NYCLU to City: Don’t Use Wall St Clean Up as a Pretext for Mass Arrests

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: (212) 549-2666; media@aclu.org

October 13, 2011 – In response to a statement by NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly that Occupy Wall Street protesters will not be allowed to bring their sleeping bags, coolers and gear back into the park tomorrow following a cleanup of Zuccotti Park, New York Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Donna Lieberman issued the following statement:

“If the city is drawing a line in the sand over cleaning the park and refuses to accept the reasonable offers by protesters to do a clean up, then the recent statements by the mayor and police commissioner about protecting the right to protest were disingenuous.

The city must not use the clean up as a pretext for mass arrests. To do so would be a violation of the spirit of the First Amendment and the spirit of dissent.”