The following account is from an eye witness who lives and works in the Financial District, New York City:
On 10/5, I had heard about an Occupy Wall Street protest march that was going to take place starting at 4:30pm. I understood that it was to start at City Hall and head south along Broadway to Wall Street, a length of approximately ½ mile. I figured it was going to be several hundred people marching. Well, I was in for quite a surprise when I went to my monthly Community Board meeting at 6pm. The Occupy Wall Street crowds, numbering in the thousands, massed in Foley Square (just north of city hall) and began marching from Foley Square to Wall Street, chanting as they made their way south of Foley Square. According to the New York Times, the increase in participants in this Occupy Wall Street march was largely due to Labor Union support and turnout, including the Transport Workers Union, the Service Employees International Union, the United Federation of Teachers and the United Auto Workers. I heard cries of “Banks got bailed out, we got sold out!” and “We are the 99%!" For those Americans out there who were wondering when their fellow citizens were going to stand up against economic and political injustice, Occupy Wall Street might be the beginning.
With the help of a police officer who got me past the barricade, I made my way through the line of marchers (five or six deep) and into the Community Board building. A local press official, there to cover the meeting, remarked in the elevator ride up, that the march felt like mob rule. I almost responded, “We have a long way to go before it gets to that." Since when is orderly protest mob rule?
The police reported that 23 arrests were made during and after this Occupy Wall Street march. Much less than the 700 arrests the previous Saturday (http://marashgirl.blogspot.com/2011/10/occupy-wall-street.html#!/2011/10/occupy-wall-street.html and http://marashgirl.blogspot.com/2011/10/occupy-wall-street-entrapment.html#!/2011/10/occupy-wall-street-entrapment.html). Yet, what did the local television stations report on the 10/6 Morning News? A headline of “Violent Protests” with clips of protesters being carried away by police officers. From what I saw at the courthouse and areas immediately south, this was about as non-violent a protest as you can have with several thousand participants. And certainly 23 arrests (as compared to the number on this past Saturday, see http://marashgirl.blogspot.com/2011/10/occupy-wall-street-entrapment.html#!/2011/10/occupy-wall-street-entrapment.html ) does not reflect violence in the Occupy Wall Street protestors.
AND FROM ANOTHER EYEWITNESS:
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Last Night – some 20,000 people (Occupy Wall St., Teachers Unions, WTC Carpenters & Steelworkers Unions) gathered last night around Federal Court House in NYC, around Wall St. and the Park by One Liberty Plaza. There is a disconnect with what the media is reporting in regards to the violence and what I have witnessed personally, everything that I have seen so far has been very peaceful, reports Meghan D., who lives in Manhattan and works in the financial district. Photo credit: http://media.talkingpointsmemo.com/slideshow/unions-join-occupy-wall-street?ref=fpblg |
in comparison, the half million tea party demonstration massing in our capitol was met by not one single arrest, though the Democratic party and the mainstream media did their best to demonize them, to call them racist, to describe them as a threat to social order.
ReplyDeleteSimilarly, key Republican presidential candidates and commentators have labeled the Occupy Wall Street protest as "Anti-American" and "mobs", among other terms.
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