Letter to Zuccotti Park Owner from #OccupyWallStreet Legal Working Group

[Hissyspit]

http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2011/10/13/letter-to-zuccotti-park-owner-from-occupywallstreet-legal-working-group/

Letter to Zuccotti Park Owner from #OccupyWallStreet Legal Working Group

The following is a letter from the Liberty Park Working Group to the CEO of Brookfield Properties informing the CEO that using the police to “evict” occupiers from Zuccotti Park early in the morning on October 14 raises First Amendment and other legal concerns. It asserts the police action against the occupiers requires “prior court approval.”

- snip -

BY FAX TO 212-417-7272

Richard B. Clark
Chief Executive Officer
Brookfield Office Properties
Brookfield Global Real Estate
Three World Financial Center
New York, NY 10281-1021

Dear Mr. Clark:

Attorneys associated with the National Lawyers-Guild-New York City Chapter have been asked to represent the Sanitation Working Group. One of several autonomous working groups formed and operated by people who have been occupying Liberty Park. We are in receipt of a copy of your letter to New York City Police Department Commissioner Raymond Kelly requesting police intervention and outlining your concerns about cleaning and maintenance of Liberty Park.

The enforcement action you are requesting raises serious First Amendment and other legal concerns. Under the guise of cleaning the Park you are threatening fundamental constitutional rights. There is no basis in the law for your request for police intervention, nor have you cited any. Such police action without a prior court order would be unconstitutional and unlawful.

The Sanitation Working Group has been addressing the concerns in your letter all along. Beyond that, it has committed itself to carrying out a thorough and complete cleaning and to addressing all of the issues related to sanitation raised in your letter. The Working Group welcomes representatives of Brookfield to view the cleaning process and its results.

Our investigation has revealed that no permanent structures have been erected within the Park, nor have any actions been taken to damage the Park, its plantings or other amenities. Your letter raises concerns about potential water infiltration of the Park’s underground lighting and electrical hazards. However, based on a visual inspection recently conducted by our clients, there has been no damage to the lenses covering the underground lighting and thus there is no risk of water infiltration. Additionally, it is our understanding that there has been no electricity running in said fixtures for weeks now. Therefore, there is no risk of electrical hazard.

The Working Group will continue to bag and haul trash on a tight schedule. Trash has consistently been bagged and hauled to established collection points and recycling rules have been bagged and hauled to established collection points and recycling rules have been strictly adhered to. The Working Group has been using primarily 50 gallon, 3 mil. thickness contractor bags. Additionally, the Working Group typically has had between one and fifteen people sweeping the Park with brooms at any given time.

The Sanitation Working Group has informed us that the following activities are being carried out to further address these issues.

1.) All hard surfaces within the Park are being scrubbed and/or polished
2.) Garbage removal will be stepped up
3.) Every item resting on the ground will be removed to allow for thorough cleaning; and
4.) Power washing will be employed where appropriate or possible.

Our clients are willing to sit down with you to resolve any of your concerns. They want to negotiate in good faith. Our clients agree to address any reasonable issues of sanitation safety and access and would like to prevent these issues from creating a pretext for police action in violation of our client’s First Amendment rights to utilize the Park. If you nonetheless decide to proceed with your request for police action, prior court approval is required.

Please feel free to call Ms. Ratner Kunstler at 917-331-8012 or Mr. Oliver at 646-246-3495 to discuss these matters. We look forward to hearing from you this evening.

Very truly yours,

Margaret Ratner Kunstler
Gideon Orion Oliver
Yetta G. Kurland
Sarah Kunstler
Martin R. Stolar
Bruce K. Bentley
Jano Marton
Michael Ratner

[ArcticFox]

1. Time to branch out

Whether you hold that park or not, you all need to set up another location. Take that city park by park.

[EFerrari]

2. I don't think so. They need to hold their ground.

It's nice to see the Kuntsler name on this document.

ETA: I think Micheal Ratner is the head of the CCR.

[JDPriestly]

7. The Ratner and Kunstler names should have some effect.

[tomg]

8. Keeping up the family tradition nt

[EFerrari]

9. Amy has Ratner on this morning talking about this attempted eviction.

:)

[2banon]

24. Yep, Micheal Ratner is the head.. he's been Amy's atty for several years..

assisted her in setting up Democracy Now as independent radio/tv producer so that no corporation OR NON PROFIT (such as Pacifica Radio) able to pressure undue influence on programming content and other aspects of the show. So glad Ratner was there to help navigate the very complicated path to independence.

On a side note, I'm concerned that Amy never takes a vacation, and does not seem to be grooming anyone to take her place in the event of emergency absence. Juan's postition as a sub simply isn't sustainable. DN! has been on the air since 1996. 15 Years by my math, with not a single vacation or even sick time out, is just a bit beyond the pale. I don't get what she's doing. She simply cannot sustain this for much longer without a break, it just isn't healthy or rational.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

3. Laudable effort, but probably negligible impact on Brookfield

It will however encourage more demonstrators to stay the course.

