Occupy Wall Street protest turns chaotic and violent
Πηγή: Thetechherald
By Steve Ragan
Sep. 26 2011
Nearly 100 people have been arrested for protesting in and around Wall Street, during what some are calling the Arab Spring of The United States. Outraged over the way the political and financial worlds are managed, protesters - calling themselves the 99% - have gathered to share their grievances with the top one-percent of America and demand change.
There is an old saying in the media, dark humor really, that goes ‘if it bleeds, it leads’. For more than a week now, people have gathered in New York to protest on Wall Street, but you wouldn’t know it from reading the headlines. There was little to no coverage in the U.S. media, and one has to wonder if the reason is due to the fact that protests are not seen as news until they turn chaotic.
Even we here at The Tech Herald, while following live video feeds and comments online, skipped coverage of the protest because it was peaceful. The police who were assigned to guard the areas around Wall Street and Liberty Plaza were friendly, outwardly respectful of the people’s right to demonstrate.
In all honestly, the major news of the week out of Wall Street centered not on the protesters or their aims, but on a small pizza joint, and how they were making a killing on food deliveries. There were arrests, but most of those were due to protesters being disrespectful, and they were in the small minority of those representing the 99%.
In the cold and rain, protesters sleep. When they wake, they gather to march and chant their message of change. Peaceful, using only their voices and cameras as tools, they stand united as the 99% “that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%.”
An Anonymous statement to those on Wall Street explains that they are not at the eye of the storm, but rather they are facing something much larger.
“Some four years ago you shattered this country, liquidating it piecemeal for your own selfish interests. We are here, gathered at the steps of your butcher block four years later, frenzied and furious. We are Democrats and Republicans, young and old. Your horrendous actions have crossed party lines. Your crimes have united this great melting pot into a white hot alloy of rage,” reads the Anonymous statement.
“The world is stirring and with it, revolution is brewing. Perhaps you see yourselves at the eye of the storm, luxuriating in peace and tranquility while all around is ripped apart and made anew. Anonymous is here to offer a gentle reminder: You are not at the eye of the storm. You are at the center of the crosshairs! The people have grown weary of their corporate shackles, the greed of Wall Street having left them with nothing to lose, but their chains. From Cairo to Iran, London to Tunisia and Syria to Greece, this is our day of rage.”
A leaderless resistance movement, Occupy Wall Street got its start in July, when Adbusters promoted the idea of a nonviolent protest at the center of the country’s financial power.
“Like our brothers and sisters in Egypt, Greece, Spain, and Iceland, we plan to use the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic of mass occupation to restore democracy in America. We also encourage the use of nonviolence to achieve our ends and maximize the safety of all participants,” protest organizers explain.
They started on September 17, and one week later the crowds grew from a few hundred to over a thousand based on estimations and images. Online, the #occupywallstreet hash tag on Twitter gathered support form people around the world, who have made donations and offered encouragement. Yet, during this week, despite the rain and cold, the mood was upbeat.
There were serious concerns that the protesters wanted addressed, but aside from raised voices, there was nothing threatening about the protesters or their numbers. In fact, in some cases the police outnumbered the protesters, most standing silent, while others used their own cameras to record events.
It was peaceful. In the world of mass media, peace doesn’t gain readers and it doesn’t sell news papers. It seems harsh, but that is how things are, and reporters rarely get to pick the topics they cover. For the previous week, both the police and protesters were calm and ordered. People were wearing smiles, and positive discussions were being had in and out of the protest lines.
All of that changed on Saturday.
On Saturday, carrying an orange fence through Union Square, police started to corral protesters and herd them onto sidewalks. The goal was to keep them out of the street, keep them moving, and to prevent them from standing in one place for too long. Armed with batons and cameras, police marched along with the protesters, who were moving to the banging sounds of drums setting a brisk cadence.
Some protesters were immediately compliant with the police orders and dynamic orange fence. Others stood their ground, moving at a pace that the police felt was defiant and slow, but they were moving nevertheless. As police issued orders to move, those who did not do so immediately were warned of arrest.
According to the NYPD, the arrests on Saturday were for disorderly conduct and resisting. Many of those arrested were said to have been blocking pedestrian traffic or vehicle traffic as they stood in one spot. Others were non-compliant with police orders, and offered resistance as they were tossed to the ground and placed into custody.
The most shocking images from Saturday’s protest center on a group of women who were on the sidewalk. The screaming and sheer panic displayed by one woman, as she is brought to her knees by pepper spray and grabs at the air looking for something -anything - to clear her eyes and mouth (both now burning with pain), is a twisted turn of events considering how things started just a week earlier.
What makes the event even more troubling is that, by all accounts, the women were standing where they were supposed to be. Yet, they were prevented from moving along with the rest of the group due to the same orange fence used to corral others out of the street earlier. Even the police holding the fence itself looked shocked and confused as one of their supeiors sprayed the area. At first, the officers look as if they are unsure who released the spray in the first place.
Caught in the fenced in cage, the women were reacting to the arrest of a protester a few feet from them when the incident took place. Patrick Bruner, a spokesman for the protest itself, called the actions and tactics used by the police "exceedingly violent", noting that the protesters sought to remain peaceful.
The videos below show what happened. Take note, their content may be shocking to some readers.
Another video outlines the general chaos that surrounded the protesters on Saturday.
It is unknown why things suddenly turned from peaceful to chaotic. To make matters worse, a person from the Chemical and Biological Response Unit of the Department of Homeland Security, seemed to be taunting protesters by wearing a Guy Fawkes mask, a symbol of Anonymous. Why would law enforcement do this, if they are stressing that some of the actions taken by protesters are illegal?
Unfortunately, the fear is that the Occupy Wall Street movement will mirror the protests seen in Egypt, Tunisia, and Greece exactly. If this happens, such chaos and violence could happen again, and things will get worse for the protesters.
More information can be located from the links below.
Main protest hub
Videos and images
Images
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