BREAKING NEWS: Victory for Bloomberg as judge rules evicted Wall Street protesters CANNOT return to Zuccotti Park camp
Protesters in stand-off with police after long-time Manhattan park cleared
Zuccotti surrounded by barricades but protesters moved to Foley Square
Park cleared because it had become unsanitary and hazardous, say police
Activists told they can return soon but without their tents and sleeping bags
New York City councillor Ydanis Rodriguez allegedly hit on head by police
Mayor Bloomberg says clear-out was overnight to reduce confrontation
Judge had issued temporary order allowing protesters to return to park
By Mark Duell, Meghan Keneally, Richard Hartley-parkinson, Louise Boyle and Jennifer Madison
Last updated at 10:48 PM on 15th November 2011
Occupy Wall Street protesters will not not be allowed to camp in their New York tent city after a judge overturned an earlier court order, following a dramatic eviction this morning by 1,000 riot police.
More than 200 people were arrested today as police raided Zuccotti Park after Michael Bloomberg finally lost patience with protesters. Some of them have been there since it was set up in September.
The New York City Mayor said the park was evacuated overnight to 'reduce the risk of confrontation', but his move was undermined when a judge issued an order effectively allowing protesters to return.
However this was overturned tonight. A judge issued the temporary order allowing protesters back and many were seen marching towards the camp this morning as City officials decided what to do.
Protesters who spoke to MailOnline after the ruling had mixed feelings about today's developments.
Jordan McCarthy, 22, who has been living in the park for around six weeks, said: 'I don’t think it’s a bad thing - it's forcing us to mobilise and move to other places in the city.
'Zuccotti Park is not this movement - it's so much bigger than this now - and if they think that they’re going to end it by getting us out of Zuccotti Park they’re delusional.'
Liz Dalton added: 'I’m disappointed because it’s a pretty elastic interpretation of the law to say that we can’t protest, no matter what we bring with us, whether it’s a tarp or a tent.'
Protester Mark Marone, 46, said: 'I think this is an example of what Occupy Wall Street is fighting against, which is the restrictions of people's rights - among them, the right to peacefully assemble.'
Bystander Larry Cox said: 'I think it's definitely an attempt to damper the movement but it will continue to grow. The inequality in this country has just reached levels that these people have never seen.'
Justice Lucy Billings said until a hearing she set for earlier today that authorities would not be allowed to evict protesters or enforce rules over tent use, reported the New York Times.
Supreme Court Justice Michael Stallman took over the case because Justice Billings usually handles real estate cases - but she was chosen by protesters for her civil liberties background.
Justice Stallman's ruling said the protesters' legal team did not demonstrate their right to remain in Zuccotti Park was above the owner's rights to maintain it or the public's rights to use it.
Protesters told MailOnline they held a general assembly at Canal Street and Sixth Avenue on Tuesday morning and were holding there until they decided whether to go back to Zuccotti Park.
Demonstrators gathering at Juan Pablo Duarte Square climbed over an 8ft wall nearby into a lot owned by Trinity Church, which has previously backed the protesters - and police surrounded them.
More than 20 people were arrested, and at least four journalists - two from the Associated Press, one from the New York Daily News and another from the DNA Info website - were led away in plastic handcuffs.
Some of the demonstrators then marched back down Manhattan to Zuccotti Park, but police were there guarding the site to stop them getting in. Protesters chanted: 'You are contempt of court'.
Demonstrators outside City Hall were yelling ‘Bloomberg out now’ and ‘F**k you Bloomberg’, while others chanted: ‘We are the 99 per cent / We lost our goddamn tents’.
Oscar-winning actress Frances McDormand - from Almost Famous, Fargo and Burn After Reading - was spotted at the protests today but did not want to talk to reporters.
Mayor Bloomberg has been in constant contact with park owner Brookfield Properties, which asked for help to enforce their rules. 'But make no mistake - the final decision to act was mine,' he said.
'The law that created Zuccotti Park required that it be open for the public to enjoy for passive recreation 24 hours a day. Ever since the occupation began, that law has not been complied with.'
There is now the prospect of a big legal and civil liberties battle breaking out between protesters and authorities after the National Lawyers Guild's injuction, as the City went to court itself.
In the city's opposing motion, Deputy Mayor Cas Holloway claimed 'makeshift items' that could be used as weapons, such as 'cardboard tubes with metal pipes inside', were seen among the protesters' possessions.
First daylight pictures showed the New York park that became the symbol of an international anti-capitalist movement was deserted apart from a handful of security guards.
'I'm glad they cleared the park,' said Patrick Hickey, 45, a nearby construction worker at the World Trade Center site. 'I think the point they were trying to make was made a long time ago and it got lost along the way.'
But I.T. worker Mike Szumski, 54, added: 'It was a funny little community but they will keep going because there's bigger things at stake than (losing) a couple of books or a couple of paintings.'
As police lines moved in, there were chants of 'Whose park? Our park' and 'No retreat, no surrender'. However protesters have been told they can return once the park is cleaned.
But they will not be allowed to take their tents with them - and police now fear a backlash as around 200 demonstrators regrouped a mile away at Foley Square after Zuccotti Park was cleared.
They were swiftly followed by police who formed a cordon, but most officers later left. One NYPD bus carrying arrested protesters was cheered by demonstrators as it drove by Foley Square.
