Occupy Wall Street

This article is about the protests in New York City. For the wider movement, see Occupy movement.

Occupy Wall Street
Part of the Occupy movement
Adbusters poster promoting the start date of the occupation, September 17, 2011.
Date	September 17, 2011 (2011-09-17) – ongoing (13 years, 1 month, 3 weeks and 3 days)
Location	New York City
Caused by	Wealth inequality, Corporate influence of government, Populism, (in support of) Social Democracy, inter alia.
Methods	Non violent protest Civil disobedience Occupation Picketing Demonstrations Internet activism
Status	Ongoing
Number
Zuccotti Park Other activity in NYC: 2,000+ marchers (march on police headquarters, October 2, 2011) 700+ marchers arrested (crossing Brooklyn Bridge, October 3, 2011) 15,000+ marchers (Lower Manhattan solidarity march, October 5, 2011) 6,000+ marchers (Times Square recruitment center march, October 15, 2011)

Occupy Wall Street (OWS) is a small protest movement which began September 17, 2011 in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City's Wall Street financial district, initiated by the Canadian activist group Adbusters. The protests are against social and economic inequality, high unemployment, greed, as well as corruption, and the undue influence of corporations—particularly from the financial services sector—on government. The protesters' slogan We are the 99% refers to the growing income and wealth inequality in the U.S. between the wealthiest 1% and the rest of the population. The protests in New York City have sparked similar Occupy protests and movements around the world.

Background

Origin

In a July 13, 2011 blog post, the Canadian-based Adbusters Foundation, best known for its advertisement-free anti-consumerist magazine Adbusters, proposed a peaceful occupation of Wall Street to protest corporate influence on democracy, the absence of legal repercussions for the bankers behind the recent global financial crisis, and a growing disparity in wealth. They sought to combine the symbolic location of the 2011 protests in Tahrir Square with the consensus decision making of the 2011 Spanish protests. Adbusters' senior editor Micah White said they had suggested the protest via their email list and it "was spontaneously taken up by all the people of the world.” Adbusters' website said that from their "one simple demand, a presidential commission to separate money from politics," they would "start setting the agenda for a new America." They promoted the protest with a poster featuring a dancer atop Wall Street's iconic Charging Bull.

The internet group Anonymous encouraged its readers to take part in the protests, calling protesters to "flood lower Manhattan, set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and occupy Wall Street." Other groups began to join in the organization of the protest, including the U.S. Day of Rage, and the NYC General Assembly, the governing body of the Occupy Wall Street group. The protest began on Sept 17th, 2011, an Occupy Wall Street page on Facebook began on September 19 with a YouTube video of the early protests, and by September 22, it had reached critical mass. By mid-October, Facebook listed 125 Occupy-related pages and roughly one in every 500 hashtags used on Twitter, all around the world, was the movement's own #OWS.

Adbusters' Kalle Lasn, when asked why it took three years after the implosion of Lehman Brothers' for people to begin protesting, said that after the election of President Barack Obama there was a feeling among the young that he would pass laws to regulate the banking system and "take these financial fraudsters and bring them to justice." However, as time passed, "the feeling that he's a bit of a gutless wonder slowly crept in" and they lost their hope that his election would result in change.

The protest was begun at Zuccotti Park since it was private property and police could not legally force protesters to leave without being requested to do so by the property owner. At a press conference held on the same day as the protests began, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg explained, "People have a right to protest, and if they want to protest, we'll be happy to make sure they have locations to do it."

Writing for CNN, Sonia Katyal and Eduardo Peñalver said that

A straight line runs from the 1930s sit-down strikes in Flint, Michigan, to the 1960 lunch-counter sit-ins to the occupation of Alcatraz by Native American activists in 1969 to Occupy Wall Street. Occupations employ physical possession to communicate intense dissent, exhibited by a willingness to break the law and to suffer the -- occasionally violent -- consequences.

More immediate prototypes for OWS are the British student protests of 2010, Greece's and Spain's anti-austerity protests of the "indignados" (indignants), as well as the Middle Easts' Arab Spring protests. These antecedents have in common with OWS a reliance on social media and electronic messaging to circumvent the authorities, as well as the feeling that financial institutions, corporations, and the political elite have been malfeasant in their behavior toward youth and the middle class. Occupy Wall Street, in turn, gave rise to the Occupy movement in the United States and around the world.

