Update: We have two reporters on the ground who are feeding me pictures, video and information. I will keep this live blog up to cover this mornings events. This story is changing rapidly as the day unfolds.
Associated Press is reporting:
A New York City police officer runs over a National Lawyers Guild observer as Occupy Wall Street demonstrators march through the streets near Wall Street, Friday, Oct. 14, 2011, in New York. The cleanup of a plaza in lower Manhattan where protesters have been camped out for a month was postponed early Friday, sending cheers up from a crowd that had feared the effort was merely a pretext to evict them. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
It's standing room only in Zuccotti park this morning. 311 was so overloaded last night with calls from residents that it took me over an hour to get through. As I approached the square, I heard chanting. When I arrived, I saw two sanitation trucks parked in the area they're keeping police vehicles on the north side of the square, which was packed with cheering protesters waving signs and flags.
I watched as the sanitation vehicles drove off.
ABC news is now reporting that the cleaning has been cancelled.
Bloomberg has backed down.
We won.
Stay with us this morning as we update this thread with pictures and video from the square.
Our livestream is up! Scenes of Jubilation in zuccotti park as dawn breaks in lower manhattan!
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4:02 AM PT: I'm giving the count as 2-3,000 this morning, with only about 40 to 50 police officers on scene.
They weren't expecting this. Most people go home at night, because the vast majority of people involved in these protests work for a living and have families. It's a small core of devoted young people who are holding the square for the rest of the protesters.
Now, we have SEIU jackets, people with signs from SEIU 32BJ, even construction workers from the nearby ground zero construction site.
They were expecting to clear out a handful of tired and bleary eyed young people, not to face several thousand awake and passionate protesters from all walks of life.
Thank you, DailyKos, for your support phone calls, and thank you MoveOn for calling on people to show up. My e-mail box is packed with requests from nearly every group I'm a part of, saying "Get to Zuccotti at 6am!"
4:26 AM PT: Scenes of Jubilation continue as the crowd grows! Hundreds chanting "All Day All Week Occupy Wall St!"
http://twitpic.com/...
http://yfrog.com/...
4:28 AM PT: The chanting continues. Several marches are being discussed at this hour, but no concrete plans have materialized yet!
http://yfrog.com/...
Give us an inch and we'll march for miles.
4:32 AM PT: Protesters are marching on City Hall RIGHT NOW! Drums are beating and protesters are chanting and cheering!
4:39 AM PT: NYPD Emergency flatbet trucks full of barricades just screamed by me, heading towards city hall. Two of them. I'd say they had a quarter mile of metal barricades in them, and I can hear sirens.
4:49 AM PT: RIOT POLICE ON SCENE AT CITY HALL.
4:52 AM PT: RIOT POLICE standing at the gates to city hall. Protesters: We're here for your pension! http://yfrog.com/...
4:54 AM PT: For those without video, that's a shot of riot police smiling and lifting their masks. Protesters are making themselves heard, but being completely peaceful. The whole world is watching this. Stay with us as we bring you the news.
5:01 AM PT: In keeping with the peaceful tradition of OccupyWallSt, the protesters did not attempt to push through the City Hall gates. Instead, they marched north, and are now marching around the perimeter of city hall.
http://yfrog.com/... (For those without video, this shows a group of marchers heading north outside of city hall chanting "Show me what democracy looks like! THIS IS WHAT DEMOCRACY LOOKS LIKE!"
The Granny Brigade is with them:
http://t.co/...
5:20 AM PT: mauricehall justifiably knocks me down a notch for last night's prediction that the square would absolutely and unquestionably be cleared.
I'll be honest, I'm stunned this morning, and I've never been happier to be wrong. Several others, such as Lisa Lockwood and PvtJarHead have pointed out that the city probably won't anounce plans to clear the park ever again. We'll see.
As someone new to New York, I think I've learned a valuable lesson. Any time the city says something, my response should probably be "We'll see."
More scenes from the protest: HardHat from Ground Zero:
http://yfrog.com/...
"I'm Union, I Vote, I'm Pissed, So I'm here!"
