Occupy Wall Street...sort of

Never to be outdone by California, we in NYC have had our own protesters. The "spontaneous" protest called "Occupy Wall Street" has been going on for a little over two weeks now. First of all, this group of activists aren't actually occupying Wall Street, but are decamping at Zuccotti Park three blocks north and as it just so happens, is across the street from the building where I work.

What exactly these Grandchildren of the '60's are protesting is not clear. Signs run the gamut of "F**k Wall Street" to "Four Day Work Week". They know that something is wrong, but they are not exactly clear on what. For the past two weeks, they have beaten drums, shouted indecipherable chants, and refused to go away.  To their great credit, they have managed to organized themselves like any good commune with a food distribution area, recycling area, first aid area, and a public P.R. Liaison area equipped with a gasoline-powered generator to keep protesters' laptops and smartphones powered up to post on Facebook and tweet each moment.   And it has been reported that people from all over the country are calling local area fast food joints to have pizzas delivered to the protesters as a show of support.

Visits from seasoned liberal protest icons such as Michael Moore and Susan Sarandon have shown up with their P.R. machines in tow as well. Ms. Sarandon showed up in her chauffeured-driven limousine to "educate herself" on her way to the airport to fly to Europe on her private jet for a vacation.  Here is what she had to say:



Though she didn't "personally lose any money", she is advocating what I interpret as a more physically forceful brand of protest because we shouldn't let "our Arab brothers and sisters" better us. Fortunately is was reported that many of these kids didn't have a clue as to who she was, but she did give them some sage advice - focus the protest on one topic, and register to vote. Actually she has a point - this protest lacks any real focus which is why they probably can't focus on any solutions either. They know something is wrong because someone is making lots of money and it's not them. But, as one protester responded when asked what his solution to "greed on Wall Street" might be by saying "I don't know? I'm only 23 years old, why are you asking ME that? What a stupid question." Let's hope he is not currently registered to vote.

As of now, this intrepid group of faux hippies plan to stay indefinitely. Probably until they actually understand why they are there, get bored, someone offers them jobs, or the snow starts to fall. To their great credit, they have been mostly respectful and peaceful. Only one reported incident of police brutality occurred during an unplanned march from the Wall Street area to Union Square at 14th Street. Several of the protesters did not take kindly at being forced to follow certain rules for which the cops responded with pepper spray. Sadly, in retaliation, the P.R. committee posted on Facebook the name and address of the cop who allegedly did the spraying putting his family at risk for a violent backlash. This caused them to lose the support of all the cops in the process. But a more disturbing devolpment threatens the peaceful and naive nature of this protest. Local and national union organizers have decided to join in to lend muscle and considerable financial support to this vague cause. Already the Transit Workers Union members have shown up with the SEIU and AFL-CIO to follow next week. Expect the numbers to grow and the violence to increase as a result.


Addendum: Yesterday the P.R. committee posted on Facebook that Radiohead had agreed to give a free concert at 4pm downtown to show their support.  The leaderless group that had swelled to a reported 2000 people on the promise of a free concert wandered around for an hour searching for the music.  Sadly it turned out to either be a miscommunication or just a plain  hoax.  Radiohead's management issued an official press release  insisting that they did not have any intention of showing up for a free concert.