Goals

Protesters targeted Wall Street because of the part it played in the economic crisis of 2008 which started the Great Recession. They say that Wall Street's risky lending practices of mortgage-backed securities which ultimately proved to be worthless caused the crisis, and that the government bailout breached a sense of propriety. The protesters say that Wall Street recklessly and blatantly abused the credit default swap market, and that the instability of that market must have been known beforehand. They say that the guilty parties should be prosecuted.

Some journalists have criticized the protests saying it is hard to discern a unified aim for the movement, while other commentators have said that although the movement is not in complete agreement on its message and goals, it does have a message which is fairly coherent. Douglas Rushkoff, writing for CNN, said that even though the protesters are not ready to articulate an exact array of problems or how to solve them,

Anyone who says he has no idea what these folks are protesting is not being truthful. Whether we agree with them or not, we all know what they are upset about, and we all know that there are investment bankers working on Wall Street getting richer while things for most of the rest of us are getting tougher. What upsets banking's defenders and politicians alike is the refusal of this movement to state its terms or set its goals in the traditional language of campaigns...They mean to show that there is an inappropriate and correctable disconnect between the abundance America produces and the scarcity its markets manufacture.

In a special for CNN, Sonia Katyal and Eduardo Peñalver said that

What has puzzled many observers about the Occupy Wall Street protests is precisely the lack of an obvious connection between their disobedience (the occupation of parks and streets) and their political and economic complaints. This is why Occupy's turn toward foreclosed housing is so important. While it takes heroic acts of imagination to connect the dots between the occupation of Zuccotti Park and worries about economic inequality, political corruption and the excessive power of banks, the connection between these issues and the occupation of foreclosed housing is obvious.

The protesters want, in part, more and better jobs, more equal distribution of income, bank reform, and a reduction of the influence of corporations on politics. Adbusters co-founder Kalle Lasn has compared the protests to the Situationists and the Protests of 1968 movements. and addresses critics saying that while no one person can speak for the movement, he believes that the goal of the protests is economic justice, specifically, a "transaction tax" on international financial speculation, the reinstatement of the Glass-Stegall Act and the revocation of corporate personhood.

The General Assembly, the governing body of the OWS movement, has adopted a “Declaration of the Occupation of New York City,” which includes a list of grievances against corporations, and to many protesters a general statement is enough. However, saying, "‘Power concedes nothing without a demand' " others within the movement have favored a fairly concrete set of national policy proposals. One group has written an unofficial document, "The 99 Percent Declaration”, that calls for a national general assembly of representatives from all 435 congressional districts to gather on July 4, 2012, to assemble a list of grievances and solutions. OWS protesters that prefer a looser, more localized set of goals have also written a document, the Liberty Square Blueprint, a wiki page edited by some 250 occupiers and still undergoing changes. Written as a wiki the wording changes, however, an early version read: "Demands cannot reflect inevitable success. Demands imply condition, and we will never stop. Demands cannot reflect the time scale that we are working with." The Guardian interviewed OWS and found three main demands: get the money out of politics; reinstate the Glass-Steagall act; and draft laws against the little-known loophole that currently allows members of Congress to pass legislation affecting Delaware-based corporations in which they themselves are investors.

We are the 99%

Main article: We are the 99%

A chart showing the disparity in income distribution in the United States. Wealth inequality and income inequality have been central concerns among OWS protesters. CBO data shows that in 1980, the top 1% earned 9.1% of all income, while in 2006 they earned 18.8% of all income.

The phrase "The 99%" is a political slogan of "Occupy" protesters. It was originally launched as a Tumblr blog page in late August 2011. It refers to the vast concentration of wealth among the top 1% of income earners compared to the other 99 percent, and indicates that most people are paying the price for the mistakes of a tiny minority. Paul Taylor, executive vice president of the Pew Research Center told NPR that the slogan is "arguably the most successful slogan since 'Hell no, we won't go,' going back to the Vietnam era." According to Taylor, majorities of Democrats, independents and Republicans see the income gap as a cause of friction in the United States.

The top 1 percent of income earners have more than doubled their income over the last thirty years according to a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report. The report was released just as concerns of the Occupy Wall Street movement were beginning to enter the national political debate. According to the CBO, between 1979 and 2007 the incomes of the top 1% of Americans grew by an average of 275%. During the same time period, the 60% of Americans in the middle of the income scale saw their income rise by 40%. Since 1979 the average pre-tax income for the bottom 90% of households has decreased by $900, while that of the top 1% increased by over $700,000, as federal taxation became less progressive. From 1992-2007 the top 400 income earners in the U.S. saw their income increase 392% and their average tax rate reduced by 37%. In 2009, the average income of the top 1% was $960,000 with a minimum income of $343,927.

