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Subscribe to RSSThe long standing Occupy protest outside London's St Paul's Cathedral has ended with an eviction. ITV's Paul Brand reports.
LONDON -- Police and bailiffs worked through the night and into the early hours of Tuesday morning to evict protesters from the Occupy London encampment beside the city's landmark St Paul's Cathedral.
There were around 20 arrests, according to breakingnews.com editor David Wyllie, who was on the scene and posting updates on Twitter.
But there was no violent resistance as the eviction went on, with officials quickly clearing debris on the ground to prevent them from being used as weapons. Public access was restricted prior to the operation and a number of local roads were closed, Wyllie reported.
Tents were unceremoniously thrown into large trash cans and crushed as the owners looked on, he said. Protesters said vanloads of police arrived at the site to carry out the eviction.
The local authority, the City of London Corporation, confirmed the eviction was under way by bailiffs, backed by police.
The urban camp had been set up as part of an international movement inspired by the U.S. Occupy Wall Street against what the activists say is corporate greed and economic inequality. Protesters had been camped outside the 300-year-old church since October.
The eviction comes months after authorities dismantled Occupy encampments in many U.S. cities
Movement not over
BBC correspondent Jeremy Cooke reported from the scene that the mood was largely peaceful early on.
"This has always been a peaceful process, and it has never looked like (it was) turning into anything other than that," said poet and protester Catherine Brogan, according to The Guardian.
Demonstrators said the end of the camp would not mean the end of the Occupy movement.
Dylan Martinez / Reuters
A bailiff removes a tent from Occupy protesters encampment in front of St Paul's Cathedral in London early Tuesday morning. The eviction started just after midnight, carrying out a court order after protesters lost an appeal.
"It's only tents and materials the injunction applies to so I think some protesters will be back here tomorrow," Gary Sherborne told The Associated Press.
Later, the mood turned tense as police closed in on a group of remaining protesters who had chained themselves to some wooden pallets to make a "last stand," witnesses on The Guardian live stream and Wyllie reported.
Protesters were dragged from the platforms and several key protesters leading the chants were restrained by officers holding onto each limb.
Police removed one activist from a tree overlooking the site.
Roads opened to traffic shortly before 5 a.m. (12 a.m. ET) as local authority workers hosed down the site removing the last traces of the protesters from the area.
Last week a court rejected an Occupy London challenge to an eviction order, ruling that the right to protest did not justify a semi-permanent camp on a public pathway.
"We regret that it has come to this but the High Court Judgment speaks for itself and the Court of Appeal has confirmed that Judgment," said a press release from the City of London Corporation.
"The City of London Corporation is ensuring vulnerable people are being helped and supported to find appropriate accommodation in partnership with Broadway, a charity for the homeless," it said.
Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world
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Breakingnews.com's David Wyllie and The Associated Press contributed to this report. (Breakingnews.com is a sister site to msnbc.com.)
Leave a Comment:
Typical loser liberal- only whines and gripes but offers no solutions or does anything to improve their life or the world around them. A perfect example, ask any liberal and they will tell you that they fervently believe in global warming. Then ask them what changes they've made in their life to lessen their carbon footprint and they look at you like you have two heads.
What part makes no sense was it suppose to make sense. Does trickle down jobs make sense..SURE it does when you support a fool. You believe deregulation is good so you are a money hungry fool. Regulation is the only way to save our sovereignity do you think we can retire without regulating ? If you think we can have social security without regulating our assets first you are nuts.
Capitalist Bush/republican congress 5% average unemployment, $230 billion average deficits
Socialist Obama/democrat congress 9% average unemployment, $1.3 trillion average deficits
You tell me who does the better job! It is not 5% unemployment that kills the middle class, it's 9% that does.
And thanks to Bush I was able to retire at 55 with a nice portfolio.
Is your answer to the ows just to ignore them to dismiss them as all the negative and degrading people that most of these posts have portrayed them as. As smart as you think you are you're not showing it, look at Libiya, Syria, Egypt just to name a few they thought that they could do the same to their people too. Yeah some of you have got it good now and some of you are just dumb ass hangers on who gets nothing out of the deal but to get to hate but how long will it last sooner or later the masses of people that you are now disinfranchising will rise up and crush you. So enjoy yourselves for now.
I'm sure mother nature will come up with some solution to the problem. The way these people live I'm suprised there has not been an outbreak of some kind of desease yet.
