing park rules against tents, sleeping bags and other camping equipment. The original ruling came after police and sanitation workers had already swept all personal belongings from the two-month-old encampment, with more than 200 people arrested in the raid. The city, which had expected to reopen the park under the new rules Tuesday morning, held off ahead of the judge’s decision. A sometimes tense standoff between police and protesters surrounding the park lasted throughout the day. Arguing against the restraining order, lawyers for the city and Brookfield Office Properties, the owner of Zuccotti Park, argued that free-speech rights don’t extend to tents and other structures that had been erected inside the privately owned park...Douglas Flaum, a lawyer for Brookfield, said the protesters have the right to demonstrate in the park, but that doesn’t extend to “habitation.” He said the protesters would be welcome to return, just without their tents and other items that lead to a semi-permanent encampment.
