As freezing temperatures descend on the Northeast, reports emerge that the City has taken away the protesters’ sources of power and heat.
The city has stripped Occupy Wall Street protesters of their power.
Dozens of firefighters and police officers entered Zuccotti Park Friday morning to confiscate generators and gas canisters.
Fire trucks and police vans pulled up on the corner of Broadway and Liberty St. at about 8:30 a.m. and asked the encamped demonstrators to bring the items to them, saying they were a health and fire hazard.
“They made an announcement on a bullhorn saying: ‘We are here to take the generators, could you please bring them up to us on the corner of Broadway and Liberty St.,'” protester James Bennett said.
When no one from Occupy Wall Street surrendered the generators, more than 30 uniformed FDNY and NYPD officials entered the park to seize them, witnesses and officials said.
“We did send 30 or 40 firefighters through the park, the police department had its community affairs department there to make sure everyone was safe,” Mayor Bloomberg said on his weekly radio show Friday.
“Our first two concerns are the First Amendment and safety, and this was about safety.”
The protesters say five generators were seized in total, including one which was biodiesel and ran on used vegetable oil.