Occupy Wall Street protesters were removed from Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan, their place of demonstration for the past two months, on Tuesday morning by police, according to an article published Tuesday in The New York Times.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said protesters were removed as a result of poor sanitation, which he felt posed risks to health and safety, and because the protesters were preventing other citizens from enjoying the public park, according to the article.

The decision to remove the protesters has sparked debate among many Syracuse University students.

‘I’m not sure it’s the right thing to be doing because they have the right to express themselves how they see fit, but because they’re imposing on others I could see where the government would do that,’ said Paige Shepperly, freshman broadcast journalism major.

Lawyers, in retrieving temporary restraining orders on behalf of the protesters, brought the case to the state Supreme Court. Justice Michael Stallman ruled that protesters could occupy the park but could not bring tents and sleeping bags or sleep in the park overnight, according to the article.

Zuccotti Park was the birthplace and home camp for the Occupy movement, but now that protesters have limitations on their ability to assemble there, this could have serious effects.

‘We’re still in the process of figuring out how it will impact Occupy Wall Street,’ said Laura Brown, who is involved with Occupy Syracuse. ‘All of us are very interested in following news reports minute by minute.’

Brown said she and fellow protesters were extremely disappointed with the way in which the situation in New York City was handled. Brown said she and fellow protesters heard rumors that extreme measures were taken, including tear-gassing the occupiers’ food supplies to make them inedible.

‘It makes us question a lot of different things, but one thing it primarily makes us question is whether in our country we are actually allowed the freedom to assemble,’ Brown said.

Brown said even if protesters weren’t able to fully reoccupy the park, she was certain the movement would continue. But she expressed concern that the events in New York City, along with those that recently took place in Portland, Ore., and Oakland, Calif., might set precedence for other Occupy locations around the country.

‘The First Amendment gives us the right to peaceably assemble, and the police arresting people for assembling peacefully is violating our rights,’ said Tonya Bauer, freshman broadcast journalism major, in an email. ‘It is ironic because the Occupy Wall Street movement is protesting not only our faltering economic system but also the democratic process, and this violation of justice is just proving what the movement stands for.’

The removal of protesters from Zuccotti Park has yet to affect Occupy Syracuse. Brown said she felt it was unlikely that the events that transpired in New York City would have any effect on the movement in Syracuse.

Brown said Mayor Stephanie Miner has been supportive of the Occupy Syracuse movement, stopping by to speak with protesters in Perseverance Park. Brown also said Miner showed interest in assisting the protesters by providing them with supplies, such as portable bathrooms.

Brown said she and fellow occupiers in Syracuse are organizing solidarity marches and rallies to sympathize with the protesters at Zuccotti Park and that some of the protesters from Occupy Syracuse were even planning to take a bus down to New York City to participate in Occupy Wall Street there.

‘A lot of the time the more bodies, the more able you are to fight the police repression,’ Brown said.

Though some worry about the effect these new regulations will have on the movement as a whole, other students such as Chloe Beaudoin, a freshman public relations major, believe this will have a positive effect on the protesters by further encouraging them.

Said Beaudoin: ‘If anything, it’ll just make them fight harder because they’re being constrained in a way, and they’ll want to push more.’

cffabris@syr.edu 

Published on November 16, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Casey: cffabris@syr.edu | @caseyfabris