Cops Watch as Squat Demolitions Begin
| Five people were arrested after an August 13 raid and eviction of three of the remaining 13th Street squats by hundreds of riot cops. Three occupied buildings at 535, 537 and 539 East 13th Street were evicted at dawn during a heavy rainstorm, despite resistance by determined squatters and their neighborhood supporters. The dawn raid had been expected by squatters in the aftermath of a negative decision by the New York State Appellate Division handed down on August 8. Though the city was aware of the court's decision, no one saw fit to notify the squatters' attorneys Jackie Bukowski and Stanley Cohen. Squatters on 13th Street found out about the decision when news crews from NBC-TV and the New York Times appeared, asking how it felt to lose the case. The Appellate Division reversed an injunction issued by New York State Supreme Court Judge Elliot Wilk that prevented the city from evicting the squats, pending the outcome of a civil lawsuit against the city by the squatters. The decision does not preclude the squatters from getting a trial by jury on the merits of their case against the city, but it did allow the city of New York to evict the squatters at will, pending further legal action by the squatters. [See SHADOWs #34, 36, 37 +38 for more--Ed.] | Without officially notifying the squatters or their attorneys, the city moved on the 13th Street squats only five days after the decision. The early morning evictions came without warning as hundreds of riot cops mobilized near the Con Edison plant on 14th Street near the FDR Drive. Cars were quickly towed from 13th Street by NYPD tow trucks as riot cops set up a staging area at 13th Street and Avenue B at 3:00am. Squat defenders quickly arrived on the scene. Some confronted the cops as others helped move squatters' belongings to safety. An attempt to topple scaffolding erected by the city in front of two previously-evicted buildings succeeded in only getting one beam pulled down as phalanxes of 75-80 cops stormed the block and pushed a few dozen squatter supporters west onto Avenue A. An armored personnel carrier stood by on 13th Street while overhead, a police helicopter flew perilously close to rooftops. Unlike the first eviction of two squats on 13th Street (541 + 545) in May 1995, when a stand-off between squatters and cops lasted for more than six hours, this time cops moved swiftly. Many of them were cadets recruited from the police academy on 21st Street. During the raid, police commanders seemed to have a difficult time controlling their inexperienced charges. They |
| could be heard barking orders repeatedly to get the cadets to maintain a straight line and prevent them from running after retreating protestors. After being pushed to Avenue A, people marched to Avenue B and a rock smashed the front door window of the Christodora House (the hated symbol of the yuppie invasion on the Lower East Side). When cops chased them, people ran in all directions, including through Tompkins Square Park, which was still closed. Cops arrested two people caught in the park and one for the Christodora window. The three arrested were charged with "Criminal Mischief," "Resisting Arrest," and "Trespassing." Two men evicted from 539 East 13th Street were accused of pouring gasoline on cops and possessing M80 firecrackers. They were charged with "Attempted Assault," "Reckless Endangerment," "Criminal Possession of a Weapon," and "Obstructing Governmental Administration." One squatter was barricaded in his room so well that cops had to break in from underneath his floor. After checking the identification of everyone in the evicted buildings, cops released all but those without ID. | SQUATS GUTTED Immediately upon entering the 13th Street buildings, contractors hired by HPD (Department of Housing, Preservation and Development) threw away squatters' belongings and personal ef- fects that weren't carted away by HPD earlier, and then began interior demoli- tions, gutting the buildings in order to prevent any reoccupancy by the squatters, whether or not they later win in court. A squatter named Kirk told the SHADOW that he took some of his stuff out of his building at 4:30am, but then cops refused to allow him to return to get the rest, which he was told was taken away somewhere by HPD crews. As the day wore on, cops continued their blockade of 13th Street at Avenues A + B as HPD crews swarmed over the squat buildings like maggots on dead meat, destroying the twelve years of rehabilitation accomplished through squatter blood, sweat and money. HPD slimeball and Inspector Clouseau lookalike Peter Cantillo was observed overseeing the HPD crews, as he has done at countless other evictions and building thefts. [See SHADOW #16 on the Bronx Squat Evictions--Ed.] As HPD's destruction crews went to work, they tossed tons |
