Over 500 Protesters Arrested After Being Kettled On Brooklyn Bridge
From the descriptions of the people who were there, it sounds as though Mayor Bloomberg's strategy is to thin the ranks of protesters with set-ups like this. The Powers That Be don't understand how many more people are waiting in line to support the Occupy Wall Street actions:
Police reopened the Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday evening after more than 500 anti-Wall Street protesters were arrested for blocking traffic lanes and attempting an unauthorized march across the span.
The arrests took place when a large group of marchers, participating in a second week of protests by the Occupy Wall Street movement, broke off from others on the bridge's pedestrian walkway and headed across the Brooklyn-bound lanes.
"More than 500 were arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge late this afternoon after multiple warnings by police were given to protesters to stay on the pedestrian walkway," a police spokesman said.
"Some complied and took the walkway without being arrested. Others locked arms and proceeded on the Brooklyn-bound vehicular roadway and were arrested," he added.
The bridge was reopened at 8:05 p.m. EDT after being closed for hours.
Witnesses described a chaotic scene on the famous suspension bridge as a sea of police officers surrounded the protesters using orange mesh netting.
Some protesters tried to get away as officers started handcuffing members of the group. Dozens of protesters were seen handcuffed and sitting on the span as three buses were called in to take them away, witnesses and organizers said.
The NY Times interviewed protesters who said, despite NYPD claims, the police never warned them they couldn't walk in the roadway:
“The cops watched and did nothing, indeed, seemed to guide us onto the roadway,” said Jesse A. Myerson, a media coordinator for Occupy Wall Street who was in the march but was not arrested.
[...] Etan Ben-Ami, 56, a psychotherapist from Brooklyn who was up on the walkway, said that the police seemed to make a conscious decision to allow the protesters to claim the road. “They weren’t pushed back,” he said. “It seemed that they moved at the same time.”
Mr. Ben-Ami said he left the walkway and joined the crowd on the road. “It seemed completely permitted,” he said. “There wasn’t a single policeman saying ‘don’t do this’.”
He added: “We thought they were escorting us because they wanted us to be safe.” He left the bridge when he saw officers unrolling the nets as they prepared to make arrests. Many others who had been on the roadway were allowed to walk back down to Manhattan.
And from a personal email:
Just got back from march on bridge. Watched everyone get arrested from above (half the march went over the walkway above the road, other half went on road below). Everyone says there were clear indications from police that marchers could go on the road. Some say cops were even blocking traffic to escort marchers onto the bridge, where they were later trapped.
JPMorgan Chase recently donated an unprecedented $4.6 million to the New York City Police Foundation.
The gift was the largest in the history of the foundation and will enable the New York City Police Department to strengthen security in the Big Apple. The money will pay for 1,000 new patrol car laptops, as well as security monitoring software in the NYPD's main data center.
New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly sent CEO and Chairman Jamie Dimon a note expressing "profound gratitude" for the company's donation.
"These officers put their lives on the line every day to keep us safe," Dimon said. "We're incredibly proud to help them build this program and let them know how much we value their hard work."
Latest reports are saying more than 700. Unbelievable.
may give some readers flashbacks of his mayoral predecessor, Rudy Giuliani. In a 2007 campaign for president, Giuliani famously stumbled to pinpoint prices of grocery staples. He said he believed a gallon of milk cost about $1.50. (Even in 2007, a gallon of milk fetched closer to $4.)
to Tahrir bridge. How dare those policemen not warn protesters they can't block traffic on a major arterial bridge. Everyone knows that it is perfectly legal to do whatever you haven't been told is illegal.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
I was thinking the exact same thing. Only difference, I was thinking about the people inside the buildings that nearly collapsed the economy and instead of getting arrested, they get money from the government. 4.6 million buys a lot of cops.
is intended to be a factual statement
Almost everything done on Wall st was perfectly legal thanks to deregulation and, in the case of the derivatives market, no regulation at all. Hurrah for the rule of law!
Hasa Diga Eebowai
partly true, a lot of what happened was, unfortunately, legal. but there is a lot of debate about what was illegal, and how systematic the illegality was.
hence the battle trying to get state AGs to sign on to the obama-backed, and deceptively named, mortgage probe.
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/06/new-yo...
