Occupy Wall Street Nov 15 Part 2

March #2

At just after 8 am, we got underway on the second march of the day. This was not to be as long as the 10 miles or so overnight. It was just over a mile. It left Foley Square and went south. The idea was to circle city hall and give Mayor Bloomberg a piece of their mind as he was speaking.

Usually there were just police on one side of us as we marched, along the street side, keeping protesters on the sidewalk and out of the road...



but since City Hall was on the other side, there was now a police presence on both sides


You'll note the ones right by the gates of City Hall were in riot gear, just in case.



If you have seen any of the footage of the protests, there is always a lot of chanting. This makes for great background as I am doing live reports. I usually cannot hear a darn thing being said from the studio. I just desperately listen to hear my name and hope I am supposed to talk, but it sounds great with the chanting in the background.

However... as they marched around City hall the chanting changed from the typical "We are the 99%" and "Whose street? Our Street!" to this....



Yes, just seconds before they went live to me the "Fuck you Bloomberg" chant erupted and was the backdrop for my report. I mentioned it in my report... that they had turned to a less-than friendly chant for the mayor that the listeners may or may not have been able to hear...

We continued onwards and ended up at Canal and 6th Ave. It was an open lot that belonged to a church that was friendly with the protesters. So they were welcome to hang out there. It was used as a gathering / regrouping / demonstration spot and a large crowd showed up.



This is where I got bored again. There was a lot of message passing going on. If you have not heard how that works... well... they have what they call the 'people's microphone'.



You hear a female voice. She is in the middle of the crowd starting the information chain. It is then repeated in 'waves' by the people in the crowd so everyone can get the information and hear. It's a very effective way to communicate in such a massive crowd, but it takes forever to get a couple sentences across and I can be impatient. I used this time to interview people off to the side as well as talk to some of the police officers.

What did I talk to them about? Well I told them that there was a reason they were cops and I was not and that after watching them be insulted, ridiculed, spit on, hit with trash bags, I would have decked someone and I was impressed with their restraint. The officers I talked to smiled, said thanks, and otherwise did not say much. I don't blame them, I am the media... they have to be careful.

After a lot of 'people's mic' talk, a decision was made that some of the group was going to march back to Zuccotti Park to see if the police were indeed allowing them back in, as the court order said they should. Frankly, they wanted to test them and see if they could find the police in contempt of court.

So, we got in formation behind a banner and American flag and started marching again. This was another march of about a mile.




Along the way we saw a lot of support for the occupiers. There were people standing the doorways of businesses waving and taking pictures. Cars would honk their horns. People were even waving from their apartment windows, including the baby in this picture.



The Return to Zuccotti Park

When we arrived at the park there were two layers of police barricades set up - one on the edge of the sidewalk by the street and one surrounding the park itself. We were on the outside of both to start... and the police were not letting anyone through...



The protesters started pulling out copies of the restraining order that said they were allowed to return to the park and waving them at police..



The crowd kept pouring in, but with no where to go, it got tighter and tighter. Think sardines.

Katie and I both felt like cattle that had once again been kettled. We both had the same hope... that things would not get out of hand and pepper spray or tear gas be used because we could not move and would have been stuck in the cloud.

Then they started jumping the first barricade.


Police in riot gear still held the line around the park



and the protesters started marching around the park trying to find a way in. Every now and then someone would break through the police line and run into the park, only to get arrested.

This is also where I saw another piece of evidence that the media is not exempt from being arrested. There was a reporter on top of a covered bus stop with a video camera. You know, one of those big TV cameras. He was told to get down, did not, and there were hands of two police officers pulling him and the camera down from the roof. I was mortified to see him come tumbling off the roof. The police did catch both him and the camera, so there was no thud of the person or crash of the camera, but it was horrible to watch.

The protesters kept circling the park, trying to get in....This I found was a perfect time to get my next chunks of audio. As people walked by me, I asked them to react to what was happening and that they were not being allowed back into the park. I was getting great answers until some fresh, newer protester (who maybe did the later morning marches, not the major overnight one) decided to get snippy with me. She yelled at me 'maybe you should join us and not just stand there recording us!'. I shot back "I don't know where you have been, but I have been marching all night!" and had some of the other protesters jump in and backing me, yelling 'Yeah! she has been here all night'. They were defending me against one of their own. I must say I enjoyed that moment. And yes, that also illustrates that no, I do not know how to keep quiet, even when in an angry mob.

