So there's this Occupy Wall Street protest in Manhattan today
- Thread starter Charlie Don't Surf
- Start date
Necronic
Staff member
Well....to be fair to these people I would totally consider a place like this to be the ideal testing grounds for my new calm inducing retroviral treatment, G-23 paxilon hydrochlorate, aka "Pax". The first attempt at the Miranda OWS didn't go so well, but I have better hopes this time.
River will stop you. And a rag-tag team of space cowboy smugglers. Who also sing.
I'm talkin' bout them hippies.
OWS eats its own
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45285979#.TsG4TGFXXT4
“I heard that some of the 99 percent are the 1 percent of the 99 percent,” he added, and to which some people started applauding. “We don’t need that.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45285979#.TsG4TGFXXT4
“I heard that some of the 99 percent are the 1 percent of the 99 percent,” he added, and to which some people started applauding. “We don’t need that.”
If so, then the NYPD would have no issue with clearing the park in full view of the public.
Instead, they do it at 2am and block media access.
(ETA: Al-Jazeera covered the crackdown live. CNN had a Piers Morgan repeat and Fox had something called "Red Eye". No MSNBC at work, so I can't speak for them, but I'm guessing US cable news went 0 for 3.)
Hey, all the reports I've seen (outside of the usual suspects with an agenda) have been pretty neutral regarding police and protester clashes.
The clumsiness of the NYPD has nothing to do with how pointless this movement has become, no matter how much you want it to actually matter.
C
Chibibar
I am thinking this. 200 arrest. That is a lot of people to move about and put into jail. NY morning traffic is murder and having upset people in squad car stuck in traffic = bad news
Looks like the judge rejected the OWS injunction, and the city is going to be able to restrict OWS from camping. They can meet and protest all they want, but camping isn't going to be allowed again.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57325395/judge-rules-against-nyc-occupy-encampment/
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57325395/judge-rules-against-nyc-occupy-encampment/
See, maybe I'm just "the man" but this seems fair to me. Protest all you want. Set up tent city, no.
B
Biannoshufu
http://eastvillage.thelocal.nytimes...-arrested-during-occupy-wall-street-clearing/
The police arrested some 200 people, including this reporter, in and around the Occupy Wall Street encampment in Lower Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park early Tuesday.
While some officers, many in riot gear, moved into the park, others blocked access to the park within a one- to two-block radius, also closing subway stations in the area as well as access to the Brooklyn Bridge.
At around 1:45 a.m., finding all routes to the park blocked, this reporter filmed scuffles between the police and a crowd of more than 100 demonstrators near the intersection of Broadway and Cortlandt Street, about one block north of Zuccotti Park. As shown in the video above, protesters chanted “Shame!” and “This is a peaceful protest!” while occasionally jostling with police.
Less than 15 minutes later, an officer speaking through a bullhorn ordered the demonstrators to leave the area, while a line of police in riot gear slowly pushed the crowd northward along Broadway’s western sidewalk. This reporter tweeted from the scene: “I am one block north of the park and can’t leave. Crowd on sidewalk literally surrounded by police.”
The Local’s reporter, who repeatedly identified himself to the police as a journalist while on the scene, complied with the order and walked north while filming protesters, however (as seen at the 2:11 mark in the video) his progress was stopped by a group of officers blocking the sidewalk at the intersection of Broadway and John Street. One of the officers arrested him using plastic Flexi-Cuffs, even as he continued to identify himself as a journalist and called attention to press credentials hanging from his neck. (The press card had been issued for an unrelated assignment by the Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit of the United Nations in September).
The Local’s reporter was put onboard a police van with eight other arrestees, including two New School undergraduates, a photographer with Agance France Presse, and city councilman Ydanis Rodriguez, all handcuffed behind their backs. Mr. Rodriguez had blood on his temple from what he said was an earlier confrontation with the police. He recalled previous demonstrations, including the occupation of a City College administration building in the early 1990s.
The van arrived at One Police Plaza at around 3:20 a.m., where the arrestees were placed in holding cells. Over the course of the night some 60 other men were remanded to the men’s communal cell, a concrete room separated by bulletproof glass from a police work area.
This reporter was released at 9:35 a.m. and charged with disorderly conduct, which in New York is a “violation,” a step below a misdemeanor.
Most of the demonstrators held at One Police Plaza were charged with the same violation, while others were also accused of resisting arrest. At least two said they were charged with jaywalking after being arrested crossing the street.
