If these protestors don't want to move, they should do what muslims do in the streets of Paris. Get private security to block the Police from ever coming to remove them.

"Jamming the blogs" is really what this whole thing is. There would have been zero interest in this if it hadn't been for them constantly tweeting and commenting in places where journalists look that there was no coverage of their protest. This was when it really was little more than 12 scruffy looking 20somethings in the park. 

It then received attention greater than it deserved by a media that felt guilted by their ceaseless pleas. Then maybe some actual disaffected people jumped in. But let's not pretend the thing was not started by an avant-garde of longtime anticapitalist protesters and built on deliberate internet lies and video propaganda at first.

The media did everything they could to ignore this for as long as they could. Then when they couldn't ignore it any longer, they mocked it and dismissed it with every hack job slanted piece they could create. Now they're just barely starting to realize they have to take it seriously.

You're living in fantasy land if you think this has grown to where it has with the media's help.

I will give credit where credit is due -the social media campaign is genius. OWS has greater internet cred than it does street cred by an exponential number.

Still, I giggle, that the very few real street cred is being poured on right now by real rain while alleged protestors suffer your pain and promise to take their turn...right after midterms!

So OWS loves the neighbors and loves cleaning. Fascinating. Be a good neighbor! After three or four weeks there! The rules come out today. The mops come out TODAY. Why? So tomorrow, when the NYPD comes and hauls their asses out, they can point to a newly cleaned park and newly established "good neighbor"  rules. Who's media savvy? OWS is jamming the blogs with the "poor us" message beforehand. Duh. Manipulative much.

Psssst. When you're done hosing down, see if you can have your neighbor nail you to a cross for special effect!

Yea, maybe they should wear silly colonialist era costumes instead, and then maybe you'd take them seriously.

the announcement about "the urgent need to clean" and the new park rules were circulated yesterday. The announcement that police would clear the park to clean and enforce these new rules came yesterday. What more do you want?

No one needed to tell the protesters in Egypt that Tahrir Square needed to be cleaned before they started doing so. The police there never had that pretext. The protesters there cleaned,  without being prompted to do so, out of their own pride in their public space, and endeared themselves to the country by doing so. 

OWS have behaved in exactly the opposite way with regard to this issue. The park has been a smelly, filthy mess and they've lost the sympathy of many NYers.

If the Sanitation Committee was so busy cleaning all the time, why all the furious effort now? Surely it would be spic and span, no?

It's a Union thing.

Drums have always been a constant presence, and the limiting of them seems like a sign of "Phase 2" of the occupation, one that means more cooperation with cops and attempts to appease the neighbors in order to dig in for the long haul.

I'm sure that some of the occupiers will be angered by the capitulation, and I'm not sure how they can really camp out through the winter without tents, tarps, or sleeping bags, but sometimes you need to make small sacrifices in order to get the greater point across.

Yup. This will cause divisions. Who will be the occupation's police force to enforce these new "zero tolerance" rules? And will they even be able to succeed?

First they came for the drum circle, but I have no need to hear or play in a drum circle at 4 fucking AM every goddamn night so I didn't speak up.

There's been a Scott Stringer sighting? Holy shit!!!

"And look, this park is so clean the Virgin Mary herself would be proud to come in here and pop a squat:..."

Does Gothamist plan on showing as much disrespect to Mohammed or Allah?

Dude, did you see the video right below that sentence? Sweeping nun, full habit and a broom. I'm sure they would make a similar reference if there was a video of an Imam cleaning up. Although I'm with you, it's a bit vulgar.

Seriously. Such a cheap shot. Then again, Anti-Catholicism is the last great protected bias in the US!

I was thinking this, but why bother?  They're too busy deleting posts anyway.

Gothamist is a news organization? Ha ha ha ha ha. Another web site dealing with aggregation [aka stealer] of news stories from other sources, and some good trust fund monies from site investors.

First time on the interwebs, eh?