More on the latest OWS developments later tonight. But for right now, we know that the New York Police Department is currently defying a court order to let demonstrators return to Zuccotti Park.

One of the most egregious aspects the NYPD’s raid on Zuccotti Park was the detention of reporters who were attempting to cover the story. Reporters for various media outlets such as the New York Times, the New York Post, the Village Voice, and the Wall Street Journal – to name a few – have described being physically attacked and arrested by the NYPD while the raid occurred last night and prevented from being in the vicinity of Zuccotti Park. This is the type of overbearing, police state behavior that should really make every American shudder with uncertainty about whether the First Amendment means anything to our local governments.

It kind of defies all explanation that the justification used by Mayor Bloomberg was that  he had “a legal obligation to the city and to this neighborhood to keep the park accessible to all who wish to enjoy it,” when the police raid was carried out in order to exclusively deny the OWS demonstrators the ability to remain there.