Occupy Wall Street: Protesters hail park cleaning delay

Protesters tell the BBC's Laura Trevelyan that the decision is a "great victory"

Anti-Wall Street protesters have been celebrating the last-minute decision to delay cleaning the New York City park where they are based.

Occupy Wall Street activists had said the plan to clean Zuccotti Park on Friday was a ploy to evict them.

As more demonstrators streamed into the green space, there were fears of a showdown with the owners and police.

Hundreds have camped in the park for weeks, with protests against corporate greed spreading to other US cities.

In the Colorado city of Denver on Friday, riot police arrested demonstrators as they removed their tents in Lincoln Park near the state Capitol.

Ten Occupy Seattle protesters were detained on Thursday when they ignored orders to leave their tents in the city's Westlake Park, said police.

'Be warned'
But the standoff in New York ended early on Friday as deputy mayor Cas Holloway released a statement from Zuccotti Park's owners, Brookfield Properties.
"They are postponing their scheduled cleaning of the park, and for the time being withdrawing their request from earlier in the week for police assistance during their cleaning operation," it said.

The statement said Brookfield hoped to "work out an arrangement with the protesters that will ensure the park remains clean, safe [and] available for public use".

The news prompted cheers from the demonstrators.

The BBC's Laura Trevelyan in New York says the police were standing around the outskirts of the protest and it may be that the authorities decided there were just too many people to be able to get them out in an orderly manner.

Activists had sent an email to supporters on Thursday asking them to join the group at 06:00 EDT (10:00 GMT) on Friday to "defend the occupation from eviction".

They said on a Facebook page: "Be warned, this is a tactic that [New York City Mayor Michael] Bloomberg has used to shut down protests in the past, and a tactic used recently in similar protests throughout Europe."

Representatives of Brookfield Properties distributed its cleaning notice on Thursday. Some were escorted by police.

The park regulations existed before the protests began but have not been enforced.

They include a prohibition on lying down on the ground or on benches, using sleeping bags or tarps, or the storage of personal property.

New York City councillors joined protesters at a news conference on Thursday evening, calling the effort to move the protesters a "ruse" backed by Mr Bloomberg.

Throughout the park, where protesters have camped since mid-September, big buckets were filled with brooms and mops.

As activists scrubbed the park on Thursday, some questioned the need to clean the space at all.

"This is the cleanest protest I've ever witnessed," Emilio Montilla, an unemployed teacher's assistant, told the Associated Press news agency. "We take care of ourselves. We're self-sufficient."

Bailey Bryant, 28, a Manhattan bank employee who visits the camp after work and on weekends, told Reuters news agency: "We clean up after ourselves. It's not like there's rats and roaches running around the park."

'Offensive odours'
There have been some flashpoints between police and protesters in recent weeks, with hundreds of people arrested this month during a march over the Brooklyn Bridge.

As the number of protesters sleeping in the park has grown, food stalls have sprung up, as well as an infirmary and a library.

But protesters have no toilet facilities of their own and depend on local restaurants near the park.

There have been reports of demonstrators urinating and defecating in the streets.

And residents have complained about lewdness, drug use, harassment and offensive odours from the protesters, Brookfield said.

Earlier this week, Mr Bloomberg said protesters would not be evicted from the park unless they broke the law.

The demonstration began on 17 September with a small group of activists and has swelled to include several thousand people at times, from many walks of life.

Similar "occupy" protests have sprung up recently in cities across the US.

There are reports that rallies are being planned to take place in the US and Canada on Saturday, with activists in Europe organising, too.