The streets downtown were overrun this morning with protesters as police were unable to control the crowds (The NY Post)
Mayor Bloomberg caved to the squatters and the rabble. Perhaps Obama whispered in his ear. The plan to hose down Zuccotti Park in the interest of public safety was shelved in capitulation to the filthy mob.
One Atlas reader who was downtown yesterday wrote me, "I didn't know that Smoking Pot & Defecating in the streets was legal and encouraged in NYC again, like under Dinkins......"
NYC official: Protest cleanup is being postponed (hat tip Van)
NEW YORK (AP) - The cleanup of a plaza in lower Manhattan where protesters have been camped out for a month was postponed early Friday, sending cheers up from a crowd that had feared the effort was merely a pretext to evict them.
Deputy Mayor Cas Holloway said the owners of the private park, Brookfield Office Properties, had put off the cleaning. Supporters of the protesters had started streaming into the park in the morning darkness before the planned cleaning, forming a crowd of several hundred chanting people.
A confrontation between police and protesters, who had vowed to stay put through civil disobedience, had been feared. Boisterous cheers floated up from the crowds as the announcement of the postponement circulated, and protesters began polling each other on whether to make an immediate march to Wall Street, a few blocks away.
**************Violence Breaks Out During ‘Occupy Wall Street’ March Toward New York Stock Exchange
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – Just a few hours after protesters learned they’d be able to stay in Zuccotti Park indefinitely, violence broke out as a group marched away from it.
Protesters, apparently jubilant over being able to stay in the park after their furious cleanup efforts, took their brooms, flags and signs and started fanning out at around 7:30 a.m.
1010 WINS’ Steve Sandberg reported the protesters were saying things to the effect that now that they’d cleaned up the park, they were going to clean up Wall Street.
A group of protesters headed south on Broadway toward the New York Stock Exchange, carrying their brooms. Police were taken off-guard, Sandberg reported. The group swelled quickly and wound up in a confrontation with police as they tried to gain access to Wall Street. The standoff occurred near Bowling Green as they turned left on Beaver Street.
BLOOMBERG ANGRY AT CITY OFFICIALS WHO 'THREATENED' PROTEST-PARK CLEANUP
PHOTOS: WALL ST. MARCH TURNS VIOLENT