It is government power that is corrupting our society. The only ones fighting this are the Tea Party, they make their voices heard and show up at the ballot box without disrupting the lives of the average American. If you want change, support them.
I am so scared that trash like Occutards will rise up!
Hell, I rise up every morning and go to work. You Occutards should try that!
I like the rich, they give me something to strive for, a goal. My energy is not in complaining and grumbling about a situation, but doing something to better my own, which I have. It takes patience, imagination, ingenuity, and faith. If things go as planned I will be one of the 1%er's.
Good luck I hope if you get there you get to stay.
Hey, If I get there I'll take you with me. Sometimes people just need a helping hand.
Jack-O, you expressed on of the few intelligent thoughts displayed in this forum..BRAVO!!! I applaud your goals, and your outlook on being an achiever and not a "woe is me" whiner.
Only the 'Bailiffs/Police and the 'City of London Corporation' have been violent, same as the US. Reads like scene from George Orwell's 1984! 700+ OWS protestors arrested, probably ALL added to the T-SS no-fly lists. ZERO have gone to jail in ANY country for the US Dollar/Euro Dollar middle class CRASH and BURN who 'don't get no respect' and are in the middle of a depression, with MSM calling it a recession and touting 'recovery' based on part-time jobs offering 1980 wages and 2012 prices going into hyper inflation, the result of a depression. TODAY, the Stock Market is at 13000+ ? What are they backing that with? Profits that have taken the very food off of the non-wealthy across the world.
All +++ for the City of London Corporation, Bloombergs NYC, bad bad bad for the 99% since those profits are being hoarded in bank accounts everywhere but the US.
They do not get what our forefathers put in place to protect them with , God for bid. LOL..You will need to hit the reset button sooner or later that is a gimmie. Slow growth and accountability and protectionism is old school logic in a NWO ! You want a NWO then you like deregulation and globalization and care nothing about a middle class existing... I think this is where they take you over without firing a shot.
Ironically enough OWS is suing the Oakland POlice Deptment. I wonder if they get a settlement if they'll be out on the streets afterwards?
http://www.alternet.org/occupywallst/153085/police_being_sued_for_violent_crackdown_on_occupy_oakland/
Who owns the FED and can we get the real numbers. ? Do we want the fed bailing out Greece with our taxes ? Can we afford to police the world and bail it out too. Is America GOD ? Print till we default is the answer more money to save us with is the answer . God will forgive our debt eventually.
You need to pay a little better attention to the news. America is not GOD, nor the world police. Coinsidering our financial constraints, we're sitting this one out. The Greeks are being bailed out by their European Union counterparts, specifically the Germans. Don't worry, our turn is coming. Our polititians are like the Greeks. You can't spend over 60% of your budget (most of which you don't have the money to pay for) on entitlement programs - specifically Social Security, Medicaid, Medicaid and various government mandated social programs. The Greeks are finally figuring out the price they have to pay. Will we?
I don't care who you think can do a better job they can't do their job if we do not regulate. The only thing they can do is vote to lift the ceiling this may be your first clue. Pork spenders.
the price we pay for democracy is going up.
The problem is, we don't live in a democracy, we live in a republic. Big difference, because we live in a republic a few liberals can hold up the whole process of correcting things.
OWS--organizing without substance
or, Obama's War on Success.
obamas war on success!!! I LOVE IT!!!! repeat it often!!!!!
p111
Hmmm, show me where their money goes, how much stays in the states and how much goes back to their home countries heh heh. Next, show me how much they cost American tax payers not only in social services but in crime issues as well LOL. Those are only part of the issues, seems to me your an idiot heh heh. I'll wait for an answer LOL
Btw p111, I'm amazed guys like you believe your own garbage LOL
Wrong headline!
It should have read,
"Worthless trash evicted from property!"
ok kids youve had your fun playing hippies - now dont make pests out of yourselves. Thank the kind indulgent governments where ever you happen to be for be so kind and indulgent with you. Time to go home , take a shower , get the neck tatoo removed, shave off those stinky dreads , thank mum for doing your laundry and in the am - go out and look for work
I love watching the OWS crowd get the snot beat out of them. Now that's just real good fun!
Anonymous is dragging there feet in there Attacks on the Political Corruption and Police violence , Where are they ???..This contry is in dire need of someone to punish the elete and Political Corrupt ...