http://cptv.vo.llnwd.net/o2/ypmwebcontent/Tucker/Morning%20Edition%2004-11-2012.mp3
Occupy New Haven protestors will be able to remain on the city green...for now.
There were some tense moments on the city green right after noon on Tuesday, as police and bulldozers began dismantling the encampment Occupy New Haven protesters have called home for the past six months. On Monday U.S. District Judge Mark Kravitz said the city could remove the protesters beginning noon on Tuesday. The city apparently took that noon deadline seriously.
"We'd let the city know at 7 that we were en route and we called them at 11 when we hadn't hear from the judge and asked them to stand down but no, they had to act," said Norm Pattis who is representing the Occupy New Haven protestors. He was in New York City Tuesday morning to argue their case before the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals.
"Moments later our phone rang. I'm told it took them about 40 minutes to call off the dogs and it was all unnecessary, unnecessary drama," said Pattis.
Minutes after the noon deadline Pattis learned that a judge on the 2nd circuit court had issued a stay, allowing the protesters to remain on the city green while the court hears arguments for and against their removal. Pattis says the city doesn't have the right to remove the protestors, because the16 acre green is privately owned, and run by the centuries old Committee of the Proprietor of the Common and Undivided Lands in New Haven.
"Private people don't have a right to make rules over public space and the city has not enacted rules that govern private property," said Pattis. "It can't both be public and private and since they pretend it is, it's really neither and it's open space that is unregulated at this point."
New Haven officials say the land has historically been maintained by the city, and therefore has the right to regulate the land.