NY1 is reporting what may be old news, that a confrontation is expected on the west side of the park. We'll see. (See, there I am learning from my mistakes.)
5:27 AM PT: I really doubt that NY1 report. I just did a walkaround on the west side of the park. There are less than 60 police officers on that side. There are normally more than that on the weekends. Patrol cars continue to scream in and search for parking.
The police, I think, are just surprised by the numbers and trying to build their strength back up.
5:30 AM PT: I'm getting scattered reports of violence at city hall. I'm still wating on confirmation.
Police have barricaded broadway at liberty street. http://yfrog.com/...
They may still be planning to clear the square. There are still police in riot gear about, some of them down at Zuccotti, but scattered into groups with police in regular patrol unifoms.
Still trying to confirm the reports of violence and arrests.
5:37 AM PT: ARRESTS CONFIRMED. 12+ Arrested at city hall. We have unconfirmed reports that some protesters were rammed with mopeds. No sign of violence downtown yet.
5:40 AM PT: Confirmed: we have multiple eyewitnesses telling us that peaceful protesters were rammed with mopeds. One man is telling me now that the scooters drove into the protesters in order to move them. We can confirm multiple injuries and arrests.
5:58 AM PT: Police Initiated a Scuffle at New and Exchange Street:
http://twitpic.com/...
More Images:
http://yfrog.com/...
Police violence is escalating. Our team will continue to bring you updates.
6:01 AM PT: At least two scuffles have led to more violent arrests. We can confirm 18+ in total.
6:13 AM PT: Scooters have been charging protesters at a high rate of speed. Protesters made human chain to defend themselves. Cop got off of his scooter and started beating one of the protesters in the chain. White shirt intervened. The situation is chaotic and it looks like the NYPD is losing control, not of the situation, but of themselves.
6:17 AM PT: MEDIA IS BEING ASKED TO LEAVE THE SITE BY POLICE:
http://yfrog.com/...
http://yfrog.com/...
6:35 AM PT: Twitter is BLOCKING trending . Check out this map:
http://trendsmap.com/
@RussellSimmons "I will pay to clean up Zuccotti park to avoid a confrontation."
6:55 AM PT: Confirmed: CNN has moved INTO the park. They have broadcast equipment with them. One camera, one reporter, two tech support.
We have 60-80 police gearing up on the east side of the park. After an equipment swap for battery reasons, our twitter stream is continuing follow us @TheOther99.
Unmarked black police vehicles are showing up. I've seen at least two black vans. We have one of the largest police presences I've seen down here now. Some white shirts are now wearing blue sweaters.
Fabrice Rousselot of the french paper Liberation just told me that there is a huge meeting scheduled tomorrow in brussels for all of the occupation groups of Europe.
7:00 AM PT: Interesting and amusing update from The Onion: http://www.theonion.com/...
"As the Occupy Wall Street protest expands and grows into a nationwide movement, Americans are eagerly awaiting a list of demands from the group so they can then systematically disregard them and continue going about their business, polls showed this week."
7:03 AM PT: I have a report from an ally working with Anonymous who is telling me that twitter is under a Direct Denial of Service attack. They don't know who by. A DDOS attack on social media may be an attempt to prevent protesters from getting information out. Stay with us here, because our people on the ground will still be able to get information out through DKos if twitter is taken out.
7:12 AM PT: Interesting. Twitter gets accused of blocking trending occupy results and suddenly occupy results are trending.
Twitter international seems to be down.
7:13 AM PT: CNN has an interesting report on the situation up:
http://www.cnn.com/...
7:16 AM PT: New Yorker ends debate about whether we're all smelly hippies:
http://yfrog.com/...
7:32 AM PT: They say a picture is worth a thousand words. I can think of a few to describe this one:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/...
7:34 AM PT: For those of you who can't use that link, that last picture was a white shirt throwing a closed fist punch at a protester, taken today.
7:50 AM PT: MSNBC reporting 10+ arrested: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...
7:51 AM PT: http://t.co/...
Picture of a large NYPD bus in lower manhattan http://t.co/...
