play and ideas: Crack Down on Wall Street, Occupy Wall Street to Police: “Who Are You Defending?

Tuesday, I rode down. It was a colder rainier morning, but it wasn’t pouring. Still, Summer was turning to Fall and its harder to sleep in the streets without some cover from the rain. At 9:30 AM, a friend told me police had just taken away the tents and arrested a few more people. I talked with a few others who still remained optimistic. “I’m going to do outreach today,” one man who had come down from Maine, told me. I noted people were watching the live feed from around the world. He suggested that those people needed to start posting about what was going on and to call the city to tell them to stop harassing those involved. “Without as much media here, the police came down and started arresting those in tends.” His point was there need to be more people down there with cameras.

The rally had left so I sat down to talk with a friend. As we talked, those sleeping brought out sandwiches offering a free bite of food. I was in awe that a sleeping encampment had lasted three nights. I hadn’t seen this much since the Tompkins Square Park days in the late 1980’s, when sleeping in the park was the city de-facto housing policy. In the years, since then the homeless or those sleeping in the streets have become an emblem of poverty, a symbol to be pushed from view, out of New York’s contested public spaces and into the city’s new de-factor housing: its jails.

A little after 10 AM, the march ended and activists reconverged on the square, followed by a phalanx of police, who appeared considerably less tolerant than the day before. A white shirt pulled out a bullhorn and asked the group to put away their tents or they would be taken away. With a few seconds, the police moved in tearing away the tents, arresting those inside and those who got too close. “Why are you doing this” someone asked. “I don’t know,” an officer confessed. “Who are you protecting?” activists screamed. “The whole world is watching!” “Fuck no, we won’t go!”

“I never had a reason to hate cops until this,” one man observed.

“Fourteen people have been arrested. Some were pulled away from chalking or getting in the way of the police, or wearing a mask. And we’re just taking it,” another man told me. “We need some solidarity.”

via benjaminheimshepard.blogspot.com

Comments

[rjs]

Yahoo blocked e-mails about Wall Street protests

thinkprogress video of the results:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-20109134-93/yahoo-blocked-e-mails-about-wall-street-protests/

[Robert Allen]

Not that I'm a big expert on this (and say so to my everlasting shame, btw), but anyone reading this and planning to attend any sort of protest, which I hope is alot (wish I could be there): Do not underestimate the possibility of police antagonism, that is, in Chicago I saw very agressive cop behavior. They will do stuff like "mean mug" you, like thrust their nightsticks at you and try to elicit a response from you. Stay with your friends, don't let them catch you alone or even lagging behind to watch a cop beat down of some young Black Block type such that you are detached from a larger crowd segment. They will actually taunt you with agressive body movements, while they march along in formation beside you. Do not take the bait. This is collective action, they've got you (right where they want you) when you start to resist as an individual in a big crowd setting. They can really hurt you. This is the point we've come to folks, it requires bravery and self discipline.
I salute all the protesters and wish I could be there.