Anti-Wall Street protesters’ plans to camp in a New York park throughout the city’s harsh winter were dealt a blow on Friday when the fire department confiscated generators and fuel because they posed a danger.
With the first snow forecast to fall yesterday, the Occupy Wall Street movement against economic inequality lost the generators that had been powering heat, computers and a kitchen in the Lower Manhattan camp they set up six weeks ago.
“They think that taking the ‘power’ away will take the power away, and that’s absolutely not true at all,” Occupy Wall Street spokesman Michael Booth said.
The movement has sparked “occupations” in cities across the US, but recent evictions in places like Oakland, California, where police used tear gas and stun grenades, and Atlanta have New York protesters on edge.
However, unlike protesters elsewhere, who rallied in city parks which typically have a curfew at night, those in New York set up camp in a privately owned park open to the public 24 hours a day and cannot be removed unless the owner, Brookfield Office Properties, officially complains to the city.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the six generators and fuel were confiscated because they were considered a safety hazard and it was not a bid to remove protesters.
“As long as they don’t take away anybody else’s rights to say what they want to say, or to not say anything, to go about their business safely ... at the moment it will continue,” Bloomberg told local radio.
Some analysts said that Bloomberg’s strategy toward the protesters was simple — contain them and ensure there is no violence like that seen in Oakland, where former US Marine Scott -Olsen was badly injured in clashes with police.
“Everything is about containing it, if it goes on for a long time they are prepared. Let them live and be well and it will come to an end,” political strategist Hank Sheinkopf said. “The strategic move is not to have violence.”
A possible showdown between Occupy Wall Street and New York police was averted two weeks ago when Brookfield Office Properties postponed a cleanup of the area, which protesters feared was a bid to remove them.
Protesters say they are upset that the billions of US dollars in bank bailouts doled out during the recession allowed banks to resume earning huge profits while average Americans have had no relief from high unemployment and job insecurity.
They also believe the richest 1 percent of Americans do not pay their fair share in taxes.
Occupy Arrests, a Twitter feed compiling arrests related to Occupy Wall Street, said that since the movement began five weeks ago, 2,750 people have been arrested around the world, including about 1,000 in New York City.
“Lawful protest is accommodated and when there’s unlawful conduct arrests are made,” New York police spokesman Paul Browne said on Friday.
In Oakland, demonstrators vowed to march on Wednesday to the busy Port of Oakland next week to disrupt cargo traffic. They had already called for a citywide strike that day to protest against what they have called “brutal and vicious” treatment of demonstrators by the police and city officials.
The plan for the march to the port came after Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, who has come under withering criticism for her handling of the protests, apologized for a clash between police and protesters during a march on Tuesday night that wounded ex-Marine Olsen.
“When there’s violence there are no winners,” she said. “It polarizes us and opens old wounds rather than brings us together, which is the aim of Occupy Wall Street and uniting the 99 percent,” she said in a written statement.
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