Constitutional Rights Lawyer Michael Ratner: Failed Occupy Wall Street Evacuation Order is Illegal

From Democracy Now!:

"Speaking from Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan, attorney Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights says New York City’s efforts to displace Occupy Wall Street protesters in order to clean the park violates their First Amendment rights and would have led to a major confrontation. "Apart from the illegality of it, it was just too massive," Ratner says. "It would have been a bloodbath. The idea that they were going to come in here when there were thousands of people all over the place, union people everywhere, they could not have successfully closed this park down... It’s too big now. This park is becoming a permanent feature of the next generation of protests." Ratner was a co-signer of a letter sent last night from the Occupy Wall Street Legal Working Group to Brookfield Properties, who must maintain the private park for public use, that claimed the enforcement action it requested to New York City in order to clean the park raised serious First Amendment and other legal concerns, and warned that police action in the park without a prior court order would be unconstitutional and unlawful. We also speak with an Occupy Wall Street organizer about plans for a global day of action tomorrow, October 15, called 'United for #GlobalChange.' "