We’ve had a series of posts (see here, here, and here) on the judge’s decision in a case called Kemp c. Countrywide, which provided what appeared to be the first official confirmation of what we’ve long suspected and described on this blog: that as of a certain point in time post 2002, mortgage originators and sponsors simply quit conveying mortgage notes (the borrower IOUs) through a chain of intermediary owners to securitization trusts, as stipulted in the pooling and servicing agreements, the contracts that governed these deals. We say “appeared to be” because Bank of America’s attorney promptly issued a denial, effectively saying that the employee whose testimony the judge cited in his decision, one Linda DeMartini, a team leader in the bank’s mortgage- litigation management division. didn’t know what she was talking about. As we discussed, this seems pretty peculiar, since she was put on the stand precisely because she was deemed to be knowledgeable about Countrywide’s practices….
If true, this has very serious implications. As we’ve indicated, it means that residential mortgage backed securties are not secured by real estate, or as Adam Levitin put it, they are “non mortgage backed securities….With the ramifications so serious, expect industry denials to continue apace until the evidence becomes overwhelming.
The danger, of course, is that without some sort of global settlement that resolves the issues and having individual State AGs pursuing their own agendas, that the matter will not only drag on forever but that they will impose sufficiently large fines and assessments as to require that the same banks be bailed out yet again. Bit of a problem that. I would be satisfied if they divorced the monetary penalties from the criminal ones and went after the real transgressors. I can see no reasons why there should be immunity at all for individuals.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
Almost.
There was no doubt fraud going on. These people MUST pay. Then they took the bailout money and payed themselves HUGE HUGE HUGE bonuses and thumbed their noses at us.
So you're admitting that Wall Street participated in criminal activity> You're a great american. Almost everything the protestors are doing is legal yet they get maced and arrested because they don't have the money to buy the cops and government.
is intended to be a factual statement
on Wall St may have participated in illegal activities and should be subject to investigation,prosecution if there is a case to be made, and punishment if found guilty. I do not know who they are precisely anymore than you do. And they should be allowed to mount a vigorous defense just like anyone else. It's called the rule of law.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
Absolutely. Unfortunately, however, we have seen enough evidence that our judicial system is thoroughly and hopelessly corrupt.
Steal $10, go to jail.
Steal $10 billion, get a bonus and a nice corner office.
"No one ever said these people were logically consistent."
- watchdog -
Rich guy has panoply of lawyers and poor man has state appointed overworked public defender if he's lucky. That's a different problem though. I still believe in the rule of law because the alternative, mob justice , is worse.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
You may not have noticed Peter, but, given that standard, the US has ceased to be a Republic some time ago.
"No one ever said these people were logically consistent."
- watchdog -
It's called the rule of law.
America abandoned that ages ago. Rules are only for
littlepoor people. (In Canada they can haul you in for vagrancy if you don't have $2 on you.)Disobedience requires colouring outside the lines. More of this please.
far left loon >.<
include arresting war criminals? Or should we keep looking forward?
cops were there allowing it, because they had a plan. Did you even read the article? Did you read the compare and contrast piece put up the first version saying the police allowed them onto the bridge then cut them off, the 20 minutes later version claiming the bridge was 'occupied' by protesters who had 'marched' onto the bridge? 500 people aren't arrested en masse on a couple of beatcops' whims. This was a planned maneuver.
The cops in Vancouver did the same thing and swept up loads of people who were trying to get home or just out of harms' way.
That's what 'kettling' is all about--people are moved by herding techniques to an enclosed area and picked off. Many people in BC who were arrested indicated they'd wanted to go a different direction (like toward home, out of downtown, anywhere but there) and were told they couldn't, that they could leave going the direction in which they were being steered, then were arrested for being someplace they didn't want to go in the first place. Same tactic here. And the media goes along with thew cops' versions of events, once it's firmed up, to the point of changing the story.
And you fell for it.
me-oww!
Toronto police used similar methods at the G20 summit last year.
http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/2010-2011/youshouldha...
Outrageous.
Anybody watching the video like I did saw that the protesters were not constrained from leaving back the way the came and using the pedestrian route.. In fact when they were halted they had just that option and declined to do so. Fortunately those transportation union employees driving the Metropolitan Transportation Authority buses were there to carry them to be booked and released. I guess they couldn't turn down the overtime.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
They were enclosed by orange net front and rear ..
When will government of the people, by the politicians, for the corporations perish from this Earth?
Not soon enough!
if they wished. Many did.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
While they are in the neighborhood arresting people, maybe the cops ought to go inside and grab some of the crooks.
If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.
All the greatest justice movements for real permanent change had arrests. Gandhi brought down the entire british empire and was arrested multiple times.
It's where your friends are.
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
Mr. Browne [chief spokesman for the New York Police Department] said that people who were in the rear of the crowd that may not have heard the warnings were not arrested and were free to leave.
