VoB SELECTS: INVESTIGATIVE NEWS FROM AROUND THE WEB

Hand-lettered ‘Occupy Baltimore’ signs at Mc- Keldin Square, Light St., Inner Harbor, looking south from Pratt St. Protesters in New York City were evicted early Tues. a.m. by police decked out in riot gear. (VoB File Photo/Bill Hughes)

NEW YORK CITY MAYOR, POLICE FORCE
EVICT ZUCCOTTI PARK PROTESTERS
UNDER  COVER  OF  DARKNESS

A nearly two-month-long occupation of a New York City park that spread to similar protests in cities large and small throughout the U. S. came to an abrupt end Tuesday as police in riot gear forcibly evicted protesters from Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park in an early-morning raid.

The park was reopened later in the day after a judge upheld the city’s clearing of the Lower Manhattan venue and right to bar the protesters from camping out or returning with their tents.

As of late in the day it was unclear if the movement could continue without a place to protest.

Occupy Together demonstrations in other cities, including Baltimore, have come under similar fire from public officials concerned about health hazards and ongoing habitation of parks as well as other public spaces by demonstrators protesting Wall Street greed.

In Baltimore, the city cut off electric power two weeks ago to McKeldin Square, a section of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor at Pratt and Light Streets, where protesters have been encamped since early October, citing safety concerns and fire hazards.

Protesters had been plugging computers, TV sets and kitchen appliances into outlets at the base of lampposts. Streetlights however have remained illuminated.

Health concerns have also been cited:  A number of people have described walking through McKeldin Square on a day with light breezes as an “olfactory nightmare.”

— VoB Staff report

READ COVERAGE OF TUESDAY’S NEW YORK CITY EVICTION in the New York Times  (click here)  and  (here)  plus  an account by the Associated Press (click here)