The damage caused by Hurricane Sandy brought forth an unlikely alliance: the NYPD and Occupy Wall Street put their differences aside to combat post-Sandy crime. The Brooklyn neighborhood of Red Hook was without "power or electricity" for weeks following the storm, leaving residents and businesses extremely vulnerable to crime. Still, there was no storm-related crime in the neighborhood, and the NYPD credits Occupy Wall Street with that.
The NYPD, Occupy Wall Street, and local nonprofits all worked together to keep victims safe. According to a police source: "This crisis allowed us all to remove the politics and differences we had to do our job, and come to the aid of the people...we all rose to the occasion."
Both Occupy Wall Street and the NYPD worked together in Coffee Park to set up tents and distribute food and medicine. Kirby Desmarais, an Occupy Wall Street activist and volunteer coordinator for the Red Hook Coalition called it "a shift in the energy in the community."