New York, NY – Thousands of supporters showed up early on Friday, Oct. 14 to foil an attempt to dislodge the Occupy Wall Street protesters from their Zuccotti Park location in the Manhattan financial district. The pretext was that a ‘cleanup’ of the site was needed. The park has been kept clean all along.

There was nearly a police riot in early morning hours as a cordon of police surrounded the park and arrested more than 30 protesters. Still the occupiers stood their ground and Brookfield Properties, the owner of the park, said the cleanup could be postponed.

Labor union members, activists and community members came to support the occupation. A participant was quoted in the media as saying, “One thing we have learned from this is that we need to rely on ourselves and not on promises from elected officials.” Thousands marched through the financial district around 5:00 a.m.

Police still had the park surrounded at 9:00 a.m., however. *Fight Back!* asked Chris when the occupiers would leave. “They’re gonna have to drag us out of here with claws,” he replied.

*Fight Back!* asked Camille what the occupation had achieved. “We have exposed the injustices of the economy,” she said. “We have inspired thousands of occupations like this all over the world. We’re not leaving.”

A New Yorker who had come that morning to support the occupation stated, “Consciousness is slowly spreading. At first people only knew someone was staying at Wall Street but didn’t know why. Now people are more curious and hopeful, especially since the cleanup was postponed. A wave of people power exists.”

Justin told *Fight Back!*, “Thousands of people came and Bloomberg had to back down.”

The use of force against the occupation has backfired badly on the authorities. They cannot strangle the protest with a police siege. Every day that Occupy Wall Street continues is a triumph of the people over capital.

*Read more [Fight Back! coverage of Occupy Wall street](http://www.fightbacknews.org/news/special-coverage/occupy-wall-street) and follow [@fightbacknews](https://twitter.com/#!/fightbacknews) for live updates from #OccupyWallStreet protests around the country.*

#NewYorkNY #OccupyWallStreet #MayorBloomberg #ZuccottiPark #BrookfieldProperties