A photo from The New York Times of the protests in Manhattan today.
N.Y. / REGION City Room: Arrests on Lower East Side as May Day Protests Spread
By By COLIN MOYNIHAN and IVAN PEREIRA
Published: May 1, 2012
After a rainy morning, the May Day protests coordinated by Occupy Wall Street grew more clamorous, and the police moved in.
I had been meaning to post this video I took when I visited the Occupy Wall St. encampment at Zuccotti Park about a month ago. I was watching CNN this morning and during banter between two of the anchors they said the removal of the protestors was done partly because of sanitary reasons: "piles of trash and feces" were in the park. When I visited there was absolutely no sign of either and I can't imagine they would have let that change in a few weeks. Why would they? That would give the City the excuse it was looking for to remove them.
The piles you see in my short video are just belongings. There was no garbage, no foul smells, nothing that would hint of unsanitary conditions.
Whether you agree or disagree with the Occupy Wall Street movement is one thing. But I try very hard with this Blog to at least keep the facts about things straight. Let's make sure we are all in "reality." CNN should do the same if it considers itself to be a major news organization. After all, this is an extremely important fact to get straight. The Right Wingers have tried to paint this protest movement as nothing more than a bunch of radicals and outcasts who do not even know how to clean up for themselves. Sure, some of the movement's members are just that. But many more are productive members of society who are uncomfortable with the fact that the voices of the many are being drowned out in our government by the power of the very few.
I have more video footage I shot that day which I will try to post in the near future, but there's a limit to the file size here, so here you go....
Apparently there was some commotion over at Bob Turner's swearing in here in Forest Hills yesterday. This post over at Gothamist has the story (and strikes the perfect tone, if I do say so myself :) )
This is some cool stuff...
Those of you who follow this blog know I visited the Occupy Wall St. camp last weekend... I am going to run some of their live feed from time to time. I'm not trying to promote their movement by doing this. I think both those who support them and those who don't and those who are somewhere in the middle all have valid points of view. That's democracy. The debate needs to be ongoing and our discourse needs to be energetic and passionate. We are all Americans and all of our opinions matter, whether you are part of the so-called One Percent, or the so-called 99 Percent. Everyone is just as important to our country as everyone else. So, why am I running their live feed from time to time? Just to further the debate and because I've been watching some of this feed and I think it's really, really interesting. So, give it a try if you have some time to spare:
This past Sunday I finally visited the Occupy Wall Street encampment down at Liberty Square. It was really great to finally see it for myself, especially after hearing all the disparaging rumors about it. I wasn't surprised to find the rumors are completely false. The encampment is pretty clean, for instance. It isn't unsanitary from what I can see. Also, the mood was pretty much one of peaceful coexistence -- or at least using peaceful methods to overturn a system the protesters believe has become unjust.
There are indeed a ton of sleeping bags. But interestingly, you never feel really crowded while you are walking around. The paths are pretty wide and everything is very well organized.
Overall, I highly recommend you take the E train down to the WTC and see if for yourselves. The people are for the most part pretty friendly and happy to explain to you what they are doing there.
I really found it fascinating how they have created for themselves a mini-city. As you walk around you see all the different parts that are needed for a self-sustaining community to operate, from First Aid, to a clothing shop, a kitchen, to even a growing library!
Here's some photos I took. I'll post some short videos in the next day or so as well.
By a 67 – 23 percent margin, New York City voters agree with the views
of the Wall Street protesters and say 87 – 10 percent that it is “okay that
they are protesting,” according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.
Agreeing with the
protesters views are Democrats 81 – 11 percent and independent voters 58 – 30
percent, while Republicans disagree 58 – 35 percent, the independent Quinnipiac
(KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University poll finds. Even Republicans, however, agree 73 – 23
percent with the protesters right to be there.
New York City voters say 72 – 24 percent, including 52
– 41 percent among Republicans, that if the protesters obey the law, they can
stay as long as they wish.
A total of 72 percent of voters say they understand
the protesters’ views “very well” or “fairly well,” with 17 percent who say
“not too well” and 10 percent who say “not well at all.”