[h2ebits]

4. This letter needs to be created for every city.

Denver is "cleaning-up" tonight and I noted that several other cities are using the same tactic to remove protesters. We need a legal team to step in and help us all over the US.

[geek tragedy]

5. The law is not on OWS's side.

Lawyers aren't going to stop the NYPD from that eviction. If they had a case, they'd have gotten an injunction.

[Roy Rolling]

12. respectfully beg to differ....

Requesting the NYPD be used as a private police force to enforce whatever allegations a private citizen/corporation alleges is inappropriate and perhaps illegal.

Turn it around, if a nightclub wants to keep customers from dropping paper on their premises they must hire their own security staff and not request the NYPD come over whenever they suspect someone is littering.

Of course, I'm sure there are mountains of regulations involved and this is just a guess on my part---which is why the protesters had an attorney write the letter and not an amateur like me. :hippie:

[SpartanDem]

13. There nothing illegal about using NYPD

if a business ask you to leave their property they and you refuse they can call the cops on you.

[vets74]

21. Law can be played any number of ways. Injunction, no-no-no.

The Occupy people have a problem establishing standing. Also, what would be the basis for their request ?

It's private property. Not abandoned private property like golf balls in a pond.

(Not public property, privately maintained.)

The owners, Brookfield Properties, are looking at an existing occupation that could plausibly-temporarily be grandfathered in versus a proposed "Rules Change."

They really, really don't want to lose a low-level decision on that one. Judges can do anything they want down at the bottom. Reversal later wouldn't mean a damn thing -- the damage goes straight into the history books.

OWS can turn out 5,000, maybe 10,000 people ready to be savaged by NYPD for "King Bloomberg."

The poor bastards at this BP lose anything ever in court, that goes to 100,000 people.

-----------------

I effin' love it.

I also miss Amy Winehouse. She's dead because her stage people were too stupid/lazy/ignorant to make a set of cue cards for her. (Cocaine wastes memory, at least till the micro-stroke caries clean out. She didn't get the 5 years it takes for substantial improvement.)

Let's hope the OWS legal geniuses know to vary their tactics, plus doing up the right cue cards for their Amys.

[Fire Walk With Me]

6. K&R!

[femrap]

10. I feel more confident that

the OWS citizens will take better care of the park than the Corporates would.

OWS is recycling...doubt the Corporates would do that.

Stay in the Park...Stand tall against the Greed.

[ooglymoogly]

11. There is a big fly in the governments actions or planned actions

and that is the support of the public at large, including senators and house members. 99% is a dangerous number for the oligarchs and is why they are poking around; now gingerly, searching for a weakness, a fissure to insert themselves without notice so large it could cripple them irreparably.

[certainot]

14. limbaugh is naming names and applying the pressure of millions of teabagger/dittoheads

there are 1000 radio stations working together locally and nationally.

limbaugh and then hannity and then all the main local talkers will be getting programming scripts and talking points from the think tanks and part of that programming, when they aren't painting and insulting the protestors, will be to pressure the park owner.

in denver the local RW blowhards applied similar pressure on gov hickenlooper.

until the left finally starts shaming those stations and their sponsors and sports teams that endorse them all progressive efforts will be harder than they need to be..

[AikidoSoul]

15. This is a very good move. I'm very heartened by this letter.

It is excellent that these people are acting responsibly by cleaning and "polishing" the park.

This whole movement makes me want to cry with joy on a regular basis. And I do.... regularly.

[thecrow]

16. K&R

[renate]

17. am I wrong in thinking that the owners of the park are actually being good sports about this?

If it's private property, surely they could have the protesters kicked out if they wanted to, right?

I'm just confused because I see threads suggesting that sanitation is just a sorry excuse to boot the protesters out, but I wouldn't have thought owners of private property would need any excuse at all if they didn't want the people there.

[Hissyspit]

18. Well, yes, you are sort of wrong. It is privately maintained PUBLIC space.

Laws in the 1960s allowed exemptions for building taller and with less sunlight access (set back) if public spaces were offered up, so Brookfield has a PUBLIC obligation here. Bloomberg's wife is on the board. It is not entirely clear their motivations.

[ooglymoogly]

19. They are keeping space on both sides of their faces to whistle

through should things go horribly wrong.

[vets74]

22. Essentially, NYC was given an easement. Allowing public use.

That was part of a deal involving other properties.

BP put in $8,000,000.

Joie de Vivre was part of that deal.

[a2liberal]

20. I sincerely hope that this is retyped-by-hand copy

with the several significant mistakes introduced by the transcribers. Otherwise, all those mistakes reflect poorly on OWS.

[Beartracks]

23. My thoughts, too. So much rides on perception.

Typos reflect poorly on resume's, protest signs, and correspondence alike. Innocent mistakes create a perception of lowered credibility, and people's perception IS their reality.

============================