Yesterday, the New York Post reported that attorneys representing Occupy Wall Street had dropped their appeal against the city and Brookfield Properties which sought to allow camping in Zuccotti Park. The piece included triumphant quotes from attorney Randy Mastro, who was representing downtown businesses, as well as an attorney for the city. Alan Levine, the attorney representing Occupy Wall Street who argued the case in court on November 15, explained to us why he and his colleagues dropped the case: "We've gotten everything from the city and Brookfield that we wanted…they conceded that access to Zuccotti is unfettered." more ›

Lawyers representing Occupy Wall Street have dropped their appeal of a judge's ruling on November 15th barring camping at Zuccotti Park. The Post reports that the attorneys were due to file the appeal on Friday, but instead notified the court that they wouldn't pursue it. Randy Mastro, the attorney representing downtown businesses and residents hailed the decision. "There will no longer be the ability to set up an encampment for 24 hours a day in what's supposed to be a park, with neighbors' lives torn asunder and unable to enjoy their downtown surroundings." A city attorney concurred: "We think the plaintiff made the right move in withdrawing her case, as it has no merit." more ›

Marshall Curry has profiled NASCAR hopefuls and Newark Mayor Corey Booker (which earned him an Oscar nomination), and his latest, If A Tree Falls, follows the plight of Daniel McGowan, a former member of the Earth Liberation Front, a group that the F.B.I. once dubbed "America's #1 domestic terrorist threat." Curry traces McGowan's journey from his identity as the mild-mannered son of an NYPD officer to a radical environmental activist in the Pacific Northwest, carrying out arson in the name of the ELF, and back again. McGowan faces a life sentence plus 335 years for committing acts of terrorism, and his guilt is never in doubt. But the movie forces us to think about who a "terrorist" is, and how our society treats citizens who feel that they have no voice. more ›

Occupiers in D.C. are getting arrested outside the Supreme Court, but Occupiers here were denied a permit to hold a demonstration outside the Federal Courthouse at 500 Pearl Street, with a judge ruling that the downtown location wasn't really a public forum, "It is as far from the soapboxes of Madison Square Park years ago as one could imagine." more ›

Less than two days after the NYCLU demanded that Brookfield Properties remove the barricades preventing the public from easily accessing Zuccotti Park, the property management company has done just that. Earlier this evening, the barricades were removed and stacked off to the sides, permitting visitors to enter the park wherever their heart's desire, instead of the narrow security checkpoints. FREEDOM! But with freedom comes responsibility; according to one occupier, "Brookfield Security said unless we do something stupid the park will remain open!" more ›

Two months after Zuccotti Park was forcibly evicted by the NYPD, the metal barricades and constant security presence remain, making the space less like a public park and more like a frozen zone. Today the NYCLU, the Center for Constitutional Rights and the NLG fired off a letter [pdf] to Department of Buildings Commissioner Robert LiMandri asking him to "ensure that Zuccotti Park is open and accessible to all members of the public on an equal basis." more ›

For the past couple of weeks, a rumor has swirled among the Occupy Wall Street scene that Brookfield Properties, the company that controls Zuccotti Park, would close the park for three months for "renovations." The rumor most recently popped up on the Twitter feed of Jeff Smith, a member of the Occupy Wall Street media team. "Zuccotti Park's closing in January for 3 months for 'renovations.' Today feels like #OWS' swan song to the park we called Liberty Square," Smith posted on Christmas Day, followed by: "I heard from someone in OWS legal that Brookfield filed the paperwork as back-up plan to evict. Talked to security guards too." more ›

In the newest chapter of Girl Walk // All Day, the girl gets a makeover fit for the 1%... and then shows off her new look at Zuccotti Park. Unsurprisingly, while there, she gets a lot of attention from photographers, and the thumbs down from the protesters for flaunting all of her fancy shopping bags. more ›

City Councilmember Jumaane Williams has introduced a resolution in the City Council that, if passed, would formally condemn Mayor Bloomberg for ordering the eviction of Occupy Wall Street protesters from Zuccotti Park last month. PolitickerNY reports that Williams introduced a resolution yesterday that describes the eviction as "overly aggressive" and "poses a threat to our civil liberties." Williams, you'll recall, went down to Zuccotti Park on the night of the NYPD's surprise eviction; he avoided arrest that night, but his colleague Councilmember Ydanis Rodriguez was arrested, along with several reporters. more ›

