After the Occupy Wall Street movement suffered a massive blow early Tuesday when police raided Zuccotti Park, protesters joyously reentered the park after spending the day displaced from the park they now call home.
Around 5:30 p.m. today, police slowly started to let protesters back into the park. Passing through a line of security officers and cops, protesters immediately started to chant, “Whose park? Our park!”
“When everyone started to get let back in, there was a feeling of jubilation,” said Leah Meyerhoff, 31 of Brooklyn. “People seemed to be excited to be let back into what some people are calling their home.”
Amidst the celebrations, protesters were still upset about the force with which they were removed. Ramona Duminicioiu, a 28-year-old Romanian visiting the United States to learn about the Occupy Wall Street Movement, was disappointed at the treatment of the protesters.
“The police should not have been here,” she said. “I am very, very outraged. I mean, getting back in the part is not a happiness; it should’ve been normal for the people to be here continuously without being bothered by the local authorities.”
A Supreme Court judge upheld an earlier ruling that protesters cannot camp in the park, but can protest there. But many of the protesters are unsure about the new rules.
“It’s not even exactly clear what the decision is to the laywers,” said Joe Diamond, a member of the Occupy Wall Street media team who just spoke with the movement’s legal team.
Diamond said the lawyers told him that they need time to review the dense court decision, but that the park would in fact be open 24 hours. Tents are not allowed, but the rest remains unknown.
“You ask ten people, you get ten different answers,” Diamond said.
Regardless of the outcome of the hearing, enthusiasm is not dying. Dennis Iturrarde, 46 of Manhattan, said he would like to thank Mayor Bloomberg for the eviction because it spread the word about Occupy Wall Street.
“We cannot sleep, but this is our park,” he said. “I’ll be back here in the morning, every day.”
Lopi LaRoe, who was doing a LiveStream broadcast to supporters around the world said they are being spontaneous.
“We’re improvising life,” LaRoe said “We’re improvising occupation. We’re figuring it out as we go along.”
