Occupy Wall Street The Cleaning & March

Friday morning, Oct 14th, I was sent out to cover Occupy Wall Street.I was up at 1:30 and on the grounds of Zuccotti park by 3am. The reason I was there so early was because the city was supposed to move in to make the protesters leave so the park owners could clean the park which has not been cleaned in about a month now.

When I arrived there was already a large crowd and over the next few hours, it just grew exponentially. How big was the crowd, you ask? well Zuccotti park is just under an acre, and there's a wide sidewalk all the way around it... and well here's a look at the area around 6am or so....





Better yet, here's a video.... it was a literal sea of people and there was barely any room to move.



Now, to their credit, the protesters, when told they would have to leave because the park was not being cleaned.... well... cleaned it. They had a cleaning station and I saw plenty of sweeping, mopping, trash details. After being there days before, I can tell you it also smelled a lot better.




Well word came down just before 7 that the protesters would not be asked to leave for the cleaning per park management and that they would work something out with the protesters. This led to lots of victory cheering, and some of us thought, ok, well, score one for the protesters.... what now?

That answer came very quickly. Someone called for a march on Wall Street. I heard a number of people calling for them not to march, to just take their victory, but they were outnumbered. So, after another 30 minutes or so of milling about, the crowd split into two and went both directions down Broadway. I went with the larger crowd...

It started peacefully enough, all the protesters marching down the sidewalk. The police were just fine with this, they had told everyone to stay on the sidewalk, and didn't mind if thousands of people were on the sidewalk.



One funny note here is coming up the sidewalk the other direction were a lot of business people heading to work. I can only describe their reaction when they saw the march as that of rats jumping off a sinking ship, they bolted in all directions for another path to work - suits running everywhere. It was just a funny image...

After a couple blocks on the sidewalk, things went from peaceful to confrontational. I heard a man yell 'Take the street! Take the street!" and the protesters did.




This of course was where the conflict started. They were now blocking intersections and traffic and the police came in with their motorbikes, lined like a wall, to try and push them back. You'll have to forgive the crappy video... as you can hear I was on the air live on one phone will videoing with an iPod... so give me a break.

Here's what I would like you to notice. Every time you see the crowd be pushed back by the police, notice how it surges forward again. You can even see some of the people waving forward for the crowd to keep surging. That only would get worse as the parade went on. It's actually pretty mild in this clip... it was the first surge and they got more confident as the march went on.



Eventually the protesters went around the police line and started streaming down the road again and it would happen all over again. About 5-6 blocks into the march, there was another round of storming the streets, and that's when I got my battle scar, or rather battle splash. An officer shoved a guy out of the street, towards the sidewalk and his cup of coffee and my hair and back got real friendly. I smelled like stale coffee for the rest of the day... lucky me.

So, moving on.... this is where things started to get a little uglier. There was more physical fighting between the police and protesters.

This video I think illustrates two different stories in one. I saw a clip of this video in many news reports. But it only shows the part where the officer has grabbed the guy in the striped shirt and is taking him down to claims the guy was peacefully protesting... Not so much.

Here's my video of it.... that shows WHY the officer is grabbing the guy in the striped shirt and taking him down. As a first protester is arrested on the right, the second guy comes through the crowd swinging at the officer who then grabs him and takes him to the ground.



There was a lot of this going on. As one protester would be arrested for something, others would grab them and try to pull them free of the police or push the police officers. I saw a lot of officers shoved to the ground. They pushed over the motor bikes and I saw bottles and bags of trash fly at officers on a few occasions.

Sorry guys, you do that kind of stuff, you're gonna get arrested...

I have another observation for you. Consider this. Consider being a police officer and this is what you are in the middle of... Yes, there are a few officers in the middle of the crowd here, look for their hats to spot them.



The crowd would not give way for some time... Sometimes they would even lock arms, and be layers deep creating a virtual human wall.

And yes, you not doubt noted the guys in gas masks. You may not have seen the phone # many had written on their arms... It was legal aid... so when they got arrested they were prepared to make their one phone call...

I felt for the officers. Honestly, I was more worried about their welfare than the protesters. And if anyone is thinking of 'they're just pigs' or many other colorful versions of that I heard yesterday, save your breath. They're all people out there... cops and protesters alike... they all have families, loved ones, so keep that crap to yourself. I cannot imagine being one of those officers and seeing that crowd of thousands of angry people coming at you. I do not envy their job.

While I am not saying I am a fan of seeing any violence between police and protesters, I think with only 10-20 arrests happening in this hour + march... the police were very lenient. Most of the arrests that I saw, by the way, had to do with protesters going hands on with police, shoving over their bikes, or throwing things at the officers.

So a couple final thoughts -

Why do these things get violent? I think some of the protesters know they have to so they can get news coverage. Sadly, most media outlets do not cover thousands of people marching peacefully, but as soon as there is a clash with police, it goes world-wide. They had a victory in the morning not being tossed out, so they needed to do something with all those people and a march it was... But then again, I guess that has never changed.... heck our forefathers were tar and feathering British and throwing tea overboard now weren't they....

Is everyone violent? No! It is a very very small minority that is. Case in point, after the march there was a man walking around the park trying to rally people to help him. He wanted to move the barricades set up around the park as well as the police officers standing by them, by force. He kept asking people to join him and I heard group after group say "Hey, that's not what we're here for." He would then move on to another group and try again. Did he get the people he needed? I don't know I left shortly after that, but there are those who are just there to be violent and cause trouble. Sadly it is that element that gets the coverage, not the husbands and wives, grandmothers, and others who are really there to peacefully assemble and try to be heard.