Report: 8 arrested in latest sweep of unhoused encampment on 9th Street

Photo from Sunday by Stacie Joy 

City agencies returned this morning to Ninth Street between Avenue B and Avenue C, where a group of unhoused residents has been living in tents under the sidewalk bridge at the former P.S. 64. 

The result: 8 arrests.

Here's more from The New York Times: 

The protest began as dozens of police officers, accompanied by a sanitation crew and a single homeless outreach worker, forced out the people living in the encampment for at least the seventh time in the last six weeks. 

[Tompkins Square Park] has become ground zero to the small but vocal movement protesting Mr. Adams's policies for addressing homelessness. "Housing is a human right, fight, fight, fight," the protesters chanted as police vans pulled up on neighboring streets around 9 a.m., and campers and supporters from a host of mutual aid and tenant activist groups taped off the tents with red packing tape. 

After a standoff, police arrested seven activists and one of the unhoused residents. 

All went willingly except Johnny Grima, 37, a homeless man who has emerged as the public face of the protests. He has been arrested three other times in the last month. 

As officers wrestled him out of his tent, then carried him toward a waiting police van, a protester shouted: "Shame on you. Is that how you treat houseless people?" 

According to city stats cited by the Times, there have been more than 700 cleanups from March 18 to May 1 — many of them of the same site multiple times — and 39 people have accepted the placement into shelters.

Unhoused residents have said that the shelter system is not safe. Read our interviews with some of the Ninth Street residents here.

Previously on EV Grieve:

• Report: 2 arrested in latest East Village encampment sweep

• Standoff on 9th Street

• In Tompkins Square Park, speaking out against the city's sweeps of unhoused encampments  

Report: 2 arrested in latest East Village encampment sweep

Photo by @Jeremoss 

For the third time in a week, various city agencies joined forces on a sweep of an unhoused encampment in the East Village. 

According to published reports, two people were arrested — an activist and a resident — during the crackdown on Ninth Street between Avenue B and Avenue C  this morning around 8. 

A handful of people have been living under the sidewalk bridge of the vacant former P.S. 64. Witnesses said that more than 30 members of the NYPD were involved, including from the Strategic Response Group, for two people in the encampments.

i just watched 33 cops arrest 2 unhoused people in order to sweep an encampment of 5, the entire nyc housing policy is eviction at gunpoint pic.twitter.com/D7xhSlYcwh

— tracy jeanne rosenthal (@two__evils) April 20, 2022

This was the same location as an action on April 6 that resulted in a 7-hour standoff between a group of activists and unhoused residents and reps from several city agencies. 

The residents here in a zone dubbed "Anarchy Row" relocated to Avenue B and then 10th Street along Tompkins Square Park. Twice in the past week, the city attempted to move the residents into shelters — including during the citywide manhunt for alleged subway shooter Frank James, who turned out to be wandering around a few blocks away.

Per Gothamist: 

The East Village sweep was part of Mayor Eric Adams' ongoing efforts to clear the city of homeless encampments, which he has repeatedly argued is necessary for the dignity of homeless people. The sweeps, while not a new phenomenon under Adams, have drawn a drumbeat of criticism from homeless advocates, the City Council's Progressive caucus, the New York Times editorial board, and a coalition of faith leaders. 

On April 9, more than a dozen community groups and mutual-aid networks rallied in Tompkins Square Park to speak out against the Mayor's aggressive sweeps of unhoused encampments across the city.

Unhoused residents have said that the shelter system is not safe. Read our interviews with some of the Ninth Street residents here.

Updated:

Johnny Grima, the unhoused resident who was arrested this morning, was released from the 7th Precinct early this evening, as EVG contributor Stacie Joy reports. He sustained some injuries during the arrest (top photo).

In Tompkins Square Park, speaking out against the city's sweeps of unhoused encampments

Photos by Stacie Joy

More than a dozen community groups and mutual-aid networks joined forces for a rally in Tompkins Square Park yesterday to speak out against Mayor Adams' aggressive sweeps of unhoused encampments across the city, including one Wednesday on Ninth Street in the East Village. 

