Crush Liberalism

Court to Occupy Wall Street miscreants: You can’t camp in Zucotti Park anymore!

Score a victory for public health and private property!  Details:

More:

A judge ruled Tuesday that the protesters could return to Zuccotti but could not set up camp with equipment that the city said created numerous hazards. Police raided the site early Tuesday morning and confiscated much of their camping gear.

…

Protesters were allowed back into Zuccotti Park Tuesday evening but were banned from bringing tents, tarps, generators and camping equipment after a judge sided with the city following a surprise overnight raid of the Occupy Wall Street headquarters.

“Individuals who attempt to enter the park carrying these items may be refused entry,” an NYPD chief bellowed through a bullhorn as several hundred demonstrators filed back into the plaza after a tumultuous day.

The key component of the ruling (PDF):

The parties dispute whether the First Amendment applies to the actions of the owner in enacting the rules. For purposes of this application, the Court assumes that the First Amendment applies to the owner of Zuccotti Park, thus obviating petitioners’ request for a hearing as to whether Zuccotti Park is traditional public forum, or a limited public forum. Assuming arguendo, that the owner’s maintenance of the space must not violate the First Amendment, the owner has the right to adopt reasonable rules that permit iUo maintain a clean, safe, publicly accessible space consonant with the responsibility it assumed to provide public access according to law.

The Court is mindful of movants’ First Amendment rights of freedom of speech and peaceable assembly. However, “[e]ven protected speech is not equally permissible in all places and at all times.” (Snyder v Phelps, 131 S Ct 1207, 1218 [2011], quoting Cornelius v NAACP Legal Defense
& Ed. Fund, Inc., 473 US 788, 799 [1985].) Here, movants have not demonstrated that the rules adopted by the owners of the property, concededly after the demonstrations began, are not reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions permitted under the First Amendment.

To the extent that City law prohibits the erection of structures, the use of gas or other combustible materials, and the accumulation of garbage and human waste in public places, enforcement of the law and the owner’s rules appears reasonable to permit the owner to maintain its space in a hygienic, safe, and lawful condition, and to prevent it from being liable by the City or others for violations of law, or in tort It also permits public access by those who live and work in the area who are the intended beneficiaries of this zoning bonus.

Contrary to what these smelly, disease-ridden, filthy, unemployable savages stated, you do NOT have a constitutional right to set up camp on private property and use it as a community commode.  Kudos to the judge for getting this right.

November 16, 2011 Posted by crushliberalism | moonbats, New York, Occupy Wall Street | 1 Comment