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/01/...
from the livefeed yesterday it seemed that a whole mass of people were caught in the extra-large orange police-netting, including those at the rear who 'may not have heard the warnings'.
interested in going to this thing? I don't want to go alone but for some reason the entire left contingent seems to be asleep around here or I'm talking to the wrong people.
Anyone in NH or the surrounding area coming through by car or bus email me: ibuildfuru@yahoo.com I'm looking to meet up to accompany a group this coming weekend?
Hi, Kate,
I forwarded your post to a good friend of mine in Manchester -- she might know of someone, and might contact you anyway at the address you posted. It might be too late for this weekend, though.
Good luck!
(Another) Kate
There may be traffic problems.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
Strip mine Wall Street in order to rebuild Main Street. Break up multi-national that are loyal to no one except their corrupt executives. This should be a call for justice, real justice in all areas and at all times.
A new law, the Corporation Limitation Act, where corporations are r brought back to a more manageable size, where the liabilities they create do not become a burden upon the whole of society and where corporate executives are legally liable for the decisions and actions they take.
.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
RICO statues?
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
http://plasticandplush.com/images/various/ric...
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
That is spot on to my feelings about the reform we need too. Good job. I would add ,tariffs for imported goods and breaks for US made goods.
was also slapped with a big lawsuit Sept 30th for fraud by investors which of course they "believe is without merit and will fight vigorously!" LOL
I heard (so I don't know if it is true) that the big multinational (but U.S.) corporations actually created 2,000,000 jobs since 2008. Of course those jobs were outside the U.S.. These same corporations lost 2,500,000 inside the U.S. (These figures are wrong but they are closed enough to get the idea)
I remember where I heard it. It was Jennifer Granholm on Bill Maher.
More Startups-Infinite Opportunity (Yuck)
just keep poking that hornet's nest with your sticks. Worked out really well for Marie Anoinette.
"No one ever said these people were logically consistent."
- watchdog -
New Marie Antoinette...
No money for the stock market? Let them by gold.
Get in on the ground (down) level...
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
Want to be there in person?
People are bravely taking risks to nonviolently redirect our national agenda toward taxing the rich, cutting the military, and funding human needs. You can join with them on Wall Street, around the country, and in Washington through these websites:
http://occupywallst.org
http://occupytogether.org
http://october2011.org
"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people." ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
Non-violent protest has never forced politicians and businessmen to act against their own interests. It's therefore obvious these protesters are not really serious about reform. If they were, they would be out there recruiting candidates to run against Democrats and Republicans in 2012.
other than sitting at their keyboards bitching.
Try a little harder next time.
"No one ever said these people were logically consistent."
- watchdog -
Never heard about Ghandi?
....not passive demonstration. The protesters in NY - unlike the young black people who conducted sit-ins at whites-only lunch counters - can't take any real action that doesn't involve violence.
you're often wrong.
me-oww!
none
zip
nada
When will government of the people, by the politicians, for the corporations perish from this Earth?
Not soon enough!
That's how they should behave. Because if one of them did it would mean they were all rioters in much the same way that Tony Baloney makes all the police thugs.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
or MLK ever hold a march to demand other people be put in jail?
Hasa Diga Eebowai
I think about Rosa Parks.
I'd hate to break it to you, but Obama was our last, great chance. And failed. But let's do it your way and who knows, maybe in 40 or 50 years some good will come of it?
I posed immediately above your post?
Hasa Diga Eebowai
disobedience aimed at laws which discriminated against people based on their race.
When I think about civil rights marches I think about Selma to Montgomery. There was a bridge in that march too, a reason to cross it, and a goal at the destination.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
but I do take your point. The fact that everybody and their brother is out protesting different things and have different objectives makes it all kind of nebulous.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
But for how long have people been armchair quarterbacks at the keyboard and aught else??
far left loon >.<
I should do something useful like block a bridge that someone else may have a use for. I dunno maybe to visit grandma or get the ambulance to the hospital or deliver a transplant organ to an airport, or go home. You know stuff other people would like to do. While you're considering the nobility of said protesters consider this: if your belief in the justice of your cause as well as your misguided perception that your right of free speech includes the right to compel others to listen to you is all that is needed to justify such behavior then I guess the anti-abortion crowd have as much claim to block clinics and protest outside schools where the children of abortion providers attend. Hell if they're public schools they should take their protest right inside shouldn't they? And those nasty thugish police officers shouldn't intervene should they?
Hasa Diga Eebowai
Yes, papa.
far left loon >.<
And you'll learn something.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
Please, never become a teacher.
