The police closed down Tompkins Square Park tonight after a window of a 7-Eleven was smashed, seemingly by protesters.
Around 9:20 p.m., Tim Pool, a livecaster of Occupy Wall Street events, filmed police cars blocking off Tompkins Square Park. In the video embedded above, Mr. Pool reports hearing that, after the Anarchist Book Fair earlier today, a “black bloc” formed and “there was a lot of property destruction, a few windows broken. We heard a few people tried to smash some Starbucks windows and ‘some Mafioso-looking guys came out with big poles and started swinging them.’”
In the video, witnesses say protesters went from Astor Place to Tompkins Square Park, where they blended into the crowd after police cars pulled up. EV Grieve posted a photo of the smashed window of the 7-Eleven on St. Marks Place. The photo was originally tweeted by @Ewingweb, who wrote, “About 50 ppl dressed in black bashing windows, attacking 7-11 sign, chanting ‘nypd go to hell.’”
Christopher Robbins, a reporter for Gothamist, tweeted that police blocked off East Sixth Street between Avenues A and B, where witnesses told him a party for the Anarchist Book Fair took place at the Sixth Street Community Center.
We’ll have more news as it becomes available. If you saw anything, e-mail us, post your photos to our Flickr pool, or tell us about it in the comments.
Update | 12:25 a.m. @Mcompost, a self-described anarchist legal worker, tweeted from the scene, describing the march as a “very loosely organized anti-police protest” of about 60 people. He witnessed bottles flying – “These folks are making oo look like a bunch of hippies! so many bottles” – and said the march ended abruptly: “And poof, they’re gone! Crowd split up, presumably to regroup elsewhere.”
Update | 10:30 a.m. Gothamist now reports that two people were arrested outside of the Sixth Street Community Center after a complaint of bottles being thrown from the roof. The degree to which last night’s events were tied to Occupy Wall Street remains uncertain, but Ray’s Candy Store tweets that Occupy fries are no more: “#OWS – Your actions tonight in the #EastVillage were abhorrent,” the soda fountain wrote in one tweet, using stronger language in others.
Update | 6:25 p.m. Two Officers Injured During Anarchist Attack on Starbucks
