"Occupy" waste, noise test neighbors' patience

NEW YORK - Without running water or working toilets, the crowded anti-Wall Street encampments across the country are not the most pleasant-smelling places to live. Nor are they quiet, with drumming and chanting echoing through the air at all hours of the night.

That's why police and neighbors in some cities are starting to lose patience with the protesters, who are preparing to settle in for the winter months.

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In Oakland, Calif., police in riot gear fired tear gas and bean bags before daybreak Tuesday to disperse about 170 protesters who had been camping in front of City Hall for the past two weeks, and 75 people were arrested.

The mayor of Providence, R.I., is threatening to go to court within days to evict demonstrators from a park.

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And businesses and residents near New York's Zuccotti Park, the unofficial headquarters of the movement that began in mid-September, are demanding something be done to discourage the hundreds of protesters from urinating in the street and making noise at all hours.

"A lot of tourists coming down from hotels are so disgusted and disappointed when they see this," said Stacey Tzortzatos, manager of a sandwich shop near Zuccotti Park. "I hope for the sake of the city the mayor does close this down."

She complained that the protesters who come in by the dozen to use her bathroom dislodged a sink and caused a flood, and that police barricades are preventing her normal lunch crowd from stopping by.

As for the national mood on the protests, a CBS News/New York Times poll released Tuesday found that 43 percent of Americans agree with the views of the Occupy Wall Street movement and found a widespread belief that money and wealth should be distributed more evenly in America.

Twenty-seven percent of Americans said they disagree with the movement, according to the poll. Thirty percent said they were unsure.

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The neighborhood board for the area surrounding Zuccotti Park voted Tuesday night to pass a resolution that proposed off-site portable bathrooms funded by local donors, said Julie Menin, head of the board. The resolution also requested that loud noises, like the blast of air horns and group chanting, be limited to two hours during the day.

"Drumming has been going on late at night," she said.

Other residents echoed Menin's complaints, CBS News station WCBS-TV in New York reports.

"There is drumming," resident Ro Sheffe said. "There are trumpets. There are bugles. There are tambourines. There's yelling and shouting and chanting late into the night."

John Tuttle works a few blocks away from the park and said some protesters' behavior has become a health hazard.

"I saw a gentleman who was actually using Tupperware containers to urinate in," Tuttle said. "He actually was dumping it in the street."

The park's owner, Brookfield Office Properties, tried to push the protesters out two weeks ago to clean it but backed off at the last minute after a public outcry.

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Menin said the neighborhood does not believe the protesters should be kicked out. "We do not want the city to use force in any way," she said. "And we think it's possible to address quality-of-life issues."

Meanwhile, charges against hundreds of the New York protesters who were arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge or at Union Square could be dropped if the protesters accept a deal from the Manhattan district attorney. But a lawyer representing protesters says that many of them will likely reject the deal because it is void if they are arrested again.

In Philadelphia, city officials have been waiting almost two weeks for Occupy Philly to respond to a letter containing a list of health and safety concerns. City Managing Director Richard Negrin said officials can't wait much longer to address hazards such as smoking in tightly packed tents, camp layouts that hinder emergency access, and exposure to human waste.

"They just can't ignore us indefinitely," Negrin said Tuesday. "Every day that they haven't addressed these public safety concerns simply increases the risk."

Stephen Campbell, a protester in Boston, said the troublemakers are the minority.

"We have a policy here: no drugs, no alcohol," he said. "Us occupiers really try to stick true to that. Other people who move in, who maybe have an alcohol problem or a drug problem, you know, we're not fully equipped to handle things like that."

City officials in Oakland had initially been supportive of the protesters, with Mayor Jean Quan saying that sometimes "democracy is messy." But tensions reached a boiling point after a sexual assault, a severe beating and a fire were reported and paramedics were denied access to the camp, according to city officials. They also cited complaints about threatening behavior and concerns about rats, fire hazards and public urination.

When police moved in, they were pelted with rocks, bottles and utensils from people in the camp's kitchen area, but no injuries were reported. Protesters were taken away in plastic handcuffs, most of them arrested on suspicion of illegal lodging.