Katie and my coverage should have already ended, and we were getting tired. So, we started to leave.... Ok, to be honest, it took about an hour to leave. We kept being pulled back in by things going on and not wanting to miss history in the making...

But eventually, better judgment made us realize an 11 hour day was enough and it was time to let someone else take over. I will mention here, we were the ONLY radio reporters who did all the marches. Others were stationed at the parks and meeting points points, but were not in the midst of all the mobile protesting that was going on. I really feel they missed out. The energy and emotion was in being apart of the moving and breathing protest. The stopping points were not nearly as intense or alive-feeling as the marches.

That said... on my damage report is shin splints from running too many blocks in shoes that were not made for running and a bruised shin from the tumble over the chair in the police vs protester tumble.

Tomorrow I am going to wrap this up with a few more thoughts and give you a chance to hear what it sounds like to be in the crowd, in the march, in the melee...

Occupy Wall Street Nov 15 Part 1

My alarm usually goes off at about 3 am on Tuesdays... but on the 15th the phone beat out the alarm clock by almost an hour and a half. It was our overnight editor saying police were in riot gear raiding Zuccotti park and that I needed to get there. I was out the door in 15 minutes, picked up Katie Moore who was shadowing me for the day and we were on our way.

We were trying to get to Zuccotti Park, but on our way, saw a crowd of people going towards Foley Park. We parked and ran to see what was up and as we got closer we saw the police perimeter.

I called the newsroom to ask if they had someone from ABC (we are an affiliate) at Zuccotti Park because I wanted to stay here and see what would happen. Many of the people gathering here were protesters who had run from Zuccotti to keep from being arrested as the park was being cleared out...

Shortly after we arrived they worried about being kettled (where the police surround everyone and start arresting the group) so they wanted to move. And like that, Katie and I were in the midst of a mobile protest of about 5-600 people...

In the beginning there was some violence. Again, just as in the past. Everyone that got arrested at this time did something they knew not to do. Some would run off the sidewalk and taunt the police, hit hats off, toss bags of garbage, etc... And the police would grab them and arrest them. Well, not quite. None of the protesters went easily in the early morning. They would try to run from the police into the crowd, with the help of others pulling them and then the police would rush into the crowd to try and get them.

Katie and I got barreled over a couple times. The running protester would push right past us, the police would plow through to get to them and voila, we were crushed.

At one time, we slowed down in an area where there was some scaffolding set up and I told Katie to stay close to the railing, to keep us on the sidewalk, but less likely to be dragged with the crowd if they surged. Surges tend to happen when someone gets into it with a police officer and is getting arrested. The crowd surges towards the officer(s), things are often thrown, and they try to pull that person back into the crowd with them. It's easy to get swept away in the crowd, kind of like a rip tide, but you can't swim out of this one. Katie found a piece of rail to lean on, but I pointed out it had a bolt sticking out, and depending on the direction of the surge, she could have had the bolt cutting into her back, so she moved down the rail. It's interesting the things you have to think of to keep from getting injured.

That is not to say there were no injuries. During one of the 'bowling' down events we were in, I saw the surge coming and she didn't so I pulled her towards me, but there was no getting out of the way. We were literally shoved into the street by the impact of the running protesters and the police trying to stop them. For some reason there was a folding chair that was half folded in the street.... It connected squarely with my shin as I tried to keep my balance during the melee. I was thankful I had tall boots on about then. It hurt, but not as bad as it could have.

After a couple arrests, things got calmer and there was chanting and walking... a lot of walking... We walked... and walked...and walked....



The idea being the police would have a tougher time stopping a moving target. I believe we walked about 10 miles in the almost 3 hours we were walking. Now the police responded to what was happening with a divide and conquer approach. They would let half the group cross an intersection and then close the road and tell the other half they had to go another way...do that a couple times and each smaller group becomes more manageable. It was as this was happening that we were kettled.

We got to a crosswalk and were part of that second half and told to stop. We turned around and there were a line of police behind us too.


And within seconds the group of us were surrounded. I was not sure exactly what was happening, so I went to an officer towards the edge, politely introduced myself, asked if we could get out of the 'containment area' and was given a stern 'no'. Got it. I told Katie we should get against the wall and stay calm and quiet and I called the newsroom to ask a question I have never asked before "Who do I call if we get arrested?"

