- Andy Haynes
- Hundreds of people were arrested.
What seemed to be a very promising day at the Occupy Wall Street protests ultimately did not turn out that way. It all began, for me, at around 3 p.m., when I arrived back down at protester village right as the Saturday afternoon General Assembly was finishing up (thank god/sorry). Organizers were announcing the march plans, and telling people what to do if anyone was arrested. I kind of resigned myself to ending the day in cuffs. Internal monologue: At least this time I won't be drunk, DAD!
Unlike other days, Zuccotti Park was packed to the brim. The crowd was well into the thousands, and was the most diverse yet. The stinky hippie thing Iâve hyperbolizedâthat was not what Saturdayâs crowd was about. It was young and old, all colors of the rainbow, seemingly anyone not wealthy enough to be threatened by the occupationâs goals. (And some hippies too.)
- Andy Haynes
- New York Rep. Charles Rangel, minus the monacle.
Randomly, right before the march started New York Congressman Charles Rangel tried to speak to the crowdsâbut was quickly booed off the stage for looking like the black version of the Monopoly guy, minus a monocle and top hat. I mean, click on that photo and look at the outfit Rangel wore to the protest. He shouldâve had a brandy snifter and cigar, too. (But shouldnât we all?) As he retreated, the crowd teased him and a redheaded man tried to rush him, yelling something I couldnât hear. But Iâm sure it had something to do with being a ginger.
I was jealous of Rangel. Iâve never had that many people laughing at me. Maybe he should get into stand-up.
The crowd then began to walk north up the sidewalk on Broadway, which was lined by hundreds of cops. At about three blocks in, the march went east. I still canât say whether the cops made them turn, or whether the marchers turned on their own, but in any case soon we were headed for the Brooklyn Bridge. I thought: This kinda seems like a stupid idea, a great way to be forced into a small space and then arrested. Oooohhhh, FORESHADOWING....
Minutes later we were funneling onto the Brooklyn Bridge and people were acting triumphant. I even felt a little swell of emotions as the crowd began to chant "Whose bridge? Our bridge!â Later on the cops would show us whose bridge: the New York City Department of Transportation's bridge. TOO MUCH FORESHADOWING...
- Andy Haynes
- Raging grannies: not the fastest marchers.
Anyway, I was on the bridge's walkway, with a majority of the marchers, but soon a group broke off and took to the eastbound roadway, LED BY THE POLICE. Thatâs important. The marchers on the roadway were moving much faster than us on the walkway, because we on the walkway were being led by one of those âGranny-Somethingâ groups, which is not a good idea, because grannies are slow. Sorry Grannies, I love you, but let's be real.
As we marched and chanted, the crowd on the roadway came to a stopâbecause the cops stopped them. Soon more cops showed up and cut these marchers off from behind. The orange netting came out and the cops began to arrest the protestors on the roadway, wrestling them away one by one. Those of us on the walkway cheered for all of them, and each of them yelled their name, in case they were disappeared (as if we were in Nicaragua).
- Andy Haynes
- Tricked by the cops.
Anyways, the cops basically tricked a couple hundred protestors onto the bridge, and then arrested them. The last thing I saw was the police backing city buses onto the bridge to take the protestors to... Nicaragua???
This basically ruined the march, because we stopped marching and instead started watching people get arrested. Nice move, cops! Good thing you make all that Wall Street money! Oh wait, you donât? Why the fuck are you not on the side of the protest? Nevermind, I know the answer: Lizard people control the world.
We walked in a diminished crowd over the Brooklyn Bridge to a park on the other side, where a couple hundred people were rallying again. One of the grannies was lying on cardboard on the side of the group. I thought she was dead. She was napping.
I couldnât feign excitement for the severely smaller group that made it to Brooklyn (and hey, I know I'm not in charge, but I'd just like to say the other side of the Brooklyn Bridge is a long way from Wall Street). So I headed back to the village. People were dancing, it began to rain, they continued to dance, and I headed home. This protesting thing, even when you're just observing it, is exhausting.
- Andy Haynes
- This may look like the WTO, but it's not.
On the way home, I thought about a question someone in Seattle had asked me: How does the Occupy Wall Street effort compare to the WTO protests of 1999?
They're different animals, obviously. But as far as I rememberâand, I think, romanticize it, because I was seventeen at the time and just dying to throw things at copsâbut as far as I remember, the WTO really shut down the city of Seattle.
Occupy Wall Street has taken over one block. One park, really. And on Saturday, it managed to march a few thousand people about a half a mile before hundreds of those people were arrested and the rest of the march became a leisure walk.
I think the WTO was true protest, true civil disobedience, all out chaos at certain points, and because of that it garnered a lot more attention. The cover of Newsweek, for instance. I don't know for sure, but I think there was also a lot more organization behind what happened in Seattle in 1999. I remember a couple hundred anarchists coming to my mom's house before the WTO protests so that my sister and other organizers could teach them resistanceâand build those arm guards so cops couldn't take them away. I don't think Occupy Wall Street has grown out of the same kind of organization, resources, or advance planning. I also don't think it's affecting Wall Street, or New York, to the point where it's forcing everyone to get involved in some manner or another.
Too bad, because Occupy Wall Street is fighting something just as big and complicated and well-defended as the WTO.
- Andy Haynes
- Andy Haynes
- Andy Haynes
