NYPD moves remaining Occupy City Hall protesters from City Hall park
NEW YORK CITY (WABC) -- A line of NYPD officers in riot gear pushed the remaining Occupy City Hall protesters out of a month-long encampment next to City Hall Wednesday morning.
Officers moved at 3:40 a.m., pushing about 70 remaining occupants -- a mix of protesters and homeless -- north on Centre Street to Foley Square, where they began to disperse.
Police say the people who were in the park got a 10-minute warning before they "left voluntarily," and officers then began to take down the makeshift tents and remnants of the encampment that started on June 23 as a protest for police reform.
At least seven people were arrested, and NewsCopter 7 was overhead and Eyewitness News cameras on the ground as two people were taken into custody.
One man appeared to have suffered a medical condition. He was taken away in an ambulance.
Charges against those arrested are pending.
Police say one officer was injured. He was struck by a brick.
The NYPD temporarily shut access to the Brooklyn Bridge during the action.
Later Wednesday night, protesters tried to push their way back into the encampment, but NYPD officers prevented them from moving in. No injuries or arrests were reported after the evening confrontation.
A city official says Mayor Bill de Blasio approved the operation, which has been long planned by the NYPD.
"Health and safety issues were growing," de Blasio said when asked about his decision to shut the encampment down.
The stated goal of the "Occupy City Hall" demonstration, a throwback to the Occupy Wall Street movement in 2011, was to cut at least $1 billion from the NYPD budget.
WATCH: Police push protesters back on June 30, 2020
After the City Council approved the reform, which de Blasio signed into law last week, organizers and many protesters left, leaving the encampment to consist of a large number of homeless people.
The de Blasio administration has long stated homeless encampments are no longer permitted and had been closely monitoring the encampment to determine if it still existed as some form of a protest. He said shelter services were offered to homeless people at the encampment.
RELATED: Mayor and New York City Council come up with plan for the future of policing
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