Daniel Maurer Medics treat the motorcycle accident victim.

Two incidents marred New Year’s celebrations in the East Village during today’s early morning hours. At Second Avenue and 13th Street, around 3 a.m., dozens of police officers moved to detain Occupy Wall Street protesters as helicopters circled over the neighborhood; about an hour later at 12th Street between Avenues A and B, a man was struck by a motorcycle and taken to the hospital in critical condition.

The motorcycle accident occurred around 4:20 a.m. When The Local arrived on the scene, a man lay facedown, bleeding onto the street, having been struck by a BMW with Maine plates as he crossed the street well away from the intersection at Avenue A. Paramedics transported him to Beth Israel Hospital, where the police said he arrived with severe head trauma and is currently in critical condition. The driver of the motorcycle, a 38-year-old male, is not suspected of criminality.

The earlier incident at Second Avenue and 13th Street occurred after protesters clashed with police at Zuccotti Park shortly before midnight. The Post reported that one officer was stabbed in the hand with a pair of scissors then, and City Room reported that just before 1:30 a.m., police officers entered the park to clear it of about 150 people, five of whom were led off in handcuffs. After a group marched north, 60 to 100 people, eyewitnesses told The Local, arrived at Second Avenue and East 13^th Street around 3 a.m. There, their progress was stopped by a wall of police officers.

Daniel Maurer Several police vehicles were stationed on East
Ninth Street.

Video footage by Tim Pool shows marchers chanting “Are we free to go?” A helmeted police officer warns the protesters that they are blocking the sidewalk and pedestrian traffic. In the livecast, Mr. Pool sums up the scene after being forced out of the crowd: “They set up a motorcade – a scootercade, I guess – and then told the protesters that they were obstructing a pedestrian roadway and they would have to disperse. Unfortunately for the protesters, the motorcade completely surrounded them and there was actually no way to disperse. When a few people asked how to get out, they were told to go to their left and when they did, they were actually grabbed and arrested. And then the police swarmed in.”

Two apparent arrests were caught on camera – one of a man that Mr. Pool said was a National Lawyers Guild observer. “The police told him to put his phone down,” says Mr. Pool on tape. “He then said, ‘What are you doing? What are you doing?’ as he was making a phone call and they arrested him.” Mr. Pool points out, during his broadcast, that some people were let go. The police could not provide a number of arrestees when The Local called earlier this morning.

A witness, Phineas Lunger, said he saw one man arrested after he ran onto the street toward police officers, ignoring demands to “stop resisting.”

The actress Ellen Barkin wrote on Twitter about “police making random arrests of non protesters” at 13th Street and Sixth Avenue, and then tweeted: “Just threatened on my street by NYPD,cop shoved me,both hands,onto sidewalk..Is it a crime 2 stand in the street in NY?WTF is going on here?” Sam Levinson, a director who was with Ms. Barkin, filmed the confrontation, as well as arrests on 13th Street and Fifth Avenue. Ryan Devereaux, a reporter for Democracy Now!, and Newyorkist also Tweeted about arrests in the area.

Barring breaking news, The Local will return to its regular coverage on Tuesday.