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[schmuck281]

"<i>In Oakland, Calif., police in riot gear fired tear gas and bean bags before daybreak Tuesday to disperse about 170 protesters who had been camping in front of City Hall for the past two weeks, and 75 people were arrested.</i>

The park was cleared out Tuesday morning without any violence. A few people were arrested when they refused to leave but most complied.

The violence happened when the protesters gathered later in the day and attempted to re-occupy the park. Police reacted when pelted with rocks and bottles.

The Police and city officials had nothing to gain by the violence. The protesters wanted something to happen to generate sympathetic TV images and it looks like they succeeded. This is the "Kent State" moment that supporters said they wanted.

[Martha12345]

Release the hounds !!!

[miami_don]

Martha - that is not lady like statement. It makes you sound like some antebellum Southern Belle who just discovered the slaves escaped.

Are do think they did? Whose gonna pick dat cotton Missy Marda?

[realtimecoffee]

Miami would call you racist if he saw you picking blackberries.

[vpcharan]

The Occupy Wall street protests around the country over the past month has been peaceful, except for couple of police adventurism in NY. The events on Oakland and Georgia over the past two days do not match the protestors in NY or any other cities. There is evidence that 1% has sent paid thugs in Oakland and Georgia to create confrontation with police, the objective being to discredit the movement. People in the Zucoti park in NY have thrown out some of those elements trying to infiltrate and create violence.

[nuttyworld]

Oh, please.

[miami_don]

"vp", nutty is Gumpism, "nutty is as nutty does." Said with some sadness because people like nutty want to make something complicated out of something that is so simple.

OWS is not a political movement; they want it to be but it is not. The idea that a movement that at its core is intended to only elaborate the gulf of economic disparity that exist between the top one percent and the rest of us is simply to simple for them to understand.

When you talk about non-violence you're responded to with a smug chuckle and promptly disregarded as unimportant. However, people who cannot see themselves in the mirror of society are forced to think in terms of morally superiority or otherwise...well, then they have to admit they are no different than me and you.

[anonymous010]

I agree with the OWS movement, but if they are drumming into the night, just out of courtesy for other human beings, they should stop at around 8 pm. They can remain in their tent cities and protest all day if they wish, but at night, they should quiet down.

[andrew0111]

Who cares about the neighbors. Most of the idiots support these park defacators! Let them sleep in what they've made.

[2happy2ride]

Let's see, it stinks, it's noisy, their is no leadership, they want something they just haven't figured anything out yet, their occupation is a burden to many productive people...hmmm what does this sound like.
That's right the current administration.

[Harden_Tar]

The .00001% is now ticking off the rest of the country.

[hotpoet]

Meanwhile, this is the police state we live in--

veteran shot in head at oakland protest

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/8851218/Veteran-injured-by-police-at-Occupy-Oakland.html

I find this far more offensive then protestors gathering to in our public parks...

[jb11]

give me a freaking break, you've got 100 commies and homeless people trespassing on private property, throw them in jail. But 10000 people show up to a Tea Party Rally, and they try to tell us that the movement is made up. these fleabaggers are a bunch of losers that want free stuff, plain and simple.

[Jade_River]

Protests are not supposed to be Dancing with the Stars that you can turn off when you decide you no longer like the performers. If these people are aggravating you do something about it, like withdrawing your money from the large banks and/or Wall Street institutions. Many of the people in the streets have put up with the hardships created by this rigged financial systems, many for many years, so you neighbors will get little support from me for your inconvenience of a few weeks.

[askagain]

Whoever heard of a permanent protest. These people are free to make their point and go home. They do not have the right to create noise, trash, and inconvenience for other people day after day.

[gekkobear]

So if you're annoying enough, keeping me awake every night, destroying property, etc I should cave to your demands?

Interesting, I thought the plan was a protest; not extortion of the populace to get your way.

Nice city there, shame if anything should happen to it... give us everything we want and maybe it won't.

I guess if you're acting like a Mob you should go ahead and use Mob Mentality... Capone would approve, once you've made the populace fearful of what you could do, then you can demand and extort from them.

But is the Mafia really the 99%?