Wall Street Park Getting Sick of Wall Street Protesters
The Occupy Wall Street protests took a heated turn this weekend, with cops arresting more than 80 protesters macing young women for no apparent reason. So, it's safe to say they'll be bigger than ever this week. But one problem looms large: The protesters are camped out on private land.
Eight days into the Occupy Wall Street protests, the scene at occupation headquarters, Lower Manhattan's Zucotti Park, is like some radical cyberpunk re-imagining of Neverland. But it turns out Zuccotti Park is a public space owned by a big property management company, Brookfield Office Properties, and according to the Wall Street Journal they're fed up with dirty protesters occupying pathways traditionally favored by bankers on romantic strolls with their wads of cash.
Brookfield never wanted the protesters there in the first place but apparently NYPD convinced them to. Now Brookfield's patience is finally running out: The WSJ reports they just posted a bunch of new rules aimed squarely at the protesters: No camping gear or putting "personal property on the ground."
If protesters are forced out of the park, it will probably spark some more cop drama, which might actually be good for the protests depending on how many viral vids come out of it. All those kids could probably just head down to the Apple Store and camp out on the sidewalk, pretending that they're waiting for the new iPhone, out in October. Urban camping is totally cool, as long as it's capitalist camping.
