The NYPD has already spent an estimated $2 million in overtime pay to
provide cops for the Occupy Wall Street protest, NYPD Commissioner Ray
Kelly revealed Thursday.
And this tab will only grow in weeks to come. Protesters vowed they
have no intention of leaving their camp at Zuccotti Park, and Kelly said
that the owners of the private park, Brookfield Properties, have no
legal right to kick them out since the land is intended for public use.
Protesters were arrested Wednesday night during a march from Foley
Square to the Financial District, some when they tried to storm a police
barricade at Broadway and Wall Street, according to police. Police were
also caught on video using pepper-spray and wielding batons to beat
back protesters.
Kelly defended these arrests, and the use of the pepper spray,
saying a “core group” of protesters instigated a confrontation with
cops.
“They locked arms, they counted down and they charged the police,”
he said. “That is going to be met with some kind of physical force.”
Meanwhile, some politicians in Albany received an e-mail with the
subject line “Time to kill the wealthy,” which threatened violence
unless the millionaire tax is extended.
“Stop shoveling wealth from the lower 99 percent into the top 1
percent,” the e-mail reportedly read. “Or we are going to sow the kind
of chaos you are unequipped to deal with.”
Occupy Wall Street protesters asked by Metro said they had never
heard of the e-mail, and reiterated their commitment to nonviolence.
Follow Alison Bowen on Twitter @AlisonatMetro.
