With a show of force befitting a small invasion, the Police Department seized two East Village tenements yesterday, overwhelming a defiant group of squatters who had resisted city efforts to retake the buildings for nearly nine months.
Using a tanklike armored vehicle and carrying riot gear, hundreds of officers moved in on the city-owned buildings to try to end years of occupation by the squatters, who argued that their long-term presence and efforts to rehabilitate the once-abandoned buildings gave them the right to stay.
The takeover of the two buildings at 541 and 545 East 13th Street occurred about midmorning, many hours after the police first arrived and were met by makeshift barricades consisting of old furniture, appliances and trash containers.