Ten people working with Friends of Brook Park, a community-based organization dedicated to opening and revitalizing green space in the South Bronx, attempted to launch the canoes, loaded with three shovels and four baby trees. The activists were planning to paddle upriver to join an Earth Day celebration when police arrived. Citing tightened security due to the arrival in New York City of the pope, the police immediately arrested Friends of Brad Will activist and environmentalist Harry Bubbins and one other participant for trespassing on the abandoned pier.

While parts of the pier are marked with “No Trespassing” signs, participants claimed that they have launched from the abandoned pier for years with no problems. The police confiscated the video camera of an NYU student, who is making a documentary about South Bronx environmental organizing, “[The student] was filming the arrest and the cops came and took the camera out of her hand,” said one participant who asked not to be identified. The police also confiscated the camera of another onlooker, who was thrown to the ground by the police, according to the witness.



More to come later. For more information on the Friends of Brook Park visit:www.friendsofbrookpark.org