NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – Police moved in Wednesday morning to remove protesters who have been camped outside City Hall for weeks demanding the NYPD be defunded.
Hundreds of NYPD officers, some in tactical gear and carrying riot shields, swept through the “Occupy City Hall” encampment around 3:45 a.m. to remove about 50 protesters and homeless people.
NYPD Chief Raymond Spinella said protesters were given about a 10-minute warning before officers moved in.
"Early this morning at about 3:40 a.m., police moved in to remove the illegal occupiers of City Hall Park, an action that required several hundred officers, which went smoothly," Spinella said.
Spinella said seven people were arrested in the confrontation. Charges against them were pending.
A brick was also thrown at an officer, Spinella said, but he was only grazed and not seriously injured.
Protesters said they were given little warning before officers came in.
"The next thing you know, they stormed in here, took over the place—everybody’s running," one protester said. "Everybody’s basically running helter skelter, because no one really knew what the hell was going on. It’s 3:30 in the morning, so this was a planned attack in terms of moving everybody out."
The encampment had been disbanded by sunrise, though some protesters were still seen shouting at police officers.
The Sanitation Department entered the encampment a short time after police, grabbing tents and other belongings.
At his briefing Wednesday, Mayor Bill de Blasio said health and safety had become an issue at the encampment in recent days and that the decision was made last night with the NYPD to disband it.
“What we saw change over the last few weeks was the gathering there got smaller and smaller, was less and less about protests, more and more became an area where homeless folks were gathering,” de Blasio said. “I said repeatedly we do always respect the right to protest, but we have to think about health and safety first, and the health and safety issues were growing.”
“We talked it through last night and made the final decision about 10 p.m. last night,” the mayor said.
NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea, who joined de Blasio at the briefing, said there were about 40 to 50 people in the encampment when officers initially arrived.
He said the city had attorneys on scene and people at the encampment were asked to leave on their own and were permitted to take their belongings.
“A number of people did leave without incident. A number of individuals did not want to leave,” Shea said. “The result was one arrest for attempted assault, where a brick was thrown at an officer. Luckily, that officer had a shield. It left a dent, I’m told, in the shield. But nobody was injured. That person was quickly taken into custody.”
Shea said another six people were taken into custody and they were expected to be released on minor summonses.
The commissioner said “bricks, sticks, brooms and some drug paraphernalia” were found in some of the tents.
Protesters have been camped out at City Hall for about a month to demand more of the NYPD’s budget be redistributed.
They've gotten into confrontations with police in the past, including a few weeks ago, when officers removed barriers put up by protesters.