Zuccotti Park Stays Closed Pending Court

Zuccotti Park remained closed Tuesday as lawyers battled in New York City's courts over the legality of the city's removal of the Occupy Wall Street protesters.

More than 1,000 police officers, some dressed in riot gear, cleared the park early Tuesday morning, clashing with demonstrators in the process and making almost 200 arrests.

Lawyers for the protesters immediately took to the courts to fight their eviction, and at 6:30am New York Supreme Court Justice Lucy Billings issued an order that temporarily prohibited the city from preventing protesters from re-entering Zuccotti Park.

Citing safety concerns, the city has not complied with Billings' order and has kept Zuccotti Park closed.

MyFOXny.com reported that N.Y. Supreme Court Justice Michael D. Stallmann was overseeing an afternoon hearing on Billings' order. He is expected to issue a decision on whether the protesters can continue to camp in the park at 3:00pm.

As of 1:00pm, several hundred protesters remained lined up around the perimeter of the park. Protesters have reportedly taunted police officers, but so far the standoff has remained peaceful. Smaller congregations of protesters have been reported at several other lower Manhattan parks.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Tuesday that the protesters are welcomed to express their views in Zuccotti Park once it reopens, but they cannot sleep there.

"There is no ambiguity in the law here -- the First Amendment protects speech -- it does not protect the use of tents and sleeping bags to take over a public space," Bloomberg said.

"Protesters have had two months to occupy the park with tents and sleeping bags. Now they will have to occupy the space with the power of their arguments."

Bloomberg's order to evict them came at the request of the park's owners, Brookfield Office Properties.

"As had been widely reported, conditions in Zuccotti Park had become dangerous, unhealthy and unsafe," the company said in a statement. "In our view, these risks were unacceptable and it would have been irresponsible to not request that the City take action."

Bloomberg canceled a previously scheduled trip to Washington, D.C., Tuesday to deal with the crisis.

The forced eviction began at approximately 1:00am, with police turning on large batteries of lights and communicating via bull horns, saying the protesters had to leave.

As police officers surrounded the park shortly after midnight, protesters began chanting "Whose park? Our park!" and "You don't have to do this." Some of them positioned near the encampment's kitchen linked themselves together using padlocks, the New York Post reported.

Just before 2:00am local time, police began to clear the park more aggressively and knocked over the tent from which protesters were streaming video of Zuccotti Park. Police arrested almost 200 people in the early morning chaos, physically dragging many from the squalid encampment.

New York City councilman Ydanis Rodriguez suffered a head injury and remains in custody after being arrested during the fracas.

New York City police have taken a hard line towards reporters covering the event, with journalists from media organizations such as the New York Daily News, the Associated Press and NPR being taken into custody.

Several celebrities took to Twitter to express their displeasure with the cities actions.

"Bloomberg's NY is no place for the 1st amendment," Alec Baldwin wrote. "Bloomberg serves Wall Street, now and forever. And Wall Street cannot handle free speech."