In 2007 the richest 1% of the American population owned 34.6% of the country's total wealth, and the next 19% owned 50.5%. Thus, the top 20% of Americans owned 85% of the country's wealth and the bottom 80% of the population owned 15%. Financial inequality (total net worth minus the value of one's home) was greater than inequality in total wealth, with the top 1% of the population owning 42.7%, the next 19% of Americans owning 50.3%, and the bottom 80% owning 7%. However, after the Great Recession which started in 2007, the share of total wealth owned by the top 1% of the population grew from 34.6% to 37.1%, and that owned by the top 20% of Americans grew from 85% to 87.7%. The Great Recession also caused a drop of 36.1% in median household wealth but a drop of only 11.1% for the top 1%, further widening the gap between the 1% and the 99%. During the economic expansion between 2002 and 2007, the income of the top 1% grew 10 times faster than the income of the bottom 90%. In this period 66% of total income gains went to the 1%, who in 2007 had a larger share of total income than at any time since 1928. This is in stark contrast with surveys of US populations that indicate an "ideal" distribution that is much more equal, and a widespread ignorance of the true income inequality and wealth inequality.

Demographics

Early on the protesters were mostly young, in part due to their pronounced use of social networks through which they promoted the protests. As the protest grew, older protesters also became involved. The average age of the protesters is 33, with people in their 20s balanced by people in their 40s. Various religious faiths have been represented at the protest including Muslims, Jews, and Christians. On October 10 the Associated Press reported that "there’s a diversity of age, gender and race" at the protest. Some news organizations have compared the protest to a left-leaning version of the Tea Party protests.

According to a survey of Zuccotti Park protesters by the Baruch College School of Public Affairs published on October 19, of 1,619 web respondents, 1/3 were older than 35, half were employed full-time, 13% were unemployed and 13% earned over $75,000. 27.3% of the respondents called themselves Democrats, 2.4% called themselves Republicans, while the rest, 70%, called themselves independents.

Racially, the majority of participants are White, with one study based on survey responses at OccupyWallStreet.org reporting 81.2% White, 7.6% Other, 6.8% Hispanic, 2.8% Asian, and 1.6% Black.

Organization and group process

Protesters engaging in the 'human microphone'

The New York City General Assembly (NYCGA), held every evening at seven, is the main OWS decision-making body and provides much of the leadership and executive function for the protesters. At its meetings the various OWS committees discuss their thoughts and needs, and the meetings are open to the public for both attendance and speaking. The meetings are without formal leadership, although certain members routinely act as moderators. Meeting participants comment upon committee proposals using a process called a "stack", which is a queue of speakers that anyone can join. New York uses what is called a progressive stack, in which people from marginalized groups are sometimes allowed to speak before people from dominant groups, with facilitators, or stack-keepers, urging speakers to "step forward, or step back" based on which group they belong to, meaning that women and minorities may move to the front of the line, while white men must often wait for a turn to speak. Volunteers take minutes of the meetings so that organizers who are not in attendance can be kept up-to-date. In addition to the over 70 working groups that perform much of the daily work and planning of Occupy Wall Street, the organizational structure also includes "spokes councils," at which every working group can participate.

According to Fordham University communications professor Paul Levinson, Occupy Wall Street and similar movements symbolize another rise of direct democracy that has not actually been seen since ancient times. Sociologist Heather Gautney, also from Fordham University, has said that while the organization calls itself leaderless, the protest in Zuccotti Park has discernible "organizers". Even with the perception of a movement with no leaders, leaders have emerged. Ad hoc leaders discussed whether to leave. They plan for the occupation of other cities and neighborhoods, with an infrastructure to keep the movement beyond just the park. A facilitator of some of the movement's more contentious discussions, Nicole Carty, says “Usually when we think of leadership, we think of authority, but nobody has authority here,” - “People lead by example, stepping up when they need to and stepping back when they need to.” According to TheStreet.com, some organizers have made more of a commitment and are more visible than others, with a core of about five main organizers being the most active.

Critics of the General Assembly believe that consensus-based democracy cannot work in a group that is larger than a couple hundred people because it requires excessive amounts of monitoring in order to prevent free-riding, and works best with like-minded individuals. They also suggest that there is a higher chance of groupthink among consensus-based groups because there is pressure to conform in order to maintain consensus.

