Police Enforcing Unposted Rules at Zuccotti Park, Memo Indicates

By COLIN MOYNIHAN

A memorandum indicating that the police agreed to enforce unposted rules restricting activities at Zuccotti Park, the epicenter of the Occupy movement, surfaced on Thursday night, protesters said, handed out by a man who said that he worked for Brookfield Properties, which owns the park.

The memorandum, labeled “Rules of Engagement,” states that yoga mats, carpet padding, large trays of food, drums, large suitcases and backpacks were not permitted in the park. Neither a kitchen nor a library may be set up, the memo says.

Although there are not nearly as many protesters in the park as there were last fall, the memorandum has added to a long-running argument over access to the park, a privately owned public space that is required to be open 24 hours. It has also raised questions about the relationship between Brookfield and the police, with protesters saying that officers should not enforce rules that were adopted s ecretly by a private company and that may violate provisions governing access to the park.

In an apparent reference to the police's chief of department, Joseph J. Esposito, the document states that police supervisors who are “resistant to enforcing the rules of the park should be reminded that Chief Esposito agreed to this set of rules.”

Although the origin of the document, which bears no letterhead, is unclear, civil liberties lawyers said it appeared to be genuine.

“I believe this is an authentic document that is guiding policy,” said Taylor Pendergrass, a senior staff lawyer at the New York Civil Liberties Union. “The memo reflects what we've observed in Zuccotti Park â€"â€" Brookfield Security and the N.Y.P.D. working in tandem and coordinating very closely.”

He added that the memo seemed to show  “the application of ever-changing rules.”  The Police Department's head spokesman, Paul J. Browne, did not respond to a message asking about the document. A Brookfield spokeswoman provided with a copy of the memo declined to comment.

Several protesters said they first saw the memo on Thursday night as they congregated at Zuccotti Park, which was created in exchange for zoning concessions connected to a skyscraper owned by Brookfield.

Anthony Robledo, 23, from Corona, Queens, said that a man wearing a suit and saying he worked for Brookfield announced around midnight that the park was closed, then showed the memo to a police commander.

Soon, protesters said, officers began telling them that they had to leave because they had backpacks and rolled-up sleeping bags.  When Mr. Robledo questioned those orders, he said, the man handed him the memo.  Although he appeared to expect it back the protesters kept it, Mr. Robledo said.

Soon, protesters were distributing copies. Some people photographed the document and posted it on Twitter. 

A video that a protester, Matthew Hopard, said he filmed on Thursday night shows a man wearing a suit talking with a police commander. Later, the video shows the commander appearing to read the memo and then announcing to protesters that large backpacks were not allowed in the park although the posted rules do not ban backpacks.

When the Occupy protests began last Sept. 17, Zuccotti Park rules prohibited bicycling, skateboarding and roller blading. Brookfield later posted a plaque there listing rules that forbade camping, the erection of tents and the placement of tarps on park property.   For months, though, protesters have complained that private security guards and police officers have enforced unpublished rules, sometimes saying that pizzas, books and backpacks were not allowed in the park, and in July telling a 55-year-old woman that a folding chair was banned.

One section of the memo reads: “As this is a fluid situation requiring support of Brookfield Properties and t he N.Y.P.D., this list is not all inclusive and likely to change in the coming days.”

Civil rights lawyers said that they were particularly troubled by that passage. In January, the National Lawyers Guild, the New York Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights wrote to the city saying that rules that do not appear in any written form had been used improperly to keep people from the park.

Jethro Eisenstein, a lawyer who has represented protesters, said that Brookfield could not adopt rules limiting access there without permission from the City Planning Commission.

“They surely don't have the right to secretly make rules and then get the N.Y.P.D. to enforce them,” he said.

Some protesters said they thought the document's language, including the term “rules of engagement,” reflected hostility to their message.

“It makes it seem like we are literally at war with a public park,” said Richard Lynch, 50, a botanist fr om Staten Island. “It's like we are perceived as an invading army.”