MB Civic

There was an organized attempt to re-occupy Zucotti last night. Soon after we got there at 10:30 people started to methodically remove the police barricades that surrounded the park – Every time the police would put the barricades back people would be removing them from another side of the park – It was pretty crazy and a little nerve wracking – Since most police were uptown at Times Sq there wasn’t enough manpower to keep the Zucotti barricades in place – there were a few arrests and scuffles, a report of pepper spray being used (which we didn’t witness), but the whole dynamic continued until by midnight there was a huge “Liberty Mountain” (see pic) of police barricades piled up in the middle of the park, which is where everyone there got to celebrate ringing in the new year – it was exhilarating! – For the first time since the police cleared the park in November people were able to come and go as they pleased – By 12:30 masses of nypd were gathered so it was pretty clear what was going to happen next – the park got cleared around 1:30 – each time we go to OWS we try to steer clear of being arrested, and weren’t last night, but it felt like the closest we’ve been so far – all night we were in the middle with nowhere to go really – we also saw a bunch of Homeland Security vans – Here’s the live blog of events from OWS, here’s a video that sort of sums up how things went all night, and here’s another picture of Liberty Mountain w some decorative lights – Happy New Year Everybody!! mab