Police cleared City Hall Park across from New York City Hall of protesters who had been here day and night for about a month, seven people were arrested, the city police department told.
“New York City Police officers have ensured law and order. Seven people were arrested. There’s no one in the park at the moment. The situation is calm now”, – the agency’s interlocutor said.
Proponents of the June 23 Occupy City Hall rally gathered outside the city hall to demand that city authorities cut the police budget for the next fiscal year by at least a billion dollars and redirect funds to support the African-American community. The city’s next fiscal year budget is adopted on July 1, so the protesters initially planned to stay in the park by City Hall until at least June 30.
City officials reported on June 30 that they cut the police budget (which was regularly about six billion dollars) by one billion. However, some protesters continued to stay in City Hall Park until this morning.
According to media reports, the operation to clean up the park began at 4.00 local time.