A number of weapons were discovered in New York’s Zuccotti Park after Occupy Wall Street protesters were evicted by the Police Department last week, law enforcement sources tell FoxNews.com.
Gardeners employed by the park owners, Brookfield Properties, to clean up the mess made by occupiers during their two-month stay discovered various knives, including a large kitchen knife and other potential instruments of violence in flower beds throughout the public space, according to officials.
“We (NYPD) aren't taking the weapons, building security is,” said a high-ranking officer who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “Security at the Brookfield building across from Zuccotti. They have all the weapons.”
Officials from the NYPD would only confirm that one knife was found buried in a planter on Tuesday. But the haul was believed large enough for Brookfield Security workers to collect them in the real estate company’s headquarters across from the park.
It was not immediately clear what security at Brookfield will do with the weapons. A spokeswoman for the company declined comment.
A court motion related to the clearing of the park filed by Deputy Mayor Cas Halloway last week noted that, “Makeshift items that can be used as weapons, such as cardboard tubes with metal pipes inside, had been observed among the occupiers’ possessions.”
“It was our understanding that the protester may have had a significant number of items that could be potentially used as weapons,” read the statement.
The motion also noted that “knives, mace and hypodermic needles were observed discarded onto the roadway,” after an Oct.1 Occupy Wall Street march across the Brooklyn Bridge.
The motion also notes that since the protests began in Zuccotti Park on Sept. 17, “approximately 73 misdemeanor and felony complaints and 50 arrests,” have occurred, and a number of repeat and violent offenders were spotted in and around the park.
Requests for comment from City Hall were not immediately returned.
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