Report: Occupy the Brooklyn Bridge

please keep posting, I LUV these first hand accounts.

The real stories from the ground are overwhelming the MCM on social media, it would be good for you to post all of your experience, and make it viral.

Your on-the-scene reporting has been phenomenal. Thanks so much!

MsExPat, they closed down the Wall Street subway stop when I went down early evening in the rain. I had no idea what had been going on.

I jumped out at City Hall at the announcement that Wall Street would be closed on the 5 train and after walking in circles in the drizzle, routed this way then that by random police blocking off sidewalks, I first heard then found a sizeable contingent of protesters under some of the enormous arched ceilinged open areas at City Hall. Great acoustics for chanting, by the way!

One fellow who had been at the bridge, who proudly told me his Mom had come close to being arrested as she stood tall beside him, also told me the police had successfully divided up the protesters after the action on the bridge.

Again, a lot of sidewalks were closed. Near City Hall, that group of several hundred I found upon exiting the subway by following the chants were trying to decide whether to go to where the arrestees were being held or to go back to Liberty Plaza.

Some may have gone to the police station, but the rest and what seemed another contingent of lively marchers showed up and then vigorously marched back to Liberty Plaza as it continued to drizzle. I joined in, finding out slowly from people only SOME of what had happened. As we walked to Liberty Plaza I was stunned by several hundred police officers on the south side sidewalk as we marched west on the northside one. It looked like a one-on-one ratio in numbers, cops to protesters. I gulped. It felt like the possibility of further police arresting.

One female cop escorted us almost the whole way to Liberty Plaza being very VERY insistent that no one strayed onto the street and the crowd seemed pretty willing to slow down and funnel onto the narrow sidewalks though there were so many and the crowd was chanting lustily. I appreciated the horns honking approval and thumbs up people in cars were giving us and naive me did not realize that straying onto the street was a sure way to invite arrest with the cops and marched on the edges of the march sometimes on the street engaging with the cars.

I used my umbrella to emphasize the chanting. When I got near Liberty Plaza the marchers merged with the people at the Plaza chanting and bouncing up and down to musical accompaniment. I was impressed and it made me think of my anti-Vietnam days and also about those celebrated Woodstock rain-soaked conditions (I did not attend) as I walked about a little around the Plaza and saw all the soggy campout paraphernalia of the seriously committed!

Police on the northside of the street at the Plaza seemed to become more aggressive once most of us marchers had merged in the Plaza and thereupon had bullhorns insisting that we clear the surrounding sidewalks for the sake of pedestrians. One young guy yelled, "We ARE the pedestrians!" That was worth a ponder for sure.

I stayed at Liberty Plaza for a while and chanted. I was glad despite the rain there were so many. I was also glad the rain was not as heavy as it could have been.

I have been distracted by some serious things IRL, including a threat to my job, and am sorry not to have been more engaged with the Wall Street occupation up until now. I want to read as much as I can and catch up.

Thanks for your accounts! I am sniffling a bit tonight but I am glad I went.

Thanks for the report, MsExPat. Sounds like quite a day.

Please keep the reports coming. They are well written because the reader can feel the emotion along with the news. Thanks.

Where do you connect up? Website, etc.? Those of us (me) out of the loop can still give support.

n/t

national discount retailer last night, where they've instituted a single line checkout/returns system. When any register opens up, there's an announcement for the next customer to go to Register 2, for example.

When I was in line there were only two registers open, and my register person was a lovely young woman, who suddenly gave a little gasp and said the line had really grown (like 10 people waiting). She said she'd been on the register all night and had many other tasks to complete before she could go home. I asked if there were other people who could help out at check out, and she said, not really.

She added she would probably be there until 11 or midnight to get her assignments done, adding "I don't think they pay me enough." I told her I was positive she wasn't being paid enough, and I was so glad to see people holding the protests down at Wall Street pointing out the huge discrepancy in pay for work, that it was so totally unfair.

"Yesssss," she said. I gave her a big smile, and said, "If nothing else, if they can get attention paid to this unfairness, they'll have worked a minor miracle."