According to City Room’s live blog of the Zuccotti Park clearing, at least five other journalists
were reportedly arrested while covering ongoing Occupy Wall Street protests. Those arrested included a reporter and a photographer from The Associated Press, a reporter from The Daily News, a photographer from DNA Info, and a freelance reporter for National Public Radio. The Times’s Media Decoder blog reported that other journalists, in what some have called a “media blackout,” complained that they were not allowed access to areas around Zuccotti Park. Gothamist and Huffington Post also noted the seeming crackdown on media coverage.
Today at 11:57 a.m., Matthew Lysiak, a reporter for The Daily News, wrote on that outlet’s live blog that he was arrested while covering a demonstration at a park at Sixth Avenue and Grand Street. At 12:34 p.m., he posted an update indicating that he was on a police bus with two other reporters.
Video: Reporter for The Local Is Arrested During Occupy Wall Street Clearing
The police arrested some 200 people, including this reporter, in and around the Occupy Wall Street encampment in Lower Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park early Tuesday.
While some officers, many in riot gear, moved into the park, others blocked access to the park within a one- to two-block radius, also closing subway stations in the area as well as access to the Brooklyn Bridge.
At around 1:45 a.m., finding all routes to the park blocked, this reporter filmed scuffles between the police and a crowd of more than 100 demonstrators near the intersection of Broadway and Cortlandt Street, about one block north of Zuccotti Park. As shown in the video above, protesters chanted “Shame!” and “This is a peaceful protest!” while occasionally jostling with police.
Less than 15 minutes later, an officer speaking through a bullhorn ordered the demonstrators to leave the area, while a line of police in riot gear slowly pushed the crowd northward along Broadway’s western sidewalk. This reporter tweeted from the scene: “I am one block north of the park and can’t leave. Crowd on sidewalk literally surrounded by police.”
The Local’s reporter, who repeatedly identified himself to the police as a journalist while on the scene, complied with the order and walked north while filming protesters, however (as seen at the 2:11 mark in the video) his progress was stopped by a group of officers blocking the sidewalk at the intersection of Broadway and John Street. One of the officers arrested him using plastic Flexi-Cuffs, even as he continued to identify himself as a journalist and called attention to press credentials hanging from his neck. (The press card had been issued for an unrelated assignment by the Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit of the United Nations in September).
The Local’s reporter was put onboard a police van with eight other arrestees, including two New School undergraduates, a photographer with Agance France Presse, and city councilman Ydanis Rodriguez, all handcuffed behind their backs. Mr. Rodriguez had blood on his temple from what he said was an earlier confrontation with the police. He recalled previous demonstrations, including the occupation of a City College administration building in the early 1990s.
The van arrived at One Police Plaza at around 3:20 a.m., where the arrestees were placed in holding cells. Over the course of the night some 60 other men were remanded to the men’s communal cell, a concrete room separated by bulletproof glass from a police work area.
This reporter was released at 9:35 a.m. and charged with disorderly conduct, which in New York is a “violation,” a step below a misdemeanor.
Most of the demonstrators held at One Police Plaza were charged with the same violation, while others were also accused of resisting arrest. At least two said they were charged with jaywalking after being arrested crossing the street.
According to City Room’s live blog of the Zuccotti Park clearing, at least five other journalists
were reportedly arrested while covering ongoing Occupy Wall Street protests. Those arrested included a reporter and a photographer from The Associated Press, a reporter from The Daily News, a photographer from DNA Info, and a freelance reporter for National Public Radio. The Times’s Media Decoder blog reported that other journalists, in what some have called a “media blackout,” complained that they were not allowed access to areas around Zuccotti Park. Gothamist and Huffington Post also noted the seeming crackdown on media coverage.
Today at 11:57 a.m., Matthew Lysiak, a reporter for The Daily News, wrote on that outlet’s live blog that he was arrested while covering a demonstration at a park at Sixth Avenue and Grand Street. At 12:34 p.m., he posted an update indicating that he was on a police bus with two other reporters.
So, he does what the police say "leaving" and gets arrested for it.
Good job, NYPD!
Good job, NYPD!
B
Biannoshufu
Broken image is broken. Peter Parker/ Superman?
oh no, that guy.
oh no, that guy.
8pm is prime nightlife for the area. Seriously, 2am is about the most dead nearly anyplace in new york city ever gets - and even then it's not quiet.
But honestly I think this will ultimately be good for the movement. They've really been dragged down into the quagmire of maintaining such a huge operation - probably a big reason the original leaders left, or at least started working outside that bubble.
Yes, it's visible, and it serves a purpose, but they were spending so much energy just protesting, rather than actually making concrete steps towards their goals.
It's been two months and you still can't honestly say they have a platform.