Funding

Most of OWS funding comes from middle-class donors with incomes in the $50,000 to $100,000 range, and the median donation was $22. According to finance group member Pete Dutro, OWS had accumulated over $600,000 and had $450,000 remaining as of November 21, 2011. Between October 1 2011 and January 4 2012 Occupy Wall Street collected a total of $706,855.91. During the period that protesters were encamped in the park the funds were being used to purchase food and other necessities and to bail out fellow protesters. In the future members of the OWS finance committee say they will initiate a process to streamline the movement and re-evaluate their budget. They may eliminate or restructure some of the "working groups" they no longer need on a day-to-day basis. "We have some ideas but we want to hear ideas from the other working groups," said Dutro, "So we can put forward a proposal that would be fair and suit everybody's needs." Presently the movement continues to organize out of donated office space and give money to other "occupations."

According to The Wall Street Journal, "A few weeks ago, the Alliance for Global Justice, a Washington-based nonprofit, agreed to sponsor Occupy Wall Street and lend it its tax-exempt status, so donors could write off contributions. That means the Alliance for Global Justice's board has final say on spending, though it says it's not involved in decisions and will only step in if the protesters want to spend money on something that might violate their tax-exempt status." As of late October it was reported that the OWS Finance Committee works with a lawyer and an accountant to track finances; the group has a substantial amount of money deposited at the Amalgamated Bank nearby, after first making deposits at the Lower East Side People's Federal Credit Union. In late October the General Assembly of Occupy Wall Street registered for tax exempt status as a 501(c)(3) Occupy Wall Street accepts tax-deductible donations, primarily through the movement's website.

Zuccotti Park encampment

Zuccotti Park with the "Occupy" encampment's 'People's Library'

Prior to being closed to overnight use, somewhere between 100 and 200 people slept in Zuccotti Park. Initially tents were not allowed and protesters slept in sleeping bags or under blankets. Meal service started at a total cost of about $1,000 per day; while some visitors ate at nearby restaurants according to the New York Post local vendors fared badly and many businesses surrounding the park were adversely affected. Other Contribution boxes collected about $5,000 a day, and supplies came in from around the country. Eric Smith, a local chef who was laid off at the Sheraton in Midtown, said that he was running a five-star restaurant in the park. In late-October kitchen volunteers complained about working 18 hour days to feed people who were not part of the movement and served only brown rice, simple sandwiches, and potato chips for three days.

The protesters constructed a greywater treatment system to recycle dishwater contaminants. The filtered water was used for the park's plants and flowers. Many protesters used the bathrooms of nearby business establishments. Some supporters donated use of their bathrooms for showers and the sanitary needs of protesters.

New York City requires a permit to use "amplified sound," including electric bullhorns. Since Occupy Wall Street does not have a permit, the protesters have created the "human microphone" in which a speaker pauses while the nearby members of the audience repeat the phrase in unison. The effect has been called "comic or exhilarating—often all at once." Some feel this has provided a further unifying effect for the crowd.

Feeding people in the temporary camp simple sandwiches

During the weeks that overnight use of the park was allowed, a separate area was set aside for an information area which contained laptop computers and several wireless routers. The items were powered with gas generators until the New York Fire Department removed them on October 28, saying they were a fire hazard. Protesters then used bicycles rigged with an electricity-generating apparatus to charge batteries to power the protesters' laptops and other electronics. According to the Columbia Journalism Review's New Frontier Database, the media team, while unofficial, runs websites like Occupytogether.org, video livestream, a "steady flow of updates on Twitter, and Tumblr" as well as Skype sessions with other demonstrators.

In October a makeshift tent was erected, formally calling itself The People's Library, and began offering free wi-fi internet to protesters and containing over 5,000 books. The library operated 24/7 and used an honor system to manage returns. It offered weekly poetry readings on Friday nights, provided a reference serviced frequently staffed by professional librarians, and procured materials available through the interlibrary loan system. However, the library was removed on November 15 when the park was closed to overnight use and it was reported that many of the books were destroyed. The library's cataloging system is accessible online at LibraryThing, which donated a free lifetime membership.

Zuccotti Park, cleared and cleaned on November 15, 2011

On October 6, Brookfield Office Properties, which owns Zuccotti Park, issued a statement that "Sanitation is a growing concern... Normally the park is cleaned and inspected every weeknight[, but] because the protesters refuse to cooperate ... the park has not been cleaned since Friday, September 16 and as a result, sanitary conditions have reached unacceptable levels."

