Early this morning at least five protesters were arrested by NYPD.
According to http://www.OccupyWallStreet.com:
The first arrest was a protester who objected to the police removing a tarp that was protecting our media equipment from the rain. The police said that the tarp constituted a tent, in spite of it not being a habitat in any way. Police continued pressuring protesters with extralegal tactics, saying that a protester on a bullhorn was breaking a law. The protester refused to cease exercising his first amendment rights and was also arrested. Then the police began to indiscriminately attempt to arrest protesters, many of them unsheathed their batons, in spite of the fact that the protest remained peaceful.
One of the protesters received a large gash on their leg, another lost a tooth. Multiple police tackled a protester and sat on him as he continually warned them that he was experiencing an asthma attack. One of the medics on site informed the police that they needed to call an ambulance because this was a potentially fatal circumstance. They ignored him. We have no current information on this protester, but we hope that he hasn't been murdered by the police.
So what led up to this momentous decision by the police to use force? So far as I can tell .... nothing except fear...of an organized, determined and peaceful effort by a handful of radicals to turn a dramatically dysfunctional system around. Here are my notes from yesterday morning's events which were much more peaceful...but you could sense the tension already. I rode up to NYC from Richmond, VA on the China Town bus, arriving a little after 6 am. Notes follow:
....
I think of Henry Miller's Cosmo-Demonic Telegraph agency traipsing through the Bowery just before the break of dawn. The sounds of China Town waking from its slumbers, delivery trucks plying their way down Canal street, wailing and clanking with brake squeals and engines trembling in morning fog.... it's like the sound of Charon delivering souls to Hades through the land of the dead. Or almost.
I'm looking for a place called Zuccotti park which is reputed to have live souls. In fact, the place has been rechristened Liberty park by its newest residents, a disparate band of activists, anarchists, socialists and general do gooders who have spent the last two days here, protesting Wall Street's and America's sleepy compliance with a Capitalist system that they argue is sorely in need of radical reform. They call themselves 'Occupy Wall Street' and outside of their exceptional demands—not just one, but many, which we'll get to—they don't look so out of the ordinary for a downtown New York City park, around the corner from Washington Square and Soho. In fact, not unsurprisingly, most of the folks here hail from the New York area; but not all. Some come from surprisingly far distances. Belgium. Italy. Spain. California. Austria. They're from all sorts of demographics as well. In fact, I'd wager they are a better representation of America than our congress: black, white, Asian, Indian, male, female, gay, straight, young, old, businessmen, students. For awhile, I even marched with an ex-Wall Street trader. All share a single desire to do something about the toxic mix of Wall Street money and American politics.
“I'm 22 and I've got over 25,000 dollars of students loans and no job prospects. My life has ended before it's even begun in this system.” He stands next to a sign that reads: "Do you feel the trickle down?"
“My mom and dad lost their house and we've been living with grandma—it's six of us in a two bedroom one bathroom house.” She wears ear muffs in the shape of a bear to keep warm on the cold concrete of the park where the activists sleep. Beside her a sign reads: "End Corporate Personhood."
But for every hard luck story—and there were many—equal numbers camped here out of a desire to effect change, to make a stand in history, a demarcation, the beginning of the end.
“This system – what we're doing now--is not sustainable”
“If we don't start the change, who will. If not us, who? If not now, when?”
They talk about throwing their bodies into the machinery of finance. They talk about Tahrir square. They talk about finally making a difference. Demands are as concrete as re-enact Glass Steagall, a law that stiffly regulated exotic financial products, or as simple as 'forgive student loans' or 'get money out of politics'....
The owner of the Zuccotti property has given permission for the activists to stay there so long as they keep it clean. And so they do. They sleep on cardboard and thin blankets, some have sleeping bags but not all and it’s going to become increasingly necessary. Breakfast is served from a center table which is a re-engineered park bench for the purpose of serving up the food donated from local pizzerias and vendors. (For those interested in contributing to their food supply, check out this link https:/www.wepay.com... ) They hold general assemblies of various breakout committees where actions and demands are determined. Since the city cut their electrical power, they've developed a kind of call and response to make sure everyone stays informed of group decisions. When I arrived, a committee leader was standing in the early morning cold and talking about the coming march. “Okay everyone listen up!”
And his words were dutifully repeated so that everyone in the area could hear what he was saying...”Okay everyone listen up!”
“We're going to hear reports from our media committee. Would the media committee please come forward. "
There's a media committee, a medical committee, a street theater committee, a food committee (https:/www.wepay.com... ). Each committee works by consensus with its members which make recommendations to the general assembly which, in turn, is a consensus decision making body. The information is transmitted and-- despite the elaborate –and sometimes hilarious-- moments involved with all the repetition-- the information is conveyed. These people are sincere as a heart attack, and well organized too. In fact, an activist from Spain suggested that their organization was well in advance of anything their Spanish counterparts had.
Although estimates as high as 20,000 ranged for their numbers during the initial Saturday occupation, these have since dwindled to about 350 or fewer. The weather will turn colder and the NYPD—already edgy—will surely take out their frustrations sooner rather than later. Four protesters were arrested today on what are frivolous grounds (one was arrested for wearing a V for Vendetta mask ON TOP of her head)...but, for the time, there seems to be a grudging set of guidelines to ensure peaceful protests. While marching, if the protesters continue to move so that people ultimately can get to work –albeit getting an earful along the way-- the NYPD has promised not to make arrests. Barricades have been set up all around Wall Street so that protesters and workers are herded like cattle through the canyon maze of Wall Street, past Trinity church and George Washington's statue that stands at the front steps of the Federal Building, overlooking it all.
Please donate or go if you can:
https:/www.wepay.com...
http://occupywallst.org/