NEW YORK – The owner of the private park where Wall Street protesters are camped out gave them notice Thursday that after it power-washes the space, it will begin enforcing regulations that restrict what they’ve been doing in the park.

The protesters’ response was to plan a demonstration for an hour this morning before they are supposed to evacuate Zuccotti Park while it is cleaned. They believe the effort is an attempt to end the protest, which triggered a movement against unequal distribution of wealth that has spread across the globe.

Protest spokesman Patrick Bruner sent an email to supporters Thursday asking them to join the protesters at 6 a.m. today to “defend the occupation from eviction.”

Earlier, representatives of the owner, Brookfield Properties, were escorted by police as they handed out a notice to protesters saying they would be allowed back in the park after the cleanup if they abide by park regulations.

The notice lists regulations such as no tents, no tarps or sleeping bags on the ground, no lying on benches and no storage of personal property on the ground. All those practices have been common at the park, where protesters have lived, slept and eaten for nearly a month.

“They’re going to use the cleanup to get us out of here,” said Justin Wedes, 25, a part-time public high school science teacher from Brooklyn. “It’s a de facto eviction notice.”

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The notice said the 12-hour, section-by-section cleaning is scheduled to begin at 7 a.m. and is part of daily upkeep, and that conditions have deteriorated in recent weeks because that upkeep was put on hold by the protesters.

“As sections of the park are cleaned, they will reopen to the public,” Brookfield said in an emailed statement. “All are welcome to enjoy the park for its intended purpose as an open neighborhood plaza, in compliance with posted rules.”

There was a scramble of activity Thursday afternoon as demonstrators began cleaning the park themselves. Part of the plaza was blocked off with red tape. Within that area, protesters scrubbed benches and mopped stone flooring. Some people replanted flower beds.

The self-organized sanitation team even hired a private garbage truck to pick up discarded curbside garbage and announced a storage area at the corner of the park.

“We’re trying to clean the entire park, mobilizing everyone,” said Dylan O’Keefe, an unemployed 19-year-old from Northampton, Mass. “We don’t want anyone to get hurt.”


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