On October 13, New York City's mayor Bloomberg and Brookfield announced that the park must be vacated for cleaning the following morning at 7 am. However, protesters vowed to "defend the occupation" after police said they wouldn’t allow them to return with sleeping bags and other gear following the cleaning, under rules set by the private park’s owner—and many protesters spent the night sweeping and mopping the park. The next morning, the property owner postponed its cleaning effort. Having prepared for a confrontation with the authorities to prevent the cleaning effort from proceeding, some protesters clashed with police in riot gear outside City Hall after it was canceled.

Shortly after midnight on November 15, 2011, the New York Police Department gave protesters notice from the park's owner (Brookfield Office Properties) to leave Zuccotti Park due to its purportedly unsanitary and hazardous conditions. The notice stated that they could return without sleeping bags, tarps or tents. About an hour later, police in riot gear began removing protesters from the park, arresting some 200 people in the process, including a number of journalists. While the police raid was in progress, the Occupy Wall Street Media Team issued an official response under the heading, "You can't evict an idea whose time has come."

On December 31, 2011, Protesters started to re-occupy the park. Police were first called in when a mother and her two children had a tent set up for the children to play in. The police claimed that the tent violated the law of no camping in the park. The tent was eventually given up by protesters and protesters were allowed in the park around 8 p.m. Later on, protesters started to push police barricades into the streets.

File:Police stuggle with barricades.jpg

Police struggling to hold barricades away from protesters

Police quickly put the barricades back up. Occupiers then started to take down barricades from all sides of the park and stored them in a pile in the middle of Zuccotti Park. Police called in re-enforcements while at the same time more activist entered the park. Police tried to enter the park, but were push back by protesters. There were reports of pepper-spray being used by the police. About 12:40 a.m. after the group celebrated New Years in the park, They exited the park and marched down Broadway. Police, in riot gear, started to clear out the park around 1:30 a.m. According to New York Times, the park was cleared out by police by 2:30 a.m. Sixty-eight people were arrested in connection with the event, which was over within several hours.

Reaction

Main article: Reactions to Occupy Wall Street

Among the general public, opinions of OWS have varied over time, and there are contradictions between the data collected by various polling agencies. Many prominent politicians, academics and celebrities of varying degree have weighed in with their reaction and responses. Media of all genre as well as labor unions, the banking industry and business people have given statements and given both financial as well as moral support.

Crime

On October 11, it was reported that OWS protesters staying in Zuccotti Park were dealing with a worsening security problem with reports of multiple incidents of assault, drug dealing and use, and sexual assault. A Crown Heights man was charged with sexually assaulting a protester at the park raising the level of public discussion of lawlessness at the demonstrations. Protesters use de-escalation techniques, talking down or blocking with their bodies those people throwing punches. In more tense situations, protesters encircle troublemakers and usher them out. But many times, those kicked out or arrested return.But most protesters say that the most serious concern is the risk of assault, especially for women and at night. Demonstrators have complained of thefts of assorted items such as cell phones and laptops. Thieves also stole $2500 of donations that were stored in a makeshift kitchen. On October 10, a "methadone-addled man freeloading off the Wall Street protest" was arrested for groping a woman. On Nov 10, 2011, a man was arrested at OWS for breaking an EMT's leg.

Police Commissioner Paul Browne complained that protesters delayed reporting crime. He stated that it's OWS protocol not to report such incidents to the police until there were three complaints against the same individual. The protesters denied a "three strikes policy", and one protester told the New York Daily News that he had heard police respond to a complaint by saying, "You need to deal with that yourselves".

"A lot of the folks that are involved in the security operations at the park have been saying that -- when they encounter, you know, sort of transient, homeless type of people there in the park -- they are hearing reports that the police have been encouraging them to head down to Zuccotti, to "Take it to Zuccotti." It's very upsetting. Particularly, when you consider that some of the people that are arriving to the park have severe psychiatric problems or drug-addiction problems." Ryan Devereaux, reporter for Democracy Now!.

On November 16, 2011, police arrested Nkrumah Tinsley, 29, and charged him with making a terroristic threat, after police saw a video of him saying, “On the 17th, we going to burn New York City to the fucking ground,” and "In a few days they’re going to see what a Molotov cocktail can do to Macy’s." He had been previously arrested for assaulting a police officer during another protest on October 26. Defense lawyer Pierre Sussman said that Tinsley had been exercising his right to free speech, and that he was not really going to do the things he said. When police carried out a search warrant of Tinsley's home, they did not find any bomb making materials. In November, a 32-year-old man was arrested after driving around the protest with an unregistered gun. A 22-year-old was charged with two counts of forcible touching after allegedly groping the breast and buttocks of a 22-year-old woman. Another man was charged with criminal mischef after he was spotted tampering with Christmas lights at the park.

