Occupiers retook Zuccotti Park in New York City last night and began a slow-building dispute with police that ended with scores of protesters carted off in handcuffs, the New York Times reports. Police initially allowed protesters to enter the park in return for two little girls in a small tent being removed. Soon hundreds of Occupiers poured in, reopening a meeting on a ledge cordoned off by police tape, and rebuffing orders from security guards to step down. “Whose year? Our year!” the protesters chanted.
Police officers encroached in stages, carrying out one protester at 10:30pm and battling with others 20 minutes later over barricades surrounding the park. After midnight, officers simply pushed out the remaining protesters (and repeatedly shoved a credentialed news photographer out of the way). Ousted, the Occupiers marched through Soho and into the East Village, where police surrounded about 50 protesters and "arrested most of them,” one marcher said. (More Wall Street protests stories.)