Occupy Wellington Evicted

Tuesday, 31 January 2012, 9:45 am
Article: Scoop News

Occupy Wellington Evicted

"The End of an Occupation" Matt Corich via Twitter

Police and council security have moved to evict the remaining Occupy Wellington protestors after 108 days camping in Civic Square.

A police statement says that "no arrests were made and occupiers left Civic Square without incident".

Earlier this morning the Occupy Wellington facebook page received this update:

Occupy Wellington is being cleared out by the Police, right now.
There are maybe 40-50 police, the same amount of private security (ProVision Security).
The whole overbridge is closed off and no one bar media and the police are getting in or out. [Joel]

Yesterday, in the face of a council deadline, an Occupy Wellington statement said "occupy is working":

The occupying group at Wellington's Civic Square will continue the occupation despite the Council stating it will do everything it can to remove them. If necessary the group will continue the occupation without the structures. ...
The Wellington occupation is peaceful and no benefit is seen to be gained through physical conflict with the Council's security or the Police.

A council statement today said "the Council has been reasonable with the campers throughout this process but the occupation became a way of life". The council intend to fence of the area to allow grass to regrow and to "prevent reoccupation".

The eviction follows action against the Occupy Auckland protestors in Aotea Square. Police were reportedly at the Occupy Christchurch site this morning but did not evict them.

One News reports that by lunchtime 10 protestors had returned to the site and police and security were at the scene.

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