We didn't. After about 10-15 minutes we were allowed to move on.

A couple more times our group was pared down and at one point we found that we were far from any of the larger groups, and we wanted to catch up, so we took a side street and started running to get ahead of the crowd. Now, I was dressed to be outside all day, but not to run. Honestly I don't there was anything I could have worn to make me feel better about running. And no, I don't mean jogging. I mean sweating, huffing, running. At one point, I told Katie and the other young NYU student who was running with us that I was too old for this running crap and that I was not that far from 40... They both told me I did not look like I was that old and seemed more liked their age... which seemed to give me some of that young, foolish energy, and I was back to running...

We ran down one side street, up four blocks, then cut back, and made it just in front of the larger group and the police so we were back in the bigger part of the march.

The police continued following the groups through the streets, trying to keep them in contained areas as they walked.. this is when 'Occupy Walgreens' happened. There were a number of protesters who saw there was a Walgreens store with two exits and dashed in, trying to come out the other side and get out of the police containment area. I'm not sure if it worked as I kept on moving.

It was interesting to see how information is sent around in the streets as these groups were being divided. There were a few methods of communication. First, they quickly set up a twitter group and those with phones and iPads were sending out updates for everyone. Then there were the bicycles. Bicyclists would ride from one group to the next passing on information of what they were planning to do and when.

Now that there were a lot of small groups all over town, the decision was made to go back to Foley Square and try to regroup.

There was a large crowd that just kept growing when we arrived. Many of them were tired and hungry. They had been moving all night, as we had, after leaving Zuccotti Park. Someone was coming around with bagels, bananas and water and many of them grabbed something to snack on. Others threw their bags and packs on the ground and decided to lie down for a couple minutes or take a nap.



At one point we saw a pair of NYPD buses go by. They were packed with protesters that had already been arrested and that led the crowd to get riled up again. I believe there were a few more arrests around this time.



Also while we were at Foley Square Katie spotted actor Joseph Gordon Levitt. He was doing his own documentation of what was going on and she grabbed a quick interview.




I will admit... this is when we got bored. At Foley, as they were regrouping there was a lot of down time and it hit Katie and I like a brick. They were discussing proposals of what to do for well over and hour...and well it was like sitting through any meeting... even worse, sitting through a meeting after a couple hours of marching and intensity of the situation.



It was an adrenalin drop and we both felt it. She was nice enough to go grab a cup of coffee at Starbucks for each of us to keep us awake...and back on the job we went!

A decision was finally made on the next course of action. The Mayor was going to speak about the protests at 8 am, so the protesters decided they were going to march past city hall to give him a piece of their mind.... and then onto another location where they were meeting up with other groups for a larger demonstration at 9... and the march was on again....

And that part of the story will be continued in part two of this blog...

11-11-11

What a day! I was given three stories to cover - quite the varied lot of stories, and each full of fantastic moments, which I am now going to share.

The first story I had to cover was 'Kisses for the Troops' It's a project that Cosmopolitan Magazine, Maybelline and the USO do together. They have postcards that are going to be put in USO care packages that people can give big kisses to with a little Maybelline lipstick. They can also write notes to the troops. And for every postcard that is kissed $1 is donated to the USO.



Pretty cool deal.

Ok, you do NOT have to tell me twice to go out where there are some military men! Sign me up!

And of course I was immediately talking to a couple.... and then hanging out with the Marines.



What can I say, there is not much sexier than a man in a Marine dress uniform. Give me a really smart man in Marine dress uniform and the drooling will commence...

And for you guys, the Rockettes were there too... as USO girls....



Another person that was there was Actress Lucy Hale from Pretty Little Liars. She was the 'face' or would that be she was the 'lips' for the event. She kissed the first postcard to get things going..




and then... yes... even SHE wanted to be with the Marines... They both got kisses later :)



I am kind of feeling bad for the other branches that were there... they really did not get as much attention...



So my side jaunt on Lucy Hale... she liked my jewelry and we talked skulls. You see, I was wearing this necklace I have that's got a skeletal little guy on it and while I was interviewing her she stopped to tell me how cool she thought it was and then that she was a skull fan. Then she flashed her purse and showed me the awesome leather tooled skull design all over it. Yes, I know I should have gotten a picture of that.. but I didn't.... the only other thing I had to show were my skull candy blue metallic headphones, and she said I may have won the skull-off, but I think her purse still kicked the butt of both my items...