Sexual assaults

After several weeks of occupation, Occupy Wall Street protesters had made enough allegations of sexual assault and gropings that women-only sleeping tents were set up. David Park was arrested for a sexual assault that occurred in Zuccotti Park on October 8. At the time of the incident, Park had numerous warrants for his arrests. Tonye Iketubosin who worked as a kitchen helper was charged with an October 24 sexual assault of an 18-year-old fellow protester. Prosecutors believe he is responsible for an assault on another 18-year-old woman. Occupy Wall Street organizers released a statement regarding the sexual assaults stating, "As individuals and as a community, we have the responsibility and the opportunity to create an alternative to this culture of violence, We are working for an OWS and a world in which survivors are respected and supported unconditionally... We are redoubling our efforts to raise awareness about sexual violence. This includes taking preventative measures such as encouraging healthy relationship dynamics and consent practices that can help to limit harm.” A police union leader stated, “We have no way of really knowing. If you have three or five crimes reported, you really don’t know if it’s eight or 10 that happened.”

Chronology

Main article: Timeline of Occupy Wall Street

First four weeks (September 17 – October 14)

Protesters rallying near New York police headquarters, St. Andrew's Church in the background.

On September 17, 1,000 protesters marched through the streets, with an estimated 100 to 200 staying overnight in cardboard boxes. By September 19, seven people had been arrested. At least 80 arrests were made on September 24, after protesters started marching uptown and forcing the closure of several streets. Most of the 80 arrests were for blocking traffic, though some were also charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. Police officers used a technique called kettling which involves using orange nets to isolate protesters into smaller groups. Videos which showed several penned-in female demonstrators being hit with pepper spray by a police official were widely disseminated, sparking controversy. That police official was identified as Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna, and other videos imerged showing him hitting a photographer with a burst of spray as well.

Members of the Anonymous activist group subsequently published the name, phone number and family details of the police officer. Initially Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly and a representative for Bologna defended his actions, while decrying the disclosure of his personal information. After growing public furor, Kelly announced that Internal Affairs and the Civilian Complaint Review Board were opening investigations, again criticizing Anonymous for "[trying] to intimidate, putting the names of children, where children go to school," and adding that this tactic was "totally inappropriate, despicable." Meanwhile, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr. started his own inquiry.

Public attention to the pepper-sprayings resulted in a spike of news media coverage, a pattern that was to be repeated in the coming weeks following confrontations with police. Clyde Haberman, writing in The New York Times, said that "If the Occupy Wall Street protesters ever choose to recognize a person who gave their cause its biggest boost, they may want to pay tribute to Anthony Bologna," calling the event "vital" for the still nascent movement. "After Ron Kuby, an attorney for one of the protesters, demanded Mr. Bologna’s arrest, [Bologna] was instead docked 10 vacation days and given a [...] reassignment to Staten Island, where he lives," according to an account by blogger Daniel Edward Rosen.

On October 1, 2011, protesters set out to march across the Brooklyn Bridge. The New York Times reported that more than 700 arrests were made. The police used ten buses to carry protesters off the bridge. Some said the police had tricked protesters, allowing them onto the bridge, and even escorting them partway across. Jesse A. Myerson, a media coordinator for Occupy Wall Street said, “The cops watched and did nothing, indeed, seemed to guide us onto the roadway.” However, some statements by protesters supported descriptions of the event given by police: for example, one protester Tweeted that "The police didn't lead us on to the bridge. They were backing the [expletive] up." A spokesman for the New York Police Department, Paul Browne, said that protesters were given multiple warnings to stay on the sidewalk and not block the street, and were arrested when they refused. By October 2, all but 20 of the arrestees had been released with citations for disorderly conduct and a criminal court summons. On October 4, a group of protesters who were arrested on the bridge filed a lawsuit against the city, alleging that officers had violated their constitutional rights by luring them into a trap and then arresting them; Mayor Bloomberg, commenting previously on the incident, had said that "[t]he police did exactly what they were supposed to do."

On October 5, thousands of union workers joined protesters marching through the Financial District. The march was mostly peaceful until after nightfall, when scuffles erupted. About 200 protesters tried to storm barricades blocking them from Wall Street and the Stock Exchange. Police responded with pepper spray and penned the protesters in with orange netting.

Weeks 5–8 (October 15 – November 11)

See also: "Occupy" protests

Occupy Toronto was inspired by Occupy Wall Street.