Voters split 46 – 45 percent in their approval of the
way police are handling the Wall Street protest, but approve 61 – 33 percent of
how the police are doing their job overall.
“It’s a
free country. Let them keep on
protesting as long as they obey the law, New Yorkers say overwhelmingly,” said
Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. “Critics complain that no one can figure out
what the protesters are protesting. But
seven out of 10 New Yorkers say they understand and most agree with the anti-Wall
Street views of the protesters.
“For a while,
the critics focused on the cops’ use of pepper spray at the protests. Voters are divided on how police are handling
the protesters, but they say almost 2-to-1 that police are doing a good job
overall.”
Asked
who is to blame for the current state of the nation’s economy;
·37 percent of New York
City voters blame the administration of former President George W. Bush;
·21 percent blame Wall
Street and financial institutions;
·18 percent blame
Congress;
·11 percent blame President Barack Obama.
New
York City voters support 61 – 28 percent an extension of the state’s so-called
‘Millionaire’s Tax.’ Even Republicans
support the extension 55 – 38 percent.
Voters
also support 73 – 19 percent, including 48 – 40 percent among Republicans,
tougher government regulation of banks and Wall Street firms.
“New
Yorkers, even Republicans, back the Wall Street protesters on at least two
things they’re talking about, a get-tough attitude toward banks and Wall Street
and continuation of the state’s ‘Millionaire’s Tax,’” Carroll said.
From October 12 – 16, Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,068
registered voters with a margin of error of +/- 3 percentage points. Live
interviewers call land lines and cell phones.
The
Quinnipiac University Poll, directed by Douglas Schwartz, Ph.D., conducts
public opinion surveys in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut,
Florida, Ohio, Virginia and the nation as a public service and for
research.
By the way, don't forget to vote in our own local poll about this:
An interesting development today as the City says the protesters will no longer be allowed to use tents, sleeping bags or other equipment in the park where they have been encamped up until now. I don't see how they are going to be able to maintain their 24 hour vigil there without such equipment. I didn't know that the park is privately-owned, which is why these regulations can be enforced. So, it looks like they may have to move to a public location... maybe Battery Park?
After all, this is what true democracy is really, really about -- the rights of Americans to pick themselves up and march against what they see as injustice, the ills of the society they live in. We have a rich heritage of doing just that in this country. But it seems like until now we had forgotten that.
It's wonderful to have it back!
Occupy Wall Street, like I said is messy. And that, I think is just what the good ole' US of A has been missing in its domestic discourse for way too long now. Our discourse has been about soundbites. Politicians say harmless little tidbits, wrapped in a bow for the 24 hour news cycle. Harmless and spineless little nothings.
That's why I love Occupy Wall Street. A vibrant democratic system should be messy, not about neat little soundbites, and that is exactly what Occupy Wall Street is.
In fact, there's a lot of criticism of the Occupy Wall Street movement for not having specific, clear demands. Sorry, but isn't that exactly what a grass-roots movement of the people is all about? To have not specific, but a broad variety of demands? These are people of every walk of life, after all, who are fed up with what our society has evolved into -- where the power of the powerful has gotten way out of hand, leaving the other 99 percent virtually powerless. It would be pretty difficult to sum up their frustrations into just a few soundbites, right?
I think it was former Democratic Senator Russ Feingold who recently said that Occupy Wall Street will now show the country what a real protest movement is all about. I could not agree with that statement more. After all, now that a genuine, grass-roots protest movement has started to take hold in the United States, it's a bit more obvious that the so-called Tea Party was really full of shit, isn't it? I mean, what were those people really, except Republicans with a new name who opposed health care reform, right? What have they been screaming about? The government spending money to prevent the economy from falling off a cliff? Would they rather we had fallen off the cliff?? Aren't things bad enough?
The goal of this movement seems to be to give voice to the frustration of our nation's disempowered -- what the movement says is the 99 percent of us. And if it is just for the sake of giving that frustration voice, that is enough. This is a society, after all, where the voice of the average person is becoming increasingly ignored by the powers that be, whether it is the mainstream media or political parties. What we are witnessing unfold on the streets of our City is quite possibly the end of that.
