Demand to Return Generators to Liberty Park #OWS

There are many facets of what is occurring in the Occupy Wall Street movement. Events are moving quickly. Whether you are outraged by the failure of the government to prosecute bankers over the economic destruction, outraged by the destruction of American jobs by corporations, or, angry about predatory student loans which are financially burying our young people, the treatment of the protesters is of paramount concern to all of us. Their actions represent one of our core Freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution: Freedom of Assembly.

Many are sympathetic to the core demands which are not uniformly agreed upon, but which are essential to some of the principles that seem to get people's blood boiling. Separate from the principles and goals (immediate and distant), is the treatment that the protesters have had to endure. Not the least of which, is the beginning of some fairly nasty weather.

Below is a copy of a letter sent that underscores what seems to be duplicitous treatment by the City, towards the protesters:

Liberty Park Legal Working Group
c/o 299 Broadway, Suite 806 New York, NY 10007-1901
October 29, 2011
BY FACSIMILE TO (718) 999-1486
Fire Department of the City of New York Attn: Commissioner Salvatore Cassano
Re: Demand to Return Generators Dear Commissioner Cassano:

We are attorneys and legal workers associated with the New York City
Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild. We represent the owners of
generators seized on October 28, 2011 from Liberty Park by the Fire
Department of the City of New York (“FDNY”) and the New York City
Police Department between 7:30 and 8:30AM. Attached hereto are FDNY
Notices of Confiscation of Material identifying Robert McDermott as
the FDNY member who transported the confiscated material to Randall’s
Island. The “Notices of Confiscation” provide no justification, legal
or otherwise, for the seizures. Nor do they adequately describe the
seized materials, nor provide information as to how the owners may get
the property back.

Contrary to the Mayor’s public justifications, the seizures were not
motivated by health or safety concerns. Instead, it appears the City
is trying to end the occupation illegally by creating a public health
risk. Without articulating any identifiable hazard posed by the
generators, the City removed a source of heat for hundreds of people
one day before the correctly predicted onset of freezing temperatures
and snow. Moreover, the FDNY deviated from its normal procedure of
issuing a notice of violation and allowing for corrective action. The
City’s removal of the generators is nothing more than a pretext for
violating the First Amendment rights of the Liberty Park occupiers by
literally freezing them out.

We therefore demand the immediate return of the illegally seized
property. Please contact Mr. Oliver at 646 263 3495 to arrange for
their return.

Very truly yours,

Gideon Orion Oliver Yetta G. Kurland Margaret Ratner Kunstler Robert J. Boyle Joel R. Kupferman Wylie Stecklow Allana Golovko-Rosen Daniel Alterman
Alan Levine