7:52 AM PT: Huffpo on Russell Simmon's promise to pay for cleaning: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
7:54 AM PT: Video from the moment it was announced that the cleaning was "postponed"
8:01 AM PT: Associated Press is reporting:
A New York City police officer runs over a National Lawyers Guild observer as Occupy Wall Street demonstrators march through the streets near Wall Street, Friday, Oct. 14, 2011, in New York. The cleanup of a plaza in lower Manhattan where protesters have been camped out for a month was postponed early Friday, sending cheers up from a crowd that had feared the effort was merely a pretext to evict them. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
8:05 AM PT: Our Friends at USLAW have an excellent discussion of the situation:
http://occupy.uslaw.com/...
8:14 AM PT: I just found a new favorite blog:
http://howconservativesdrovemeaway.blogspot.com/...
This Diagram is absolute gold.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/...
Credit that blog, and send it viral.
8:24 AM PT: Deluded right winger thinks that OWS will help the GOP. What? http://www.soopermexican.com/...
8:29 AM PT: Al Jazeera is doing some great reporting:
http://english.aljazeera.net/...
Bernie Sanders chimes in:
http://www.scpr.org/...
8:30 AM PT: Fox Viewer poll STILL shows a majority of Fox Viewers support #OWS http://www.foxnews.com/...
8:36 AM PT: Work IDs now required to enter Wall St.
This is Privatization of Public space. I find it disgusting.
http://twitpic.com/...
8:37 AM PT: Yet more images of police runing a man over:
http://a.yfrog.com/...
8:49 AM PT: There will be a momentary interruption in our coverage while we change locations. Please stay with us. The updates will resume shortly.
10:00 AM PT:
This speaks for itself.
10:08 AM PT: Gawker is reporting that the man who was run over was arrested for kicking the scooter off of his leg.
10:17 AM PT: HIV Positive Protester slugged by NYPD:
http://joemygod.blogspot.com/...
"The cop just lunged at me full throttle and hit me on the left side of my face. It tore my earring out. I remember seeing my earring on the ground next to me and it was full of blood. I was completely dumbstruck. I'm HIV positive and that cop should get tested."
10:24 AM PT: NY post video of the scooter charge running over a protester: http://www.nypost.com/...
10:25 AM PT: Not surprised by this:
Right-wing trolls admit that they're sowing discontent and acting as Agent-Provocateurs. http://twitter.com/...
10:27 AM PT: Capt. Doug Wiesman of the Cincy PD has been having coffee with protesters every morning in order to keep an open dialogue:
http://news.cincinnati.com/...
10:38 AM PT: http://www.foxnews.com/...
Fox news peice calls the protesters:
Most of the Occupy Wall Street protesters aren’t opposed to free market capitalism. In fact, what they want is an end to the crony capitalist system now in place, that makes it easier for the rich and powerful to get even more rich and powerful while making it increasingly hard for the rest of us to get by. The protesters are not anti-American radicals. They are the defenders of the American Dream, the decision from the birth of our nation that success should be determined by hard work not royal bloodlines.
10:44 AM PT: Niall Ferguson continues his long history of gathering a significant amount of evidence and coming to the wrong conclusion:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/...
10:48 AM PT: Anonyops Tweets:
Uh, holy shit? There's a PRO #OWS piece on the front page of Fox News. http://fxn.ws/... #WINNING
10:54 AM PT: If you haven't seen it, Lawrence O'Donnel is still right about this:
11:03 AM PT: Excellent picture:
http://img404.imageshack.us/...
Posted by http://www.dailykos.com/... makahali overdrive. Tip him, and get this pic top commented.
11:04 AM PT: The Crazy Right is still disgusting. They think that the video of a man getting his ankle broken is (A) fake and (B) hilarious: http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/...
11:44 AM PT: I think that wraps up our coverage as we dig through a lot of tweets and reports. Thank you for staying with us through our morning coverage. I've been at this for about eight hours, so it's time for me to sign off, and hand the coverage over to other excellent Kossacks.
Thank you again for your support.
12:28 PM PT: One last video, this from the NY Post:
12:29 PM PT: Since it won't embed, here's the link: http://landing.newsinc.com/...
