NYC's Finest: 'Tell It To The Judge After We Arrest Ya'

By Diane Sweet — January 2, 2012

Wasting no time in setting the tone for 2012, the NYPD prevented Occupy Wall Street from assembling for our nightly General Assembly meeting using space legally defined as "required to be open to the public" from 7am to midnight.

100 Williams Street is an outdoor but covered "privately owned public space" in Manhattan's Financial District. It's about 3 blocks from Liberty Square (nee Zuccotti Park) and contains a large placard declaring that it is "OPEN TO PUBLIC" and "REQUIRED TO BE OPEN TO THE PUBLIC" and until midnight!

We've had General Assemblies consistently in Liberty Square since OWS began on September 17th, except for two that had previously been moved due to weather considerations. This time, we could not meet in the park because Brookfield and the NYPD, having closed it after New Years' Eve, had not re-opened it as we were told it was scheduled to be at 9am.

100 Williams was to be a backup plan where our rights hadn't yet been specifically restricted.

After the events in this video, we were also asked to leave the next space we tried (a quick note about that towards the end of the video).

The occupy movement absolutely needs a real space to occupy.

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