From: Mark Crispin Miller <markcrispinmiller@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Nov 3, 2011 at 10:28 AM
Subject: [MCM] NYPD steering drunks to #OWS (and maybe ex-cons, too) (2 items)
To: newsfromunderground@googlegroups.com
Report: NYPD steers drunks to Occupy Wall Street
Those found drinking in city parks are told by officers to "take it to Zuccotti," the Daily News reports
Mounted police officers near Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan. (Credit: AP)
(UPDATED BELOW)
There's a bombshell allegation buried in this story from Sunday's Daily News: The NYPD is reportedly telling drunks to hang out in Zuccotti Park, apparently as a way to undermine the credibility of Occupy Wall Street.
Harry Siegel reports:
But while officers may be in a no-win situation, at the mercy of orders carried on shifting political winds and locked into conflict with a so-far almost entirely non-violent protest movement eager to frame the force as a symbol of the oppressive system they're fighting, the NYPD seems to have crossed a line in recent days, as the park has taken on a darker tone with unsteady and unstable types suddenly seeming to emerge from the woodwork. Two different drunks I spoke with last week told me they'd been encouraged to "take it to Zuccotti" by officers who'd found them drinking in other parks, and members of the community affairs working group related several similar stories they'd heard while talking with intoxicated or aggressive new arrivals.
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"He's got a right to express himself, you've got a right to express yourself," I heard three cops repeat in recent days, using nearly identical language, when asked to intervene with troublemakers inside the park, including a clearly disturbed man screaming and singing wildly at 3 a.m. for the second straight night.
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Justin Elliott is a Salon reporter. Reach him by email at jelliott@salon.com and follow him on Twitter @ElliottJustin More Justin Elliott
City denies dumping ex-cons at Zuccotti Park
Occupy Wall Street protesters in New York suspect dirty tricks by the Bloomberg administration
(Credit: AP/iStockphoto)
The New York Department of Correction is denying rumors that it is dumping newly released Rikers Island prisoners at Zuccotti Park in order to undermine Occupy Wall Street.
The rumor was apparently first aired in the New York Post last week, and I've since heard it repeated by several occupiers. Suspicion of the Bloomberg administration is running deep among the protesters, particularly after a credible report over the weekend that the NYPD has been encouraging drunks to hang out at Zuccotti. There also seems to be a growing problem with troublemakers in Zuccotti who are not particularly interested in the Occupy movement.
But the prisoners rumor is not true, says Sharman Stein, spokeswoman for the Department of Correction.
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Justin Elliott is a Salon reporter. Reach him by email at jelliott@salon.com and follow him on Twitter @ElliottJustin More Justin Elliott
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