One officer was injured and as many as 13 people were arrested when police in riot gear early Wednesday morning cleared a protest encampment that had been operating for nearly a month in a park near New York’s City Hall in downtown Manhattan.
The officer was hurt when hit by a thrown brick, police said, according to the Daily Mail.
“Occupy City Hall,” taking its name from the “Occupy Wall Street” encampment of 2011, was established June 23 in a similar, albeit smaller, fashion of Seattle’s Capital Hill Autonomous Zone, or CHAZ, also known as the Capital Hill Organized Protest, or CHOP.
Among its chief demands were a $1 billion cut from the New York Police Department’s budget following the death of a Black man in police custody in Minneapolis on Memorial Day.
Once that was approved and signed into law by Mayor Bill de Blasio earlier this month, many of the organizers and participants left. But reports said anywhere from 70 to 100 people remained in makeshift tents.
Some of the remaining protesters claimed the $1 billion cut was insufficient in their “defund the police” demand.
After being given an order to disperse at about 3:40 a.m., about 50 remained and police outfitted with shields and helmets moved in.
“The reality here is that again, this had become less and less about protests, more and more homeless individuals who are gathered there," said de Blasio, who as New York city’s public advocate criticized then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg for similarly clearing the “Occupy Wall Street” area.
“We were waiting to really understand the facts and specifics and came to the conclusion this was the right time,” he added, rejecting any notion that the move was related to President Donald Trump’s statements that he was ready to send federal law enforcement to end destructive protests and riots in many cities.
"This was something that had been discussed over several weeks...and growing concern over health and safety," he said.
Immediately after clearing City Hall Park, police also dismantled the encampment, and the area is to remain closed for “several weeks” while graffiti and debris is cleaned and destruction is repaired.
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