On October 15, tens of thousands of demonstrators staged rallies in 900 cities around the world, including Auckland, Sydney, Hong Kong, Taipei, Tokyo, São Paulo, Paris, Madrid, Berlin, Hamburg, Leipzig, and many other cities. In Frankfurt, 5,000 people protested at the European Central Bank and in Zurich, Switzerland's financial hub, protesters carried banners reading "We won't bail you out yet again" and "We are the 99 percent." Protests were largely peaceful, however a protest in Rome that drew thousands turned violent when "a few thousand thugs from all over Italy, and possibly from all over Europe" caused extensive damage. Thousands of Occupy Wall Street protesters gathered in Times Square in New York City and rallied for several hours. Several hundred protesters were arrested across the U.S., mostly for refusing to obey police orders to leave public areas. In Chicago there were 175 arrests, about 100 arrests in Arizona (53 in Tucson, 46 in Phoenix), and more than 70 in New York City, including at least 40 in Times Square. Multiple arrests were reported in Chicago, and about 150 people camped out by city hall in Minneapolis.

In the early morning hours of October 25, police cleared and closed an Occupy Oakland encampment at Frank Ogawa Plaza in Oakland, California. The raid on the encampment was described as "violent and chaotic at times," and resulted in over 102 arrests and several injuries to protesters. The city of Oakland contracted the use of over 12 other regional police departments to aid in the clearing of the encampment. An Iraqi war veteran, Scott Olsen, was allegedly hit in the head with a teargas canister and suffered a skull fracture. His condition was later upgraded from critical to fair. The next night, approximately 1,000 protesters reconvened in the plaza and held marches late into the night.

On November 2, protesters in Oakland, California shut down the Port of Oakland, the fifth busiest port in the nation. Police estimated that about 3,000 demonstrators were gathered at the port and 4,500 had marched across the city; a spokesman for the protest movement, who gave only his first name, told the BBC that he had heard people say that there were as many as 20,000 or 30,000 demonstrators, but added, "It's impossible to tell."

Weeks 9, 10 & beyond (November 12 – December)

See also: Chronology of Occupy movement raids

After midnight on November 15, police delivered notices that protesters had to temporarily vacate the park to allow cleaning/sanitation crews access. According to the police notice, protesters would have been allowed back in after the cleaning, but without tents, tarps, or sleeping bags. Police moved in around 1:00 AM on November 15 and arrested about 200 people, some of whom attempted to stop the entry of cleaning crews. Among those arrested were journalists representing the Agence France-Presse, Associated Press, Daily News, DNAInfo, NPR, Television New Zealand, The New York Times, and Vanity Fair, as well as New York City Council member Ydanis Rodríguez. An NBC reporter's press pass was also confiscated.

While the police cleared the park, credentialed members of the media were kept a block away, preventing them from documenting the event. Police helicopters prevented NBC and CBS news helicopters from filming the clearing of the park. Many journalists complained of being treated roughly or violently by the police. The Society of Professional Journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Reporters Without Borders and the New York Civil Liberties Union expressed concerns and criticisms regarding the situation. The OAS Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression issued a statement saying that the "disproportionate restrictions on access to the scene of the events, the arrests, and the criminal charges resulting from the performance of professional duties by reporters violate the right to freedom of expression."

On November 21, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, the Associated Press, Dow Jones, NBC Universal and WNBC-TV joined in a letter written by New York Times General Council George Freeman criticizing the New York Police Department's handling of the media during the raid.

Half an hour into the police removal, the Occupy Wall Street Media Team put out an official statement under the heading, "You can't evict an idea whose time has come." It went on to say, "Some politicians may physically remove us from public spaces — our spaces — and, physically, they may succeed. But we are engaged in a battle over ideas."

The tents and personal effects of the protesters, and the five thousand books of The People's Library were put in dump trucks by the police and removed. On the November 15 edition of The Rachel Maddow Show, footage of the raid was shown with the following commentary:

"New York City police officers dressed in riot gear, handed out a written notice to the protesters telling them where their personal articles from the encampment could be retrieved, which sounds lovely until you saw what they were doing to the protesters` personal belongings. There were reports that police use knives to cut up the sturdy military-grade tents that were the best hope of surviving winter down there. You can see police here cutting down the protesters` tent poles with hand-held saws, with sawsalls."

Computers retrieved after the raid were found to be smashed.

