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Update on OWS 10/5/11
Oct. 6th, 2011 08:38 amYes, I was at the Occupy Wall Street march.
No, I was not caught up in the police violence, as I'd left about half an hour before (having previous dinner engagement). If you haven't seen the videos yet, you might want to. But be warned, it's not pretty.
It was, until then, a peaceful, if loudly opinionated, march. We were at all times hemmed in by security gates, and the cops were outside the gates, often to the point where we could not move until they allowed us to go forward (at one point, after they held us for three changes of the light at a street crossing, creating a massive bottleneck (see: gates hemming us in) the chant of "Hey ho, let us GO!" was a thousand throats strong).
There were young children, and senior citizens marching alongside college students and middle aged folk (me included). We stayed within the barriers, and were carrying signs in our hands, not on sticks, so I'm not sure how/why someone in the NYPD decided that we were suddenly a threat that needed to be responded to with viiolence...
this from a police force that every single year handles a massive crowd of drunk partiers in Times Square without any violence. Makes you wonder, hmmm?
I didn't take many photos (being busy marching/carrying a sign) but here are a few (pre-violence): http://flic.kr/s/aHsjwhdWqc
ETA: for my outside-NYC friends saying "it's great that you did, I wish I could..." - http://www.occupytogether.org/ Join in, and pass it on!
No, I was not caught up in the police violence, as I'd left about half an hour before (having previous dinner engagement). If you haven't seen the videos yet, you might want to. But be warned, it's not pretty.
It was, until then, a peaceful, if loudly opinionated, march. We were at all times hemmed in by security gates, and the cops were outside the gates, often to the point where we could not move until they allowed us to go forward (at one point, after they held us for three changes of the light at a street crossing, creating a massive bottleneck (see: gates hemming us in) the chant of "Hey ho, let us GO!" was a thousand throats strong).
There were young children, and senior citizens marching alongside college students and middle aged folk (me included). We stayed within the barriers, and were carrying signs in our hands, not on sticks, so I'm not sure how/why someone in the NYPD decided that we were suddenly a threat that needed to be responded to with viiolence...
this from a police force that every single year handles a massive crowd of drunk partiers in Times Square without any violence. Makes you wonder, hmmm?
I didn't take many photos (being busy marching/carrying a sign) but here are a few (pre-violence): http://flic.kr/s/aHsjwhdWqc
ETA: for my outside-NYC friends saying "it's great that you did, I wish I could..." - http://www.occupytogether.org/ Join in, and pass it on!
