Mayor Bloomberg finally decided to wipe Zuccotti Park clean after learning about a rancid outbreak of scabies, lice and lung ailments among protesters — and most importantly because his reputation was taking a beating, insiders told The Post.
“He knew he was being perceived as being very weak,” said a source who was briefed on Bloomberg’s decision to finally break down the Occupy Wall Street encampment.
Hizzoner hit his breaking point after he was contrasted to the liberal mayors of Oakland and Denver — who quickly cracked down on OWS protesters — and critics compared his inaction to the failings of former Mayor David Dinkins.
And it was about to get worse.
Bloomberg would have looked even weaker if he didn’t thwart an OWS threat to storm the New York Stock Exchange, a massive action that was planned for tomorrow, multiple sources said.
“His Wall Street friends wouldn’t stand for it,” one source said.
The OWS eviction was actually planned for weeks — but it was only on Sunday that Bloomberg finally decided to pull the trigger, during a secret meeting at Gracie Mansion with Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, Fire Commission Sal Cassano, Deputy Mayor Cas Holloway and Corporation Counsel Michael Cardozo, sources said.
The decision was kept under wraps for more than 24 hours — even the cops called to assemble Monday night between the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges were initially told it was for a drill.
Raiding the Zuccotti camp under the cover of night was done so cops would encounter “the smallest number of people in the park,” Kelly said yesterday.
An administration source insisted that Bloomberg gave the go-ahead to roust the protesters because of “an accumulation of things” — including concerns that the park became a firetrap and that protesters were planning to build wooden structures to prepare for winter.
But sources familiar with Bloomberg’s decision said he also was concerned with public health.
Scabies and lice recently cropped up among those sleeping in Zuccotti Park — and there were concerns that the infestations would grow even worse, said a law-enforcement source.
There also was an increasing numbers of lung ailments caused by constant smoking and the chilly nighttime temperatures, medics who worked on the scene confirmed.
And Hizzoner didn’t like being called out by former Mayor Rudy Giuliani for his inactivity.
A couple of weeks ago, Giuliani said that he would never have tolerated people sleeping in the park and that the city should kick the protesters out.
Bloomberg also was being compared to Dinkins for the ex-mayor’s botched handling of the Crown Heights riots in 1991 — when a black child was accidentally killed by the driver of a local Hasidic leader, and an innocent Orthodox Jewish student was subsequently stabbed to death.
“People were starting to compare [the Occupy Wall Street protests] to Crown Heights and David Dinkins,” a source said.
The mayor also was aware that Oakland Mayor Jean Quan was being lauded for acting against the Occupy Oakland movement and that Denver Mayor Michael Hancock was being praised for taking a hard line.
Even the business community — usually friendly to the mayor — came down on Bloomberg.
One downtown property landlord told the mayor that his tenants had grown weary of the protests and were threatening to break their leases and move out.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg was not one of the 11 US mayors who participated in a conference call on the protests days before several cities cracked down, a spokesman said.
(Source: NY Post)
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One Response
Mayor Bloomberg cares what his friends think about him and this is the only reason why he acted. Mayor Bloomberg couldn’t care less about the average new Yorkers who are fed up with these low life bums who are anarchist and just trying to stir a riot in Manhattan. The OWS people are sick people who would just love to destroy evrything and anything but they don’t have the numbers yet. The OWS openly admit that their goal is to over take streets and cause havoc in the future. And this idiot of a Mayor says it’s their first ammendment right to do so! What a weak Mayor. Bloomberg is becoming another Dinkins and Bloomberg can’t manage anything anymore.
The difference between Bloomberg and Giuliani is, Bloomberg is a one man show, as he admitted in his press conference he made the final decision to go into the park and not Ray Kelly who wanted to end this a long time ago. Giuliani cared about what is right for New York and didn’t have to have stupid secret meetings to discuss what to do and didn’t worry about threats of lawsuits because he cared what was RIGHT at the time.Mayor Giuliani will still go down as the best mayor New York ever had. Bloomberg is just a typical liberal hack.