After the removal, New York City officials ordered police to keep the entire park closed and to prevent any protesters from returning, pending the outcome of a court hearing on whether and in what circumstances the protesters could return; a judge issued a temporary restraining order that protesters could return to the park with their tents, which Washington Post opinion writer James Downie accused Mayor Bloomberg of ignoring. A judge in the late afternoon ruled that the temporary order should not be extended, saying that the First Amendment did not give protesters the right to fill the park with "tents, structures, generators, and other installations to the exclusion of the owner's reasonable rights and duties to maintain Zuccotti Park."

On November 17, journalists representing the Indypendent Reader, IMC and In These Times were arrested. Two reporters for the Daily Caller and a reporter for RT were reportedly struck with police batons.

On December 6, Occupy Our Homes, an offshoot of Occupy Wall Street, embarked on a "national day of action" to protest the mistreatment of homeowners by big banks, who they say made billions of dollars off of the housing bubble by offering predatory loans and indulging in practices that took advantage of consumers. In more than two dozen cities across the nation the movement took on the housing crisis by re-occupying foreclosed homes, disrupting bank auctions and blocking evictions.

On December 14, another OWS offshoot, Occupy DOE (Department of Education), joined with teachers and parents to protest at a school board meeting in the Queens district of New York City. The group claims that the Panel on Educational Policy (PEP), largely appointed by Mayor Bloomberg, is an illegitimate, undemocratic, "parody of a school board". The PEP was scheduled to vote on a plan to open two new charter schools in Brooklyn run by Success network, an organization run by a former city councilwoman with close ties to the mayor and his administration. Almost everyone on the Success board has been involved with the hedge fund or private equity industry. The perception that "the one percent" could open schools in Brooklyn neighborhoods, despite intense opposition by the public and many elected officials, has provoked intense anger.

On December 20, computer hackers from a loose online coalition called Anonymous exposed the personal information of police officers who have evicted OWS protesters.

January 2012

On January 3, 2012, approximately 200 Occupy protesters performed a flash mob at the main concourse of New York's Grand Central Terminal, in protest against President Obama's signing into law of a defense act that the protesters and many independent commentators perceived as detrimental to civil liberties. It was reported that three people were arrested during the flash mob, and a spokesperson for New York's Metro Transportation Authority characterized the event by stating, "It was a peaceful but noisy protest."

See also

Occupy articles

• List of Occupy movement protest locations
• Occupy Marines
• The People's Library
• Occupy Our Homes

Other U.S. protests

• Bonus army 1932
• Poor People's Campaign 1968
• 1971 May Day Protests
• 2011 United States public employee protests
• 2011 Wisconsin protests

International

• Impact of the Arab Spring
• 2010–2011 Greek protests
• 15 October 2011 global protests

Related articles

• Bank Transfer Day
• Corporatocracy
• Corruption Perceptions Index
• Empowered democracy
• Grassroots movement
• List of countries by income equality
• List of countries by inequality-adjusted HDI
• Plutocracy
• Selected Historical income tax rates in the U.S. (1913–2010)
• Social peer-to-peer processes
• The One Percent–documentary about the growing wealth gap between America's wealthy elite compared to the overall citizenry
• Wealth inequality in the United States

 

External links

Occupy websites

• NYC General Assembly– The official website of the General Assembly at #OccupyWallStreet
• Occupy Wall Street . org– unofficial website produced by affinity group within #OWS
• Adbusters page– A listing of websites and updates
• Occupy Together– A hub for events occurring across the U.S.
  • Occupy Together Meetups Everywhere– (Meetup)
• OccupyTV's YouTube Channel
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Related websites

• OccupyWiki.info– Wiki on the Occupy movement
• wiki.shop.tm– Wiki on the Occupy movement
• OccupyWiki.org– Directory and information
• Occupy Directory– Google Documents spreadsheet
• American Rattlesnake– Archive Of Photo Essays Relating to Occupy Wall Street
• Charts: Here's What The Wall Street Protesters Are So Angry About...– from Business Insider
• Occupy Wall Street Videos– The growing and expanding movement captured on video
• "Occupy" photographs from around the nation– from the Denver Post
• Inequality.org– from Program on Inequality and the Common Good, an Institute for Policy Studies project
• The Equality Trust (UK)– An organization for reducing income inequality in the United Kingdom
• In Re Waller Order to Show Cause and Temporary Restraining Order of November 15, 2011 from the National Lawyer's Guild website
• Decision of November 15, 2011 overturning the TRO in Matter of Waller v City of New York from the New York State Unified Court System website
• Occupy Wall Street Art & Culture– The hub for OWS-related film, art, music & graphic design.