Occupy Wall Street News Update of the Day: The NYPD may be attempting to undermine the Occupy Wall Street movement by employing an extremely shady tactic: Encouraging “lawbreakers and lowlifes” to link up with protesters at Zuccotti Park.
According the the New York Daily News, a physical line has been drawn between the pretenders and the honest-to-goodness demonstrators, with the “real” 99 Percenters occupying the east side of the park, and the “stragglers” setting up camp on the park’s west side.
“The west-side anarchists are in 70s-punk costumes,” reports the Daily News‘ Harry Siegel, “and to the extent that they have discernible politics, many of them would be more fairly described as nihilists.”
Siegel says that the freeloaders — who are mostly there to take advantage of the free food and supplies provided by legitimate activists — have been known to start fights and engage in open-air drug sales, to the detriment of the movement.
Two “drunks” Siegel spoke with claim they were “encouraged” by NYPD officers to “take [their illegal activities] to Zuccotti.” Members of the Community Affairs Working Group say they’ve heard similar accounts.
The New York Department of Correction has denied outright the rumor that it was sending newly released prisoners to Zuccotti Park, and an NYPD spokesman responded to the Daily News story by saying, simply, “it’s false.”
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