| of debris from open windows without required chutes, causing lead dust, asbestos and dirt to fill the air surrounding the squat buildings. Several neighbors called city agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), but no one would respond to their complaints. Within the week, the demolitions were finished, the buildings were sealed and a brand new sign on the scaffolding in front of 541 East 13th Street was posted reading: "Affordable Housing For New Yorkers" with Mayor Rudy Giuliani's name at the bottom. The city wants to hand the five buildings to Lower East Side Coalition Housing Development (LESCHD), a real estate development group controlled by City Councilman Antonio PagĀĀn, known for his support of landlords and real estate interests and his hatred of rent-controlled and stabilized tenants, the homeless, and squatters. LESCHD is seeking to convert the buildings into 41 units of "low-income" housing at a cost of $4 million. After approximately ten years of "managing" the properties, ownership would revert to Pagan's group, who could then charge market rate rents to tenants, who would no longer be "low-income." [See SHADOWs #34, 35, 36, 37 + 38 for more..Ed.] | By contrast, the 13th Street squatters were able to house more than twice the number of people LESCHD claims it will house, ranging from zero to low income, and rehab the buildings, all at no cost to the city or any federal agency. Squatters and neighborhood housing activists wonder if the money for LESCHD to renovate the buildings for their privatization scam will actually be available. The prevailing suspicion is that the buildings will sit for years without any activity, until they deteriorate to the point where demolition may be necessary. Meanwhile, the buildings remain sealed and uninhabitable while the 13th Street squatters who weren't fortunate enough to find space with friends, family or in other squats are now homeless. In what was seen as an intimidation tactic, just hours after the 13th Street evictions, several fire trucks and HPD officials arrived at a long time squat on East 7th Street to announce a surprise fire inspection. Following standard procedure, the squatters refused entry to the HPD and welcomed the Fire Department. After a satisfactory walkthrough, during which the FD confiscated a propane tank, they all left without incident. |
| Voting 4-1 against the squatters' claim of Adverse Possession, the Appellate Division decided that the squatters' possession of the 13th Street buildings was not continuous since the buildings had been sealed on several occasions by the city and that at times, some of the apartments in the buildings had been vacant, even if only temporarily. Squatter attorney Stanley Cohen says that, in a way, the Appellate Division decision is a victory, not a defeat. He told the SHADOW: "The Appellate Division held by virtue of their ruling that Adverse Possession is an appropriate remedy, an appropriate right for squatters in these types of situations. They merely held that they believed they didn't have at this point enough evidence to justify a preliminary injunction stopping the city from evicting squatters from the buildings." Despite the setback caused by the evictions, the squatters say they are not done fighting the city for the return of their buildings. Cohen told the SHADOW that he expects to go to trial in the spring and prove the squatters' case. He said: "The trial will continue, we have additional opportunity to develop further evidence which will support our claim that the squatters own the buildings...A year from now, a jury of New York | citizens, having heard all the evidence, may very well decide that the squatters own these buildings, which may very well require the city to turn over fully-renovated projects to the squatters, who are in fact the landlords." Beside the ongoing case in Judge Wilk's court, Cohen and Bukowski say they will continue their lawsuit against the city of New York, despite the August 13 eviction. Cohen told the SHADOW that he plans to sue the city for $20 million in damages as compensation for the work done on the buildings by the squatters over the past decade. Cohen says, "we are going to amend our complaint and allege a violation of the squatters' civil rights, charging the city with perjury, conspiracy to deny squatters their rights, and seeking additional damages as well...that the squatters need to be repaid for the effort put into their buildings for years with the city's knowledge, approvable and at their behest. We're prepared to proceed to trial this spring." Meanwhile, squatters and their supporters are planning to continue street demonstrations and protests in and around Tompkins Square Park. Updates on times and places are being broadcast regularly on Steal This Radio, the Lower East Side's pirate radio station, at 88.7 FM. |
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