Look out for lots of phrasal verbs in bold. Try to work out their meaning from the context of the sentence before you look at the Phrasal Verb Glossary below the text.
Authorities that were fed up with the Occupy Movement’s camp in Zuccotti Park in NY, sent in over 1,000 riot police in the early hours of this morning to clear out the protestors. The camp, which was set up in mid-September, was filled with hundreds of protestors at 1am, when police started to hand out flyers on behalf of Brookfield Office Properties, which owns the park. The flyers set out the reason for the eviction, stating that the encampment posed “an increasing health and safety hazard to those camped in the park, the city’s first responders and the surrounding community” and that the Occupy Movement would be allowed to come back to the park once it had been cleaned up. However, they would not be permitted to get back into the area whilst carrying sleeping bags or tents.
After the word got out that the police were on their way and that they could use tough tactics, lots of protestors walked out of the park voluntarily, trying to avoid any heavy-handed policing. However, lots of activists vowed to stand up to the police and never give up. Some protestors even chained themselves to statues in the park. Several people were led out in handcuffs, shouting out protest chants like, “We are the 99%!” and “Peaceful Protest!”
The world’s media were held back by police, so they were unable to report accurately on any violence or arrests as the police broke up the peaceful demonstration. After they were evicted, camp members and other supporters joined up in a square nearby, where impromptu speeches were made.
The crackdown comes after other US cities cleared away protest camps in similar large scale police operations. Earlier in the week, a small group of local NY residents and business owners turned up to protest at City Hall against the Occupy protests. Also, yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg said that Wall St. (the city’s financial district) would not be shut down and although he restated his belief in peaceful protest, he declared that, “The NY Stock Exchange will open on time and people will be able to get to work. You can rest assured.”
PHRASAL VERB GLOSSARY
fed up – annoyed/upset
sent in – to order sb to go into somewhere
clear out – to make a place empty
set up – to be founded
hand out – to distribute
set out – stated/explained
come back – return
cleaned up – clear the dirt from a place
get back into – return
got out – something is known by lots of people
walked out – to leave a place
stand up to – to keep your principles when challenged by authority
give up – to surrender/stop trying
led out – to walk where someone is directing you to walk
shouting out – making a loud noise
held back – to keep somebody from doing something
broke up – to split something, so that it is not whole/complete anymore
joined up – to meet
cleared away – to get rid of
turned up – to appear unexpectedly
shut down – to be closed
