Tweet
The following is a letter from the Liberty Park Working Group to the CEO of Brookfield Properties informing the CEO that using the police to “evict” occupiers from Zuccotti Park early in the morning on October 14 raises First Amendment and other legal concerns. It asserts the police action against the occupiers requires “prior court approval.”
The letter is an attempt by the lawyers to convey to the park owner, Brookfield Properties, that the Sanitation Working Group has taken measures to clean the park and is willing to meet to further negotiate what must be done to take care of the park properly.
Lawyers signed on are affiliated with the Center for Constitutional Rights. Margaret Ratner Kunstler, wife of the late radical lawyer William Kunstler, is one of the lawyers representing the occupiers.
*
BY FAX TO 212-417-7272
Richard B. Clark
Chief Executive Officer
Brookfield Office Properties
Brookfield Global Real Estate
Three World Financial Center
New York, NY 10281-1021
BY FAX TO 212-417-7272
Richard B. Clark
Chief Executive Officer
Brookfield Office Properties
Brookfield Global Real Estate
Three World Financial Center
New York, NY 10281-1021
Dear Mr. Clark:
Attorneys associated with the National Lawyers-Guild-New York City Chapter have been asked to represent the Sanitation Working Group. One of several autonomous working groups formed and operated by people who have been occupying Liberty Park. We are in receipt of a copy of your letter to New York City Police Department Commissioner Raymond Kelly requesting police intervention and outlining your concerns about cleaning and maintenance of Liberty Park.
The enforcement action you are requesting raises serious First Amendment and other legal concerns. Under the guise of cleaning the Park you are threatening fundamental constitutional rights. There is no basis in the law for your request for police intervention, nor have you cited any. Such police action without a prior court order would be unconstitutional and unlawful.
The Sanitation Working Group has been addressing the concerns in your letter all along. Beyond that, it has committed itself to carrying out a thorough and complete cleaning and to addressing all of the issues related to sanitation raised in your letter. The Working Group welcomes representatives of Brookfield to view the cleaning process and its results.
Our investigation has revealed that no permanent structures have been erected within the Park, nor have any actions been taken to damage the Park, its plantings or other amenities. Your letter raises concerns about potential water infiltration of the Park’s underground lighting and electrical hazards. However, based on a visual inspection recently conducted by our clients, there has been no damage to the lenses covering the underground lighting and thus there is no risk of water infiltration. Additionally, it is our understanding that there has been no electricity running in said fixtures for weeks now. Therefore, there is no risk of electrical hazard.
The Working Group will continue to bag and haul trash on a tight schedule. Trash has consistently been bagged and hauled to established collection points and recycling rules have been bagged and hauled to established collection points and recycling rules have been strictly adhered to. The Working Group has been using primarily 50 gallon, 3 mil. thickness contractor bags. Additionally, the Working Group typically has had between one and fifteen people sweeping the Park with brooms at any given time.
The Sanitation Working Group has informed us that the following activities are being carried out to further address these issues.
- All hard surfaces within the Park are being scrubbed and/or polished
- Garbage removal will be stepped up
- Every item resting on the ground will be removed to allow for thorough cleaning; and
- Power washing will be employed where appropriate or possible.
Our clients are willing to sit down with you to resolve any of your concerns. They want to negotiate in good faith. Our clients agree to address any reasonable issues of sanitation safety and access and would like to prevent these issues from creating a pretext for police action in violation of our client’s First Amendment rights to utilize the Park. If you nonetheless decide to proceed with your request for police action, prior court approval is required.
Please feel free to call Ms. Ratner Kunstler at 917-331-8012 or Mr. Oliver at 646-246-3495 to discuss these matters. We look forward to hearing from you this evening.
Very truly yours,
Margaret Ratner Kunstler
Gideon Orion Oliver
Yetta G. Kurland
Sarah Kunstler
Martin R. Stolar
Bruce K. Bentley
Jano Marton
Michael Ratner
8 Comments
I have posted this so everyone can see the great lengths the dirty, rotten smelly hippies went to in an effort to deter the park owner, NYPD and Mayor Bloomberg from effectively squashing free speech and a peaceable assembly in Liberty Park.
They spent funds that were donated to Occupy Wall Street to clean the park. They are willing to clean the park extensively every night. But, “cleaning” is just a cover for ending something that has financial institutions on Wall Street & the power elite that caters to these institutions trembling in fear.
I am perturbed by the seemingly orchestrated efforts around the country to get tough with the protesters. And especially so wrt the complete silence about the Boston PD action the other night, where media was sytematically excluded and internet communications apparently jammed. Feels like a military style operation to try out tactics for a larger move. I suspect and fear they will try to shut OWS down by force all over the country before the weekend. Desperately hoping I’m wrong. Wrong or right, Kevin, you continue to be FANTASTIC.
They can try. That didn’t succeed very well in Egypt, did it? And just remember that the powers that be aren’t any brighter than Mubarak. They are all elites, after all. And if there is one thing we should have learned by now, it’s that elites aren’t as smart, or bright, as they’d like you to believe.
I share your sentiment, but this isn’t Egypt. The populace is probably not yet motivated enough to stand up to a real crackdown. I’m worried.
I believe that is Janos Marton, not Jano Marton, who is one of the signatories. He was interviewed by RT’s The Alyona Show last week. Thank you for this post.
Nice to see Bill Kunstler’s daughters carrying on the family tradition.
They visited FDL Movie Night back in January of this year for a movie about their father they had directed.
That letter is super fuckin’ awesome, and the obvious reason for the police to be ordered to stand down. Weird that the rule of law was going to be circumvented by Bloomberg and the police…/s
I hope Bloomberg does not just call one of his buddy judges and produce a court order. Though I guess that could be stayed also.
Does New York have an ordinance against “lying down in a public park”? I guess that would bum out sun bathers in Central Park….
It’s the garbage and recyclables they’ve been after all along, and the protestors have played right into their hands by bagging it up for them. They are even taking our garbage and trash away. Occupy Freshkills!