Here's one of the stories I filed from the scene telling people to pucker up and get to Times Square!
　


and in case you did not make it to Times Square... you can still take part in this project through Cosmo's website! The kisses will arrive with care packages just in time to be 'New Year's Kisses!'


Ok... off to the next story... The Christmas tree arriving and being set up at Rockefeller Center.



It's a 74 foot tall tree that was cut down from the yard of 79-year-old Nancy Keller. Now, don't get me wrong, the tree was awesome, but Nancy, she was the real bright spot of the story!



She was just this amazing soul that would make you smile whether you wanted to or not. During a 5-minute interview she had me laughing and tearing up with her and was just one of the highlights of my day... yes... although it pains me to say this, she might have even beat out the Marines...maybe... I just wanted to reach out, hug her and take her home with me!

Here's a pic I took of her, her family and the tree.



And her granddaughter on the left told me that the media was getting tiring. I asked her if people like me were annoying her with too many questions and she said, yes, we were, but then wanted to tell me other things later. I love kids :) Seriously it was adorable and made a good soundbite!

Ok, so once again, I had very limited time to do much here, I did one full story and then filed a lot of sound for the newsroom and I was off to the next story.

It's 11-11-11. It's supposed to be the luckiest day of the century and a lot of people wanted to get married on that day in order to be 'lucky in love'. Well the Crowne Plaza Times Square selected 11 couples to get married at 11 am on 11-11-11.



Ok, so I couldn't get all 11 couples in the picture from my vantage point, trust me, they were there.

The funny story during the wedding was that couple just to the left of the minister... (who, by the way is VH1's Steve Ward). Aaron and Sabrina were so into each other they did not notice that Steve had said 'exchange rings'. When they realized this they rushed to put rings on...and well... you can listen to the rest of the story...



But they were having a great time. All 11 couples had become fast friends in the past couple days of their pre-wedding celebrations. They even had a joint reception which was interesting. You know how you always have the 'first dance' of the couple? Well they had that... 11 times.... they did about 2 minutes of each of their songs and then the next couple would come up. It was quite the unique event!

They seem to be very happy with the way things went. They were telling me they are planning on putting together a Facebook page to keep in touch and were already talking about celebrating their first anniversaries together.

Halloween Recap

I know I am a couple days behind... it's been a crazy week. I've been from here to Connecticut and back doing post-snow coverage, so please forgive the tardiness in these pictures....

On Halloween I went to the Greenwich Village parade... this is no typical parade. As a matter of fact it's more a costume parade than anything and the costumes are quite creative!

I covered the parade for the station, which meant I was doing live reports every 20 minutes during the parade.

Hours before the parade started, the prep started... This first picture is on that I found funny. There were a couple artists who were body painting some women for the parade... Now there were plenty of other things for photographers to shoot... but you would be amazed at how fast the men ran over and started snapping their cameras when there was a naked woman. So, I shot them taking a picture of her and got some dirty looks :)



Ok, now some cute/interesting/unique costumes I saw on the street....



The theme of the parade was 'Eye of the Beyholder' and the disembodied eye... This costume was fantastic!


Some of the tall puppets that would be taking to lives on the backs of some parade volunteers in a few hours...


FAVORITE COSTUME!! The Wolf in Sheep's clothing!!


It's Les Nesman!!!!!



This was quite the costume... Check out the hair in the briefcase!


I felt right at home! There were astronauts!


Ok, parade time! The opening of the parade had lots of floating eyes... remember the theme...



Ok, so now some fun costumes from the parade.... It was the same day that Kim Kardashian announced her divorce... the sign says 'Just divorced - Kim's free!'


Dead Gaddafi showed up!


As did Bill and Monica...


ET PHONE HOME!!!


and now a little video piece for you.......

I didn't get everything I wanted. I was working after all... but I got a few clips...

Note the big eye in the middle. It is projecting the images of eyes that were send in to them... as in people videoed their eyes and so they could have been in the parade looking at themselves :)

Also, the Thriller group was awesome. Not only did they do the dance, but note they have a Michael Jackson and the girlfriend from the video in the front :)

and the band... well they were playing Time Warp, so I had to add a clip!