Greets and saluts from the NYC metro area. What news to wake up to this morning that the NYPD came in and cleared out Zuccotti Park. While there were about 70 arrests, they were mostly for resisting arrest (such as tying themselves together or to trees). The park has now been power washed and cleaned, but the protesters have moved on to Foley Square and possibly on to Washington Square or Union Square.

Whether they’ll return to Zuccotti Park is an open question. A judge has issued an order that allows the protesters to return to the park - including staying on with tents.

So, why did this take place now? I suspect is has to do with the planned protests on Thursday, where protesters were hoping to close down the NYSE and Wall Street itself; the protesters in Zuccotti have largely been peaceful, but when the protests march on to different locations, there have been several notable incidents involving arrests and reports of brutality (such as on the Brooklyn Bridge, marches along Broadway, or sit-ins at Wall Street itself).

Frankly, I think that it might have been better to leave the protesters in place at Zuccotti Park than to disperse them - making it more difficult to deal with smaller groups that could potentially cause mayhem (and there are fringe groups who have used OWS as cover for their antics).

Still, it’s interesting that the OWS movement in Zuccotti Park numbered all of about 200 hardcore protesters who have hunkered down there. The press coverage of this has definitely been disproportionate to the numbers, but that’s a testament to the protesters and general anger and angst toward the horrible economic situation facing millions of people around the country.