Now have a nice cup of tea and do something very exceedingly sensible.
far left loon >.<
being exceedingly polite?
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
but can't read your posts. Obviously you can't draw a simple comparison.
.
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
I notice quite a few more white shirts, whats wrong the blue shirts are on the peoples side. by the way wheres Tony Baloney?
This makes me reflect on the 60's. Police behavior like this is why they were commonly referred to as: The Pigs.
and nothing has changed
far left loon >.<
Not sure if its the era or the age of the protesters I am thinking about though.
http://abcnews.go.com/images/US/ap_Wall_Stree...
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
You are bound to repeat it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEFsBF1X1ow
When "critical mass" bicyclists intentionally blocked rush hour traffic once a month in San Francisco ten years ago, I wanted the cops to bust their heads open. Aids activists and environmental protestors interfered with traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge years ago, too, and were despised for it.
There are few surer ways to alienate people from an good or even righteous cause than to force them to sit and stew in a traffic jam.
or you can add your voice to the derisive laughter of the folks sipping champagne on the balcony ... which side are you on?
....or you can continue to support corporate Democrats like Obama. Which side are you on?
"whoever the Republican nominee is in 2012" ... right?
but i will leave supporting the rethugs to you and and the one-percenters ... have fun on the balcony!
In Los Angeles there was a LOT of activist activity surrounding the Democratic convention. I was with protestors and onlookers who were watching a hundred bicyclists being arrested. About 70 people were on the nearby corner to see what was going on and get loud about the bogus arrests. All the sudden, there were 100 cops lining the crosswalk on three sides with more ready to occupy the fourth and surround all of us. We all got out of there thinking we'd be arrested. I've seen this sort of thing several times over the years.
We have to orange fence them there, so we don't have to mace them here.
"Ironic, isn't it Smithers? This anonymous clan of slack-jawed troglodytes has cost me the election, and yet if I were to have them killed, I would be the one to go to jail. That's democracy for you." --Mr. Burns
Don't block traffic guys. You're only gonna lose people that are already with you.
The news media blackout on the wall street? 3 times I tried to see it or show it to friends the video no longer work and I am with Clear ISP server. All I have been able to see is video from us working folks posting online.
There is no longer a media black out because this has gotten so big. The next step is some concessions from the corporations, some arrests of those who trashed the economy, and some legislation to protect us from capitalism run amok.
As I said yesterday, a good friend who always goes to these kinds of events hadn't even heard about it since her computer is down. The MSM is doing their job quite well, thank you verrry much.
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
protests across the globe are using social media. Look for the richfilth to shut that down next.
"No one ever said these people were logically consistent."
- watchdog -
Just confirm from a friend that he was unable to forward news on facebook regarding the occupywallstreet! I think this is it folks! We have a huge movement!
We are the 99%... and we are tired of corporate greed and lobby monies that pay our Congressman to change laws to favor them. We are tired of the Wall Street corruption and "Banksters" that have stolen from us, and we are angry that we, against our will, have been forced to fund and refund by our congress the very evil that created the problem. NO BANK SHOULD BE TOO BIG TO FAIL. It is time to disallow the practice, and time to end the Federal Reserve. It is our right to RE-CLAIM AMERICA and the time is NOW. It is a sad day for America. It is not our job to rule the world. It is not our place to insure corporate America against the vagaries of other nations polices and law. Clean up our own backyard first. While we are taxed to blow up and rebuild bridges in Afghanistan, ours are falling down. What is wrong with this picture? Occupy Wall Street. Be counted.
SuperE www.YouthForHumanRights.org
the bridge .. the bridge would have cleared for traffic much more quickly.
Arresting them en masse was stupid and counterproductive.
But it did a great job of envigorating the movement!
ty NYPD
ty Occupy Wall Street!
When will government of the people, by the politicians, for the corporations perish from this Earth?
Not soon enough!
can you enlighten us as to why they were going to Brooklyn yesterday?
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
seriously .. I wasn't in on the planning nor privy to it ..
When will government of the people, by the politicians, for the corporations perish from this Earth?
Not soon enough!
Because it's there. You needn't worry about not being in on the planning. There wasn't any.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
I am simply curious why Brooklyn was chosen as a destination. I've read the NYT, NY Daily News, Village Voice, and Huff Po aricles about this event. None mentioned, and thus none seemed to care where the march was heading or why.
