

(NYCLU's Flickr) Jumaane Williams has introduced a resolution in the City Council that, if passed, would formally condemn Mayor Bloomberg for ordering the eviction of Occupy Wall Street protesters from Zuccotti Park last month. PolitickerNY reports that Williams introduced a resolution yesterday that describes the eviction as "overly aggressive" and "poses a threat to our civil liberties." Williams, you'll recall, went down to Zuccotti Park on the night of the NYPD's surprise eviction; he avoided arrest that night, but his colleague Councilmember Ydanis Rodriguez was arrested, along with several reporters.

In the resolution, Williams, who was briefly arrested by the NYPD during a confrontation at the West Indian-American Day parade in September, is blasting the NYPD for "the destruction of the encampment that the OWS members had created at the park resulted in the seizure and possible damage to more than 5000 books that made up the “People’s Library” at the park, along with the seizure and breakage of many tents, tarps, backpacks, shoes, computers, various equipment and other possessions."

Two days after the eviction, Williams was arrested during a civil disobedience protest near the Brooklyn Bridge, where thousands of demonstrators were marching as part of a day-long protest. It's unclear if Williams has enough votes for his resolution to pass, but yesterday it was referred to the Committee on Public Safety for further review.

Asked if he thinks he has support to get the resolution passed, Williams tells us, "I believe many of my colleagues understand what is at stake on this issue. You do not have to support Occupy Wall Street to support this resolution; this is about condemning overaggressive policing tactics... City leaders should not stand idly by and allow the NYPD’s actions during the raid on Zuccotti Park to go unchecked. People were sleeping when military-style tactics were employed to destroy personal property, deny access to the media and detain a Council Member for 12 hours without access to his attorney. I am pushing for police accountability for this very reason; without it, all citizens are in danger of future acts of abuse."

Here's the text of the resolution, in full: