Saturday, October 15, 2011

BREAKING NEWS: Occupy Wall Street


While the exact details of this incident are not yet known, what we know so far is that TWENTY or more protesters have been arrested inside the LaGuardia Place branch of Citibank. An estimated fifty people entered the bank location with the intention of closing their bank accounts, in an effort to make a statement about their disgust for the United States' financial crisis, and the portion of fault belonging to the banks themselves.

Right now, protesters are preparing to start their march starting at Washington Square and culminating at Times Square later this evening. The non-violent, peaceful means of protest, choosing to go into one of their bank's various branches, and ultimately closing their accounts, have been treated as though they were criminal acts. I personally have seen footage from just minutes ago, where at least two people were arrested after leaving the bank. One woman in particular was first approached by a plain-clothes undercover police officer who briefly said to her "you were inside ... you were inside with everybody else." I clearly heard the woman respond to the uncover officer repeatedly, but in a calm and respectful manner, "I am a customer." She also had paperwork in her hand which appeared to have been given to her by an employee of the bank branch before she had left the building.

The young woman was not in any way acting aggressively, and she responded to the plain-clothes police officer when approached. She did not try to "flee the scene." Despite the fact that it was clear that there was no crime being committed in the first place, she did stick around to respond to the officer. After he repeatedly said "you were in there with everybody else," to her, as if he was suggesting that being inside of your bank, during regular business hours, for the purpose of speaking with a bank employee in regards to your bank account is suddenly illegal, he forcefully grabbed her and detained her. Excessive force was used, despite the fact that this poor young woman had not committed any crime, was not interfering with the police officer's "investigation," and was not causing a scene whatsoever. At least one other individual was approached in the same manner, after leaving the bank, and was also detained completely against their will and without cause.

At one point, the bank was actually locked down, keeping the people inside, and that reportedly is when the majority of the 20+ arrests took place. Some sources are now saying that the estimate the arrest total at about 23. As far as I'm aware at this point of the evening, all these people were doing was simply walking into the bank and attempting to close their bank accounts. Most, if not all, of the bank customers in question, have reportedly been charged with crimes such as criminal trespassing. Good luck explaining that one in court, guys. I've never heard of anyone being charged with criminal trespassing because they entered the bank where they are an established customer, and asked to close their bank account. The NYPD is going to have to think of a better story if they want to keep arresting New Yorkers that are choosing to take a stand and make a statement through non-violent, peaceful acts of protest.

I'd like to point out that I have heard reports and seen footage of a very small amount of protesters ignoring direct orders from police officers and/or committing minor offenses such as disturbing the peace, and therefore being arrested. I am not trying to tell you that every one of these protesters is staying within the limits of the law, or that all of the police officers in these locations are abusing their powers. What I am saying, however, is that the vast majority of these protesters are exercising their rights to protest, and their legal right to freedom of speech. I have seen and heard of far too many NYPD police officers abusing their power, using excessive force, and making unlawful arrests.

Earlier today, I saw two different videos that showed an NYPD police officer on a motor scooter literally driving into crowds of people, and at one point, the officer drove right into a cameraman and proceeded to drive directly over the man's legs. This makes me sick; these officers need to be held accountable for their actions, and I wish that the law-abiding cops were doing more to uphold the integrity of the NYPD by holding these corrupt cops responsible for their gross misconduct and completely illegal and dangerous actions.


3 comments:

  1. I commented in one of your other entires about the "we are the 99%" tumblr. I do like that you've been covering some of the interactions between protesters and the police, but I am curious as to your take on the philosophy behind the whole movement.

    While I agree with these people that certain factors in the financial industry have gotten out of control, it's very disheartening that the protesters aren't offering up real solutions. As boneheaded and totally wrong as the Tea Party activists are, at least they can say "We want to do X, Y, and Z to achieve this goal." From everything I've read in the Times, the Guardian, and the WSJ, none seem to know what these people want Wall Street to do about the problem.

    I suppose I'm bringing this up to ask what you think about it. Do you think this is a legitimate movement that could potentially foster change in the system? What do you think these people want done?

    Considering that these protests against financial institutions have spread globally, this clearly isn't a marginal issue (as much as Fox news might want it to be though), and thus deserves attention. I suppose the point to all of this is that deep down, I have this sinking feeling that a lack of central purpose to the movement will ultimately be its undoing.

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  2. As a follow-up to my above comment:

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204479504576637082965745362.html

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  3. Thank you for your comment, and for the link. You raise some very good and important questions. I'm glad you're back!

    I was about to write back to you and just answer your questions right in this comment, but then I realized that I could (and should) just make a whole blog entry/article out of my response to you, my anonymous friend. So what I've decided to do is dedicate a post strictly to my opinion of the protesters as a collective group, my opinion of some specific people who are there and have gotten a bit of attention in the media, and also my thoughts on what this Wall Street occupation really means right now and could mean in the long run, if anything.

    Although I had every intention of continuing to write about the Occupy Wall Street movement, I'm glad that you posted this comment and asked the questions that you did, because they pose as a great prompt to help me outline what I will be focusing on for my upcoming article which you should expect to be up within the next 12 hours.

    Thanks very much, keep coming back! Also, keep in mind that you don't have to be become a subscriber or log in as an official Google/Twitter,etc. user, but you can still leave a first name or something, so that I know it's you whom I'm speaking to since we have ongoing exchanges. It's up to you though. All the best.

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