Meetings and protests during the day, then everyone goes home, and they meet again the next day. You don't have to worry about theft and worse crimes. You don't have to worry about feeding people more than lunch. You don't have to worry about heat, power, sanitation. You don't have to be called the 1% of the 99% because you find your cause being dragged down by freeloaders.
You can actually focus on getting people to define the first few things they want to accomplish (with a long list of items to work on in the background) and then push for them in ways that will make a difference.
Or, you know, you can get sucked into the vortex and spend most of your energy yak shaving.
Your move, OWS.
But honestly I think this will ultimately be good for the movement. They've really been dragged down into the quagmire of maintaining such a huge operation - probably a big reason the original leaders left, or at least started working outside that bubble.
Yes, it's visible, and it serves a purpose, but they were spending so much energy just protesting, rather than actually making concrete steps towards their goals.
It's been two months and you still can't honestly say they have a platform.
Meetings and protests during the day, then everyone goes home, and they meet again the next day. You don't have to worry about theft and worse crimes. You don't have to worry about feeding people more than lunch. You don't have to worry about heat, power, sanitation. You don't have to be called the 1% of the 99% because you find your cause being dragged down by freeloaders.
You can actually focus on getting people to define the first few things they want to accomplish (with a long list of items to work on in the background) and then push for them in ways that will make a difference.
Or, you know, you can get sucked into the vortex and spend most of your energy yak shaving.
Your move, OWS.
Not that area. That part of town is (relatively) dead by 8 or 9pm. There's nothing there except offices and luxury high-rise-buildings and bad fast food. Even the local gyms and bars are at least a few blocks away.
Zuccotti Park specifically is nestled in-between a giant office building and a retail building whose shops are closed by that time and whose entrances aren't on that side of the building anyways.
10 minute-walk north, stuff gets busy because you hit TriBeCa, 10 minutes east you hit the sea-port and the after-hours part of FiDi. Church street and Broadway (in that area) are basically empty by that point because the West Side Highway has cleared enough of its rush-hour traffic that anyone trying to drive out of the area is much better off just getting on the Highway.
Waiting until 2am is completely unnecessary unless (I guess) you really are trying to avoid the media.
Well you obviously know more about the area than I do. Still, I find it hard to believe that it's more dead at eight pm than at two am.
I don't disagree with your point that part of the reason they chose two am was to reduce media exposure. They had a series of requirements, and they decided that two am met most of the requirements in a better fashion than any other time. As always, I'm only speculating on the reasons.
I'm surprised they were able to keep things so hushed up until then, though. I would have expected an officer or staffer or someone else in the loop to alert the media or ows.
I don't disagree with your point that part of the reason they chose two am was to reduce media exposure. They had a series of requirements, and they decided that two am met most of the requirements in a better fashion than any other time. As always, I'm only speculating on the reasons.
I'm surprised they were able to keep things so hushed up until then, though. I would have expected an officer or staffer or someone else in the loop to alert the media or ows.
It's more that it doesn't really get any deader.
On the weekends stuff picks up, mostly because there's lots of people getting on and off the PATH either coming from Jersey to get smashed or going to Jersey to get smashed.
Added at: 23:45
They probably specifically picked guys they knew wouldn't leak and didn't tell anyone else. NYPD is easily more than large enough to find enough guys with night-time "secret" raid experience.
Here's an idea. At 2am anyone that was going to go home already did. I'm sure the crowd grows and shrinks at various times throughout the day, 2am is probably when it's smallest. It should go without saying I'm certainly not in the NYPD or a police officer, but they probably had a number of reasons why.
B
Biannoshufu
So, what are your thoughts on media being arrested/denied access to cover this?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/15/occupy-journalists-media-blackout
http://www.mediaite.com/online/jour...treatment-during-occupy-wall-street-eviction/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/15/occupy-journalists-media-blackout
http://www.mediaite.com/online/jour...treatment-during-occupy-wall-street-eviction/
That it's a gross violation of the right of the press, which will likely go unavenged? I'm sure they'll claim it's because of "public safety" but that's bullshit. They send reporters into warzones. They can certainly handle covering a police action.
Freedom of the press means you can print what you want. It doesn't mean that you will be given red carpet access to ongoing police action, nor that you are immune from the law.
I imagine that if the reporter's rights as press agents are violated we'll see court cases confirming or denying those rights.
Necronic
Staff member
Link wasn't broken. He's just an x-man. Get it?
Also 2AM or 8PM, they could have just called ahead and told them "hey you guys have to vacate by 2AM tommorow night or we will vacate you." It's not like they're busting up a militant group or anything.
As for the media thing. It's one thing to tape off an area for safety reasons. It's another thing to close the area to news helicopters.