Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Occupy Wall Street protesters: City will now require permits

ERIN EINHORN AND CORKY SIEMASZKO
NY Daily News
October 22, 2011

Mayor Bloomberg said Friday that he’s going to start turning the screws on the Occupy Wall Streeters.

The city is planning to take a harder line on demonstrators camping out in Zuccotti Park – and insist on permits every time they want to march through Lower Manhattan, he said.

“We will start enforcing that more,” Bloomberg said on his weekly radio show.

The protesters have a Constitutional right to demonstrate and have mostly been “peaceful,” the mayor added.

“There’s not been any of the kind of craziness you see elsewhere,” he said. “You may not like it, but these people have generally obeyed the law.

Still, the month-long occupation has taken a toll on local businesses and residents and the city needs to come up with “ways to let people protest without infringing those who don’t want to protest,” he said.

“I’m not trying to duck it,” Bloomberg said. “But, you know, it’s just not so easy. You can’t just walk in and say ‘Hey, you’re out of here’.”

Full article here

This article was posted: Saturday, October 22, 2011 at 4:43 am

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