NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- Police arrested eight people while dismantling a homeless encampment near Tompkins Square Park Wednesday for at least the seventh time in six weeks.
The protest was organized by the Tompkins Homeless Collective, a group of homeless activists advocating for permanent, community controlled apartments for homeless New Yorkers.
Residents of this encampment, which on Wednesday was comprised of five tents sitting under scaffolding at the corner of Avenue B and 9th Street, have repeatedly rebuilt their encampment as an act of civil disobedience against Mayor Eric Adams homeless encampment clearance program.
It has become the de facto base of operations for the Tompkins Homeless Collective, and other community aid groups like Brooklyn Eviction Defense and Rent Refusers Network have worked to support it.
Adams said the sweep teams are instructed not to destroy property and that social workers are present to provide shelter services to the New Yorkers living in the camps that get cleared. Property destruction has been a constant feature of the sweeps though, and only 39 people have accepted outreach services while their residences were being destroyed.
“I have said since we started this initiative that every New Yorker deserves dignity, and we are demonstrating that this is possible,” said Adams in a statement on Wednesday. “Our teams are working professionally and diligently every day to make sure that every New Yorker living on the street knows they have a better option while ensuring that everyone who lives in or visits our city can enjoy the clean public spaces we all deserve.”
Police and sanitation workers again destroyed tents at the Tompkins Square Park encampment on Wednesday.
Another sweep team also destroyed property at a sweep in Chinatown just hours before the Tompkins Square Park confrontation.
Police, including members of the Strategic Response Group anti-terrorism unit, arrested seven housed protesters and one camp resident when they refused to leave the sidewalk by the encampment around 10 a.m.
Keith Rose, a St. Louis activist who works for a non-profit law firm’s eviction defense program, was the first to be arrested.
He said he was inspired to seek out a sweep defense protest while visiting New York City in solidarity with similar protests happening in St. Louis.
“There’s also an eviction going on back home. So the reason I went today was in solidarity with my friends who are defending an encampment from our mayor who is currently doing multiple sweeps this week as well,” said Rose. "This is something that’s happening across the country.”
Rose was charged with failure to disperse, for which he has a court date on May 24. If found guilty, he might have to pay a fine of up to $250 and could face up to 15 days in jail.
Other protesters who were arrested on Wednesday face obstruction of governmental administration charges, a more serious charge that's punishable by up to a year in jail.
Rose sees the sweep program as a misallocation of resources that would be better spent on housing for homeless New Yorkers.
“It was remarkable the amount of resources that the city was able to marshal to clear four tents,” he said. The number of tents cleared near Tompkins Square Park on Wednesday was actually five.
Related
Related