An Occupy Wall Street spokesman said police used violence and claimed city council member Ydanis Rodriguez was bleeding from his head after being beaten by officers. He has supported the protest and was among those arrested outside the park.
Protesters poured milk into the eyes of those targeted with pepper spray, and more people gathered at Foley Square as the city woke up to news that the protest had moved from Zuccotti Park.
'After this we get bigger,' said protester Jennifer Sarja, 38. 'There is no question we get bigger. This is our chance to be heard.'
Justin Wedes, 25, added: 'Every single person who was forced out of the park will bring five friends and everyone who heard about it will bring themselves and their friends.'
In the early hours of this morning, helicopters swept the streets around Zuccotti Park while around 400 people were penned in on a corner around two blocks along Broadway.
They had been cordoned in by two lines of police, shoulder to shoulder with visors, helmets and brandishing batons.
The atmosphere felt volatile with hundreds of officers lined up against the vans.
There were also rumours that six people had chained themselves by the neck to a statue at the heart of the camp.
As the initial clearance of Zuccotti Park got under way, an improvised barricade made of tables and pieces of scrap wood had been set up in the kitchen area.
Demonstrators held their hands above their heads while chanting 'We are the 99 per cent' and 'peaceful protest'. At one point they tried to breach the police line, but were quickly pushed back.
Metal barriers had been set up on every corner as crowds dispersed with small protests also reported at City Hall.
Joseph Richard Carelli, from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and his partner Nereida Chico, of Queens, New York, spent nearly two months in the camp.
Mr Carelli said: 'Some people were handed paper notices asking them to leave to park around 45 minutes before police started clearing.
'Batons were being used against those who stood their ground. We had to leave our tents, sleeping bags and most of our belongings, we didn’t have time to get them out.'
On the streets surrounding the park, police were moving people on and bystanders were urged to move beyond the metal barriers.
Police offered little information as to what was going on inside the park but one officer said they had been assigned to police lines surrounding the camp until they were relieved by the next shift.
At least three empty NYPD buses were seen travelling towards the square. One press photographer was was pushed back by a police officer as he tried to move closer to the park.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the evacuation was overnight ‘to reduce the risk of confrontation in the park, and to minimise disruption to the surrounding neighbourhood’.
He said after the cleaning, protesters would be allowed to return but ‘must follow all park rules’.
‘The law that created Zuccotti Park required that it be open for the public to enjoy for passive recreation 24 hours a day,’ he said.
‘Ever since the occupation began, that law has not been complied with, as the park has been taken over by protesters, making it unavailable to anyone else.’
Some protesters claimed their tents were ripped up as the eviction got under way while a police official said there had been 40 arrests.
At about 1am this morning, police handed out notices from the park's owner, Brookfield Office Properties, and the city saying that the park had to be cleared because it had become unsanitary and hazardous.
They were told they could return in several hours, but they would not be allowed to bring with them their sleeping bags, tarpaulins or tents.
Minutes later, the mayor's office tweeted that the protesters saying: 'Occupants of Zuccotti should temporarily leave and remove tents and tarps. Protesters can return after the Park is cleared.'
There were also of 'The whole world is watching' while some demonstrators sang Bob Marley songs.
Police were indiscriminate in the people they evicted from the park and also moved reporters and photographers away from the area.
An NYPD spokesman said most people began filing out of the park once they received the notices and added the park was not heavily populated on Tuesday morning as the clearance got under way.
Rabbi Chaim Gruber, an Occupy Wall Street member, said policemen were also clearing the streets near Zuccotti Park. 'The police are forming a human shield, and are pushing everyone away,' he said.
Notices given to the protesters said the park 'poses an increasing health and fire safety hazard to those camped in the park, the city's first responders and the surrounding community.'
It said that tents, sleeping bags and other items had to be removed because 'the storage of these materials at this location is not allowed.'
Anything left behind would be taken away, the notices added, giving an address at a sanitation department building where items could be picked up.
The clearing out of Zuccotti Park came as protesters announced on their website that they planned to 'shut down Wall Street' with a demonstration on Thursday.
That event would mark two months since the beginning of the camp, part of a global movement that started in Kuala Lumpur with Occupy Dataran in July.
On Monday, a small group of demonstrators, including local residents and merchants, protested at City Hall.
They have urged the mayor to clear out the park because of the impact it was having on the neighbourhood and surrounding businesses.
Earlier yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg dismissed the notion that Wall Street would be shut down.
'The New York Stock Exchange will open on time. People will be able to get to work, you can rest assured,' he said.
Mayor Bloomberg reiterated his support for the protesters’ right to free speech, but said business owners have legitimate complaints.
'We’re not going to allow people to stop commerce and to stop people’s right to go around and express themselves,' he said.
'No one group has the right to protest. They all have the right to protest.'
The crackdown comes after other cities across the U.S. cleared their camps in similar large police operations.
In Oakland, California, officers dressed in riot gear and armed with tear gas cleared out an encampment early yesterday and arrested over 30 amid safety and health complaints.
The movement's website also said supporters and allies were mobilizing throughout the city and converging at Foley Square.
Eyewitnesses said hundreds of demonstrators were being barricaded by police on the sidewalks lining Zuccotti Park.
Several people left the park in handcuffs, amid chants of 'peaceful protest' and 'we are the ninety nine per cent.'
'This is the official sneaky way of our Mayor Bloomberg to invade our park at 1am,' said protester Freddy V, 25, from Queens, New York.
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