Breaking news: Wall Street occupation

More on this as this progresses

NYPD to Evict "Occupy" Protesters

Showdown looms as park's owner asks police for help removing encampments; protesters vow to stay.

By Will Oremus | Posted Thursday, Oct. 13, 2011, at 4:48 PM ET

the Slatest Home

This is one clean-up that could get messy.

Brookfield Properties, which owns the downtown Manhattan park that has become the home base of the Occupy Wall Street protests, announced on Thursday that it wants all protesters off its property starting at 7 a.m. Friday so it can tidy up the park grounds. It said the demonstrators can come back after the cleaning—as long as they abide by park rules. Those rules prohibit tents, tarps, sleeping bags, and the storage of any personal property. That would effectively end the demonstration, in which activists have camped out in Zuccotti Park for the past three-and-a-half weeks to protest wealth inequality.

“They’re going to use the cleanup to get us out of here,” a dismayed protester told the Associated Press. “It’s a de facto eviction notice.”

Since the demonstrations began on Sept. 17, Zuccotti Park has become the focal point of a growing nationwide movement directed at corporate creed, corruption, and income inequality. Because it's privately owned, protesters haven't been subject to the same rules as they would be in a public park. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said recently that they could stay indefinitely as long as they obey the law. Brookfield's decision to step in, however, would make it difficult to maintain the occupation.

The protesters are already vowing not to comply. Gothamist printed a statement from the group’s organizers on Thursday, saying, “We won’t allow Bloomberg and the NYPD to foreclose our occupation. This is an occupation, not a permitted picnic.”

That could mean a big showdown with police. While Brookfield is legally required to allow around-the-clock public access, it is also allowed to enforce regulations. In a letter obtained by the blog The Dissenter, Brookfield wrote to NYPD commissioner Ray Kelly on Tuesday asking for help moving the protesters. From the letter:

“After weeks of occupation, conditions at the Park have deteriorated to unsanitary and unsafe levels. The Park has no toilets and while the existing trash receptacles have always been more than adequate to accommodate normal waste in the park, those receptacles are no longer even close to sufficient and the resulting trash accumulation is attracting rodents”…

Kelly, the police commissioner, told the New York Post on Thursday, “People will have to remove all their belongings and leave the park. After it’s cleaned, they’ll be able to come back. But they won’t be able to bring back the gear, the sleeping bags, that sort of thing will not be able to be brought back into the park.”

How might the confrontation play out? The Daily News reports that organizers wrote on their Facebook page, "We'll position ourselves with our brooms and mops in a human chain around the park, linked at the arms. If the NYPD attempts to enter, we’ll peacefully/non-violently stand our ground and those who are willing will get arrested.”

Meanwhile, some protesters are mounting their own last-minute cleanup effort in hopes of being allowed to stay.