NEW YORK, Oct 4 (Reuters) - From a legal point of view, the Occupy Wall Street protesters seem to have made a lucky choice by picking a small park in lower Manhattan as their home base.

That's because the park is technically not a park at all, but a privately-owned public plaza, which means ordinary city park rules do not apply -- and neither do normal private property rights.

"The occupation landing at Liberty Plaza was a happy accident as far as I see it," said civil rights attorney Samuel Cohen, who has been a daily presence at Zuccotti park, or Liberty Plaza as some of the protesters have come to call it.

During the week, the crowd there has consisted of a few hundred people who hand out fliers, chant slogans, hold press conferences, or argue while munching on free food. On the week-ends it has become much more crowded. Some die-hards have even been spending the night there.

The situation in the park, which is two blocks from Wall Street, has come to symbolize the showdown between police and the protesters, who, despite their small numbers, have been a persistent presence in New York for almost three weeks.

The protesters, who have had lawyers on hand to advise them, have said their presence in the park is lawful under free speech and free assembly rights.

The police and the city, who perhaps would rather have the area clear, cannot rely on public park rules such as a mandatory closing time in order to evacuate the area.

The plaza owners, Brookfield Office Properties, a commercial real estate corporation, have made it clear the situation is becoming untenable for them.

"Because many of the protesters refuse to cooperate by adhering to the rules, the park has not been cleaned since Friday, September 16, and as a result, sanitary conditions have risen to an unacceptable level," Brookfield spokeswoman Melissa Coley said in a statement on Monday.

Zuccotti park appears to have been chosen by accident as a staging ground after protesters found Wall Street itself to be roped off.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Sunday said "this is the place where you can come to express your views, protesting is fine but you don't have the right to go and, without a permit, violate the law."

The New York police department, which has been concerned about controlling the sometimes large, but often scattered protests, has also not told the protesters to leave. Instead, it has made the occasional arrest of someone they perceive is interfering with public space.

New York police spokesman Paul Browne on Tuesday declined to comment on the park situation.

"I think the police and the city are trying not to make a scene," said Bruce Bentley of the New York chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, which has dispatched trained legal observers at the request of the organizers.

"I think the police want it to end one way or the other," Bentley said, but they have still not tried to clear out the park. "I don't think they've done it yet because there's concern about what might happen next."

Civil rights lawyer Wylie Stecklow, who has been advising the protesters since the park occupation began, said it seemed the police had taken a more hands off approach in recent days, preferring to wait the protesters out, perhaps in the hope cold weather would drive them away.

The New York police department was harshly criticized by civil liberties groups on Saturday after they arrested more than 700 protesters for blocking traffic lanes on the Brooklyn Bridge and attempting an unauthorized march across the span.

Many critics also said the arrests had only served to harden the resolve of the protesters, and had potentially attracted broader sympathy for their movement.

In the meantime, Stecklow said, he had suggested the protesters not do anything to provoke police action, such as put up tents which police have indicated may violate sanitation rules.

"What we're telling folks down there is right now, the cops are not raiding you. [Putting up tents is] probably not the right fight to pick right now."

The protesters, who are mostly in their twenties and thirties, have coalesced under various slogans but most express discontent at the general state of unease in the economy and a lack of any political leadership. Specifically, they protest against home foreclosures, high unemployment and the 2008 bailouts, as well as excessive force and unfair treatment of minorities, including Muslims.

"I don't think they can continue to be outside all the time, I'm concerned for their health," said Darrell Prince, 35, who was eating some tinned orange slices distributed free to the protestors. Prince said he is helping the organizers keep track of their finances, and said they had amassed a $20,000 war chest from unsollicited donations.

"If a wave of police come here, that would just harden the impetus to be out here," he said.

(Reporting by Basil Katz)

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