warning Hi, we've moved to USCANNENBERGMEDIA.COM. Visit us there!

Neon Tommy - Annenberg digital news

New York Police Raid Occupy Wall Street Camp

Staff Reporters |
November 15, 2011 | 12:13 a.m. PST

New York City police raided the Occupy Wall Street camp of protesters in Zuccotti Park early Tuesday morning. 

New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg's office told protesters via Twitter to clear the area temporarily.

"Occupants of Zuccotti should temporarily leave and remove tents and tarps," the mayor's office tweeted. "Protestors can return after the Park is cleared."

According to the L.A. Times, a police spokesman said most protesters left the camp after receiving notices. 

People associated with the movement have been protesting economic inequality in New York for two months, and protesters in dozens of metropolitan areas across the U.S. followed suit.

The police raid follows weeks of rising tensions with authorities over deaths, sexual assaults, drug dealing and sanitary conditions associated with the encampments. Many city mayors have been promising to crack down.

The NYPD surrounded and moved in on the camp in the early morning. Police began arresting people and dragging them off the lawn after 3 a.m.

"They rushed in from all directions," a protester said in the movement's live streaming broadcast from the park.

Protesters were "tear-gassed, arrested and wrestled to the ground" before being dragged away, according to occupiers working the broadcast.

"This is not the end! This is not the end!" protesters chanted as police stood surrounding the camp, from which occupiers refused to move.

The raid comes two days before the protesters vowed to shut down Wall Street on Thursday.

Video streaming by Ustream

The protests had originally been met with support from city government, but the last several weeks have seen rising tensions between the occupiers and the authorities. 

Protests in Oakland turned violent in early November.

View the story "More Coverage Via Storify.com" on Storify]

View the story "Police Moves to Clear Occupy Wall Street" on Storify]



 

Buzz

Craig Gillespie directed this true story about "the most daring rescue mission in the history of the U.S. Coast Guard.”

Watch USC Annenberg Media's live State of the Union recap and analysis here.

 
ntrandomness