She then said, "Yeah, it's all going to the,..." and I joined her in saying, "...Top One Percent." She had her right hand raised straight up, her hand forming an upper limit.

I left thinking, damn, it's working. Here in Northern NJ Suboonia a clerk (with additional duties, as mentioned), who might have a PhD in econ for all I know, or might be a college student or maybe was a HS grad just lucky to have a job, was up to speed on What Occupy Wall Street Was About -- and our vaunted MCMers (members of the Mainstream Corporate Media) still profess to not be sure what it's about.

BTW, on local late evening news, can't recall which station, there were two vid-bits about protesters who experienced the pick-and-choose arrest scenario. One girl was walking with her boyfriend and they were following police instructions for how to get off the bridge -- and then, without seeming reason, her boyfriend was picked out of the group to be arrested. The other was an individual who had been getting ready to go out the exit and was "selected" as well. He was in a van for hours, then released.

Were the police trying to profile? Or did they have photos of people they considered "leaders" whom they wanted to detain and keep away from the main group at Zucotti Square?

Also, on one station there was video broadcast of the police leading the protesters onto the roadway: They formed a solid line in front, veering into the traffic lane and protesters followed. (Back in the Feb. '03 anti-Iraq Invasion kettling "practice seesion," police had done something similar. We'd all been walking up the sidewalk, then police stopped traffic and told us to get into the street, "to free up the sidewalk for pedestrians." However, it was also a way to get more people into each block so they could kettle us more efficiently block by block.)

But the local reporter (a delightfully good looking young guy with wavy dark hair) did say OWS was about the fraud on Wall Street going unpunished and the desire for more fairness in our economy.

Interesting....

seemingly irrational arrests. If doing seemingly nothing illegal can still result in arrests which might lead to job problems for those who would drop in on the marches, might join the occupation, it's a way to keep people from acting on their desire to form solidarity with the OWS on-site people.

Not showing up for work combined with not being able to contact the employer, could mean loss of income for many and loss of the job for some.

Control of people through fear of economic disaster is a major means of keeping people in line in this nation and the Oligarchic Kleptocracy. (Hence ObamaCare instead of Medicare for All Improved.)

Am I not seeing a link...or something?

Going to add here that the new color for embedded links is nice, but almost too subtle. Hard-ish to detect. More contrast would be nice for aging eyes.

So maybe there is a link I can't detect...?

in my opinion.

NYPD actions caused motorists to be tied up and marchers to be put at risk. If the police were concerned about traffic being blocked, the most sensible thing would have been to guide the marchers over and off of the bridge. The mass arrests tied up traffic much longer and unnecessarily.

By corralling the marchers, they put them at risk of injury from being pushed around.

When we had the anti-fracking rally in Phila., we were planning to march on the sidewalk, where a permit is not required. At the last minute, because so many people showed up to march, the police had us use the streets, and they escorted us through downtown (on a week day/ work day!).

We had trained 'marshals', now called 'Peacemakers' to keep the marchers in a coherent group, and to relay information.

It made no sense for the NYPD to stop traffic to arrest hundreds of peaceful people. Of course the marchers sat down in the street. What else could they do at that point?

Out of 500 or more people arrested, I read that 2 were held for outstanding warrants (which could be very minor offenses). That seems a small percentage to me - for such a 'disreputable' group! Ha!

Although I think this was calculated on the part of NYPD, I don't think they got the result they hoped for.

his name was conveniently added to the byline.
I was at Zucotti Park this afternoon, and there was a very light police presence, just a few in blue around the perimeter and they were not even carrying the plastic tie cuffs.

for Protests"

from Forbes!

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/201...

good 51/2 minute video of the arrests being made also...

......"That the NYPD felt obliged to arrest close one thousand protesters reveals a nervousness that wasn’t there before. This is the sort of action police usually take during a riot. The peaceful protests we’ve seen so far are anything but a riot."

............."Framing it as the 99% and tapping into the real issues of wealth inequality and the shrinking middle class makes strategic sense.

Solidarity in this case pits the vast majority of Americans against a tiny, powerful, and extremely wealthy sliver of the population. Workers, students, even professionals are all part of the 99%."