Members of Occupy Faith, "a small group of Christians, brought together by our time living at Occupy Wall Street," is asking Brookfield Properties to allow then to host a 24-hour prayer vigil in Zuccotti Park on Christmas Eve. With the assistance of the NYCLU, the group has drafted a letter to city [pdf] officials and Bookfield, detailing the ceremony that will begin "with a midnight service on Christmas Eve and culminate with a closing ceremony at midnight on Christmas Day." Additionally, the vigil calls for Occupy Faith to "bring into the park food for meals as well as bread and sacramental wine for communion," as well as the requisite instruments. more ›

It seems Mayor Bloomberg still gets a bit pissy if you question him about his perfect handling of Occupy Wall Street: during his weekly radio appearance this morning, Bloomberg was asked about the November raid on Zuccotti Park, during which several reporters were arrested and others were forcibly removed from the park. Bloomberg insisted that there was no media blackout during the early morning raid: "We didn't keep anybody from reporting, you just had to stand to the side. You don't have a right as a press person to stand in the way just in the interest of getting the story...the police [showed] amazing restraint. This is the greatest police department in the world. The number of times police fire their weapons here is so much less than any other police department." more ›

Approximately 60 Occupy Wall Street protesters massed at Foley Square in Lower Manhattan just before midnight last night, where Law & Order: SVU had built a TV set that mimicked the encampment in Zuccotti Park before its eviction last month. Tarps, tents, handpainted signs bearing slogans of "We Are The 99%" and "Goldman $ucks," as well as a mock kitchen and People's Library made the fake camp very convincing. Protesters dashed through the park, defacing signs, complimenting the choice of tents and helping themselves to the food in the "kitchen." In short: it was a bizarre scene, and within the hour at least 50 NYPD officers showed up to rescind the show's permit, force the protesters from the park and order the production crew to dismantle the set. Here's video: more ›

While some of the Occupy Wall Street protesters have been able to retrieve the property they "abandoned" in Zuccotti Park during last week's raid, many of the items that were supposed to be transported to the Sanitation Department's Midtown storage depot weren't, or were damaged in the process. Most notably, the People's Library has only retrieved 1,099 books out of the total collection of about 4,000, and only 800 are still usable. At noon today, civil rights attorney Norman Siegel will join the president of the NYC Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild Gideon Oliver and members of the People's Library for a press conference at 260 Madison Ave. to address the city for destroying or losing thousands of books. more ›

The NYPD's surprise late-night eviction of Occupy Wall Street from Zuccotti Park last week was executed quickly, with reporters kept out of sight of the park "for their safety." Also for journalists "safety," the airspace in Lower Manhattan was closed to news choppers by the NYPD [UPDATE: This is now disputed], a New York Post reporter was allegedly put in a "choke hold" by the police, a NBC reporter's press pass was confiscated, and a large group of reporters and protesters were hit with pepper spray. But after all the credentialed press had been shooed away from the park, one gutsy activist stood her ground to document the eviction. As she repeatedly informs the cops in this video, she knows her rights: more ›

Occupy Wall Street may be prohibited from pitching tents in Zuccotti Park, but the protesters are determined to make their opposition felt citywide with a new campaign called "tenting." It's being called a fun new way to "occupy people's minds and public space." Last night a group of protesters temporarily gathered in Duarte Park north of Zuccotti and discussed plans to "liberate space and liberate minds by occupying the imagination." Did LeVar Burton just join Occupy Wall Street? more ›

During the nighttime raid of Zuccotti Park, the NYPD, with the help of the Department of Sanitation, confiscated the items that the Occupy Wall Street protesters had used to make the area home. Demonstrators were told that they could pick up their property, which was just moved so the NYPD could do some mopping, at a Sanitation building on West 57th street. However, there was no mention of what condition the items would be in, and Motherboard reports that computers taken in the raid were broken and dented, appearing to have been "smashed with bats." more ›

After their last gathering coincided with the freak October snowstorm, Occupy Big Food is staging a rally at Union Square in front of the big red cube sculpture at 140 Broadway (across from Zuccotti Park) at 1 p.m. today as a "protest against the corporate feeding of America." The group are an off-shoot of Occupy Wall Street hoping to take meat, dairy, and other agricultural industries out of the hands of a few large corporations—just as OWS wants to take control of the financial sector from large corporations. more ›

Even though their sprawling Occupy Wall Street encampment was evicted from Zuccotti Park, it seems the protesters are still bugging the locals with their mere presence. Here we have priceless video of a man in a suit completely losing his shit near Zuccotti Park. Don't be scared off by the protesters yelling "the whole world is watching" as the video starts—things really get good at the 12 second mark: more ›