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January 27, 2010
Ratner Escapes Arrest Attempt by Homeless
Cuomo Also Refuses To Respond to Atlantic Yards-Angry Protesters
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
by Samuel Newhouse
Homeless people and community activists gathered in Downtown Brooklyn Tuesday to make a citizen’s arrest of developer Bruce Ratner – but the real estate mogul never showed up.
The attempted citizen’s arrest was planned by patrons of Freddy’s Bar, FUREE (Families United for Racial and Economic Equality) and homeless advocates, partly in response to the closure of a homeless shelter in the footprint of Forest City Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project that displaced dozens of people.
Protestors who gathered intended to arrest Ratner to make him stand trial for a corruption investigation in Yonkers connected to one of his projects, according to the protesters.
But Steve de Seve, the patron of Freddy’s Bar who led the arrest attempt, was informed by a representative of Ratner who came down from MetroTech that the developer would not appear.
“He told me that Mr. Ratner is not in the building. I informed him that Mr. Ratner is being a coward,” de Seve told the group of protesters afterward.
Posted by eric at January 27, 2010 11:34 PM