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'People Don't Know Where They Are Sleeping Tonight'

Paresh Dave |
November 15, 2011 | 1:52 p.m. PST

Editor-In-Chief

Creative Commons image.
Creative Commons image.

Occupy Wall Street protestors returned to Zuccotti Park Tuesday evening, minutes after a Manhattan supreme court judge ruled ruled that Mayor Michael Bloomberg's order to kick out Occupy Wall Street from New York's Zuccotti Park was legal and New York authorities do not have to let them back in.

Judge Michael Stallman said protestors “have not demonstrated that they have a First Amendment right to remain in Zuccotti Park, along with their tents, structures, generators and other installations” because that might stop “others who might wish to use the space safely.”

But the protestors set back in, leaving behind many of those essentials. On an online video feed, one protestor was shown allegedly being kicked out for using a yoga mat, presumably since that could be considered a bed.

It's unclear what the New York's group permanent move will be. At about 7:30 p.m., protestors where seen chanting "People don't know where they are sleeping tonight."

The ruling leaves the leaderless movement without a clear central hub. Several encampments around the country are being threatened by local officials looking to clean up parks that have been taken over for about two months in some cases.

From the N.Y. Daily News:

The city had argued that the protestors had made the park unsafe and dangerous by erecting a warren of tents that made the place a firetrap and kept police from coming inside to enforce the law.

Lawyers for the protestors argued that the city unfairly infringed on their First Amendment rights, noting that the city has allowed others to pitch tents for flea markets in city parks for months at a time without police interference.

Bloomberg has suggested that the protestors are welcome to stay at the park during the day, but overnight encampment is out of the question.
The judge's ruling backed Bloomberg's argument.


 

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