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Lower Manhattan Residents Voice Displeasure With Wall Street Protesters At Meeting

NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- Things got heated Thursday night as Lower Manhattan residents gathered at a community board meeting upset about how the Occupy Wall Street movement is affecting their personal lives.

It was standing room only as several hundred people for and against the movement exchanged barbs for more than two hours at the Community Board 1 meeting.

Linda Fairstein lives on Liberty Street and said she simply couldn't take the noise or the filth anymore.

1010 WINS' Glenn Schuck Reports From The Meeting

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"Our neighbors do not break into our building and vandalize them. Our neighbors do not urinate and defecate in the street. These occupiers need to vacate our neighborhood," she said to applause. "This is our home. We're not the enemy. Many of the protesters go home at night to their homes in outside neighborhoods and live peacefully, while our home has become unbearable."

Despite those words, the board said that it will not interfere with the protesters' First Amendment rights, but it did say that the use of drums and trumpets must stop, 1010 WINS' Glenn Schuck reported.

The board also expressed opposition to the use of force by the NYPD or the developer Brookfield Properties in trying to get the protesters out of the Zuccotti Park.

Still, residents said they were fed up and one resident told the community board that "the occupiers should hit the road."

"I think the good neighbor policy is quite frankly laughable. A neighbor pays rent, mind you. These people do not pay rent to live there. A neighbor works in the city and pays their state and city income tax. It's disgusting and as someone in my age group, I'm embarrassed by what they're saying," he said.

Some board members expressed that a balance could be struck by allowing the protests to continue and setting some parameters to appease local residents.

Do you think more restrictions should be placed on the protesters because of local residents' complaints?

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