I mean, if you are occupying Wall Street, you should occupy it. If you are touring New York as part of your ocupation, the Brooklyn Bridge makes logical sense on the intinerary. How it all fits in the sequence of the "growing organic protest" is unclear.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
Brooklyn is a warm welcoming liberal enclave in the otherwise cold, concrete and glass monied wall street area?
or:
The NYPD was simply practicing an old tried and true drover method when dealing with large aggregations of bipedal stock, it's called: 'turning the herd'
wem
Police in New York City have freed most of the more than 700 people arrested on Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday during a protest against corporate greed.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-151...
..
When will government of the people, by the politicians, for the corporations perish from this Earth?
Not soon enough!
The number of Occupations is growing exponentially.
Therefore Occupy Together has reorganized their list of Occupations, by continent, region & state.
Old permalinks will not work.
Check out the enormous number of links. Scroll down, on the right:
http://www.occupytogether.org/
When will government of the people, by the politicians, for the corporations perish from this Earth?
Not soon enough!
I'll be in Orlando
"No one ever said these people were logically consistent."
- watchdog -
WildFire!!
I'm 16 miles from the nearest town (of 400) with no transport.
I hit the streets in '95 and had exhausted myself by 2000 .. got out .. now I want to get back in!
Plans are in the works to do exactly that.
When will government of the people, by the politicians, for the corporations perish from this Earth?
Not soon enough!
The journey of a 1000 miles begins with one step.
far left loon >.<
the 700 will never forget
I'm keen to know.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
stop playing dumb!
When will government of the people, by the politicians, for the corporations perish from this Earth?
Not soon enough!
nor they know beyond a kind of nebulous rage. Not unlike the tea partiers.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
read it: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/10/02-1
long list of very concrete complaints .. about corporate rule
When will government of the people, by the politicians, for the corporations perish from this Earth?
Not soon enough!
They're calling themselves the General Assembly of New York. Where is that to be found in the state constitution btw? Where do register to vote for it? What are the qualifications to be a member?
Hasa Diga Eebowai
Sound suspiciously like the United Nations to me. And we all know who is behind that plot.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
nebulous rage I LOVE IT-- seriously
Works for me. That's what a good many protests are about. People know when they're being fucked over. So many things to choose from it's hard to pick just one.
far left loon >.<
There's not a damn thing wrong with that as long as you obey the law.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
Yes, papa. I bin a bad boy.
far left loon >.<
Because they are stupid little children that won't obey the rules. M'Kay???? They should be spit on.
far left loon >.<
to explain the actions of these "mostly young" people.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
Occupy Wall Street protest: NYPD accused of heavy-handed tactics
Force criticised by protesters, who claim they were deliberately
led on to road before being penned in and arrested
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/02/o...
When will government of the people, by the politicians, for the corporations perish from this Earth?
Not soon enough!
Declaration of the Occupation of New York City
by NYC General Assembly
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/10/02-1
When will government of the people, by the politicians, for the corporations perish from this Earth?
Not soon enough!
It warms the cockels of my bitter corporatist heart to find that animal rights takes
higher prioritiy than workers rights.
Thank heavens they had the courage to speak for the cheeping voices of force fed chickens yearning for sufficient square pennage to range free before being eaten organically and locally.
I am ready to join if no vegan objects.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
a core 5 declarations that are easy to repeat rather than what looks like a grab bag from various groups reworded to fit a protest against the actions of wall street.
why make it so convoluted? judas priest on a stick.
it becomes necessary to sever the corporate tentacles which envelope us we must allow each who delivers the paper cuts to thoise tentacles to pen a source of frustration and not be ignored.*
* Including those whose anger has yet to be offered to the Assembly but might take offense at finding such unnamed grievance not mentioned when finding our maifesto online, hence reference to this being only illustrative not all inclusive.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
that's who came to the party. Can't be exclusive can you?
Hasa Diga Eebowai
Thing is... some where yelling take the bridge, shouting over the NYPDs bullhorn, but we New Yorkers remember well using the bridge's roadway. After the attacks of 9/11 people used the roadway to cross the East River, and I walked the roadway after the blackout. The roadways are designed to sway back and forth, I can't imagine the fear some had when being penned in on a bridge as it swayed. Then being cuffed and told to sit by the side of the road.
If NYPD didn't want people on the roadway, they would have blocked it. But they saw it as a nice way to send a message. Which will only backfire... Now the FDNY is weighing in on crowd size, that will be the next mass arrest come next weekend.
bridges anymore than elections.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
The American middle class citizens are hurting! It is a very serious and sad that it had to come to this ... a Protest march. Their object is for their RIGHTS to be recognized!!
For the love of FSM; kettle != corral. The Faux technique of saying something incorrect over and over does not make it correct; please desist!
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