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The NYPD clearly did not want its early-morning raid on Zuccotti Park covered by the media. Journalists who flocked to the scene of the Occupy Wall Street protest in the wee hours Tuesday reported encountering police vans blocking the park and closed airspace to keep news helicopters out. For those reporters who actually made it into the park, their entrance was met with handcuffs, pepper spray, and aggression from police. One local cable news reporter said this morning, "the police took over, they kept everybody out, and they wouldn't let media in … it was very planned." New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg announced following the raid that it was his decision, insisting that the "media blackout" was carried out to "protect the members of the press. We have to provide protection, and we have done exactly that," he said.