Speakers at the rally called for an end to the encampment sweeps ... while providing safe housing for New Yorkers living on the streets.

The rally, which drew 100-plus supporters, took place at the chess tables in the Park's SW corner. Before the event, several people removed the barricades from this space that the NYPD placed here late last summer after clearing out an encampment.
 

The speakers included Sinthia, one of the unhoused residents who was living on Ninth Street...

 

The rally came two days after the 7-hour standoff on Ninth Street outside the former P.S. 64 between a group of activists and unhoused residents and reps from several city agencies. 

The NYPD eventually arrested seven people while a sanitation crew tossed some of the residents' belongings. 

Since then, people have questioned the use of dozens of officers from the NYPD, including members of the Strategic Response Group and the Technical Assistance Response Unit, over four tents. 

As CBS 2 reported: 

"It was awful, it was stupid, and it was violent," said Helen Strom, director of homeless advocacy for Safety Net Project. 

Strom also said it was dehumanizing to watch homeless people and advocate in a seven-hour standoff with police and a Sanitation crew looking to clear up their encampment on an East Ninth Street sidewalk.  

"What the mayor should be doing is he should be sending out housing specialists to get people into apartments, instead of spending hundreds of thousands of tax payer money on police," she said. Strom said it was a total waste of resources, since the unhoused individuals refused to go to a shelter, fearing for their safety. 

As Politico noted: 

The new mayor will face an uphill battle in actually compelling people to leave the streets and go into the city’s shelter system, which is considered unsafe by many who have taken refuge under bridges, on sidewalks and in the subways. Elected officials and advocates for homeless people warn the city lacks capacity to offer people other options, and say the push is an unwelcome return to failed policies of the past. 

During an interview yesterday on WNYC's "The Brian Lehrer Show," Adams defended the sweeps," saying "he was working to preserve the 'dignity' of homeless New Yorkers," as Gothamist reported. 

"When I looked at some of those encampment sites...I saw people living in human waste," the mayor said. "Drug paraphernalia, no showers, no clean clothing. Living like that — that is not dignified." 

During a press conference with clergy members on Thursday, Adams said that the Four Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, would have done the same thing. 

Yesterday's rally included a march to the former P.S. 64 ... and eventually to Washington Square Park...

... and then back to Ninth Street between B and C...

Meanwhile, a few of the residents who were the subject of Wednesday's sweep moved nearby along Avenue B...

The NYPD photographed the tents this morning... with another sweep likely in the days ahead...

Today in mayoral visits to the East Village

Photo at East Village Organic on 1st Avenue by Steven 

Thanks to everyone for the emails, texts, cards and letters about Mayor Adams taking a walking tour of the East Village today... to announce that #NYCisBack ...

Hitting the streets in the East Village to spread the word: #NYCisBack! pic.twitter.com/q4gcq1MT8l

— City of New York (@nycgov) March 7, 2022

As previously reported, NYC's indoor vaccine mandate is gone starting today. Restaurants, bars, entertainment venues and gyms are no longer be required to check for proof of COVID-19 vaccination from customers. In addition, the mask ban for students has been lifted. 

His tour included visiting with owners of several restaurants (Dallas BBQ, La Palapa, MáLà Project), eating lunch at Veselka and walking through Tompkins Square Park.

Updated 7 p.m.

There wasn't any shortage of the mayor's EV visit today... select news outlets include...

• CBS New York

• Curbed 

• amNY 

• NY1

Meanwhile, the mayor, who announced "new actions and investments in pedestrian safety at intersections" in January, was called out on Twitter for having one of his vehicles parked in the intersection on Second Avenue and Ninth Street this morning ...

@NYCMayor vehicle blocking a crosswalk #walknyc pic.twitter.com/I4L6htRG4R

— Choresh Wald (@Choresh2) March 7, 2022