At 01h00 this morning, the NYPD began violently clearing out Zuccotti Park, where the peaceful Occupy Wall Street protestors have been camped out. The cops are using pepper spray, LRAD sound weapons, and they are actively preventing any official media from reporting on their violation of OWS protestors’ constitutional rights. Shit’s gotten real.

Above we have the only available video source for the eviction, as the airspace around Zuccotti Park has been cleared of media choppers, and anybody with a press pass is being violently repelled by the police. There’s some coverage coming in from Al Jazeera, but even their figures – “According to police officials, most of the protesters left peacefully. However, 15 people were arrested for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest” – seem way less severe than what’s being reported via twitter by the people on the ground.

Recording of live stream

Compare, for instance, the updates coming in from OccupyWallSt:

• 03h15 NYPD destroying personal items. Occupiers prevented from leaving with their possessions.
• 03h13 NYPD deploying sound cannon
• 03h08 Heard on livestream: “they’re bringing in the hoses.”
• 03h05 NYPD cutting down trees in Liberty Square
• 02h55 NYC council-member Ydanis Rodríguez arrested and bleeding from head.
• 02h44 Defiant occupiers barricaded Liberty Square kitchen
• 02h44 NYPD destroys OWS Library. 5 000 donated books in dumpster.
• 02h42 Brooklyn Bridge confirmed closed

The eviction has been sanctioned by Mayor Bloomberg, who  said that protesters should dismantle their tents, and “temporarily leave” the park, because, “The city has determined that the continued occupation of Zuccotti Park poses an increasing health and fire safety hazard.” Which is wonderful.

The real reason that they’re employing Soviet-style thuggery is because protestors have been making noises about a non-violent protest disrupting trading in Wall Street on Thursday, as well as a plan to disrupt subway service:

On the morning of November 17, we will shut down Wall Street. We will ring the People’s Bell, and initiate a street carnival in which we rebuild and celebrate the neighborhoods that the Wall Street economy has destroyed.

Nice timing, guys.

This site is all for apolitical writing, but this site is all for not being a giant tool, and Bloomberg & the NYPD – by acting violently and secretively, by repressing constitutional rights for the sake of nothing in particular – are presently being giant tools.

[Source: OWS]