More than 700 arrested in Wall Street protest

Source: Reuters

NEW YORK, Oct 1 (Reuters) - Police reopened the Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday evening after more than 700 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."Over 700 summonses and desk appearance tickets have been issued in connection with a demonstration on the Brooklyn Bridge late this afternoon after multiple warnings by police were given to protesters to stay on the pedestrian walkway, and that if they took roadway they would be arrested," a police spokesman said.

"Some complied and took the walkway without being arrested. Others proceeded on the Brooklyn-bound vehicular roadway and were. The bridge was re-opened to traffic at 8:05 p.m. (0005 GMT Sunday)."Most of those who were arrested were taken into custody off the bridge, issued summonses and released.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/02/usa-protests-wallstreet-idUSN1E79000D20111002

WAY way WAY up...

of course, cops aren't known for their intelligence.

that many of them (the police) are just trying to feed their families - i.e. "doing their job" - and will eventually join us.

The 'stoopid' applies to their bosses who set this up...

who advocated against walking on the road and instead went to march on the road rather then the pedestrian area as requested.

I applaud the protesters and the message they try to get across, i do not applaud those who wish to cause trouble(I'm guessing a small number of people(in opposition of what the organizers wanted) started using the road and convinced others to join them, once numbers rise then people have a habit of following the main/largest crowd)

I find it hard to believe all of them are of the same mentality as their boss command.

The police are not hedge fund managers, they make the same kind of money as everyone else (very little).

But I just don't know what we're aiming for here? What exactly do we want done, that can be done? Do we want Obama to speak out? Do we want Eric Holder to arrest some people, a bill in the Senate?

I just don't get the endgame. Are we "glad" the number of arrested is rising, or is that a bad thing? I wonder if the media hasn't bred this despair into me, and I honestly feel like the protests are a good thing. I just wonder if good as they may be, do they really do anything? Or is it just a feel-good, make-some-noise thing. It just seems like these days, neither boycotts, or protests do much of anything, but pad the coffers of Cities like New York, who are going to end up fining these folks, to recoup some money for operations during the protest.

We're at this point in time where only one thing happening, where only one thing is so dear to the super-rich, that they might reconsider their actions. Only one thing.

There is no 'end game', as you put it. The point of doing the protest is to keep doing it until the vast majority of the people join us, perhaps not on the streets, but in their hearts and minds. People in dire straits need to know that they are not alone. They need to know that there are many like them who will speak-up and not go quietly into the Night.

who are just trying to get from point A to point B, and are not part of the bankster class enjoying an autumn weekend out in Connecticut is surely the way to convert hearts and minds.

Fail. Major fail.

If the police had guided the protesters onto the pedestrian walkway, as they should have, none of the arrests would have happened and traffic would have flowed normally. As a result of the arrests and following publicity, the M$M finally pulled the thumbs out of their collective asses and started to report what was happening, as biased as it was.
That alone, I consider a great victory.

were successfully used by the reich wing in order to bring Nixon to power with his "Law and Order" campaign. Those were code words for "get the dirty hippies and uppity Negroes back into invisibility where they belong."

If protests impact ordinary Americans more negatively than they do the comfortable class, they will completely fail. They're on that path right now.

I've lived in NY, and I have lots of friend and family still there. The kinds of people who drive cars to get around the city are, by and large, a different class of people, the kind against whom this protest is directed. Most workers, laborers, etc - the people for whom this protest is meaningful - use the subway.

Yep, the folks from suburbia. This kind of behavior is going to insure the re-election of Chris Christie.

If you think that everyone who lives in the first and second rings of suburbia around NYC are all banksters, then you really didn't visit here long enough.

Look, I'm a semi-urban office drone myself, now located in suburban Philadelphia. I appreciate the annoyance that this must have caused to regular folks looking to spend a day off in the city, but that's all it was. An annoyance. And it affected Brooklyn, not the Jersey suburbs. This protest is about something so much bigger than that. And frankly, if you're a Brooklynite unaccustomed to periodic and momentarily ineffable traffic snarls going into NYC then you haven't lived there long enough or visited often enough.

Also, I don't quite see that this kind of behavior has to do with the re-election of Chris Christie, since the BB is not in NJ, nor does it connect NJ to NY. If you're getting to Manhattan from Jersey via the BB, you're doing it wrong.

Maybe if the protestors went to the bankster neighborhoods out on Long Island, they might have a shot at irritating somebody besides middle class and working Americans. They sure aren't pissing off the banksters, that's for certain. The Wall Street types are laughing their asses off at how the protests are turning everyday people against this movement.

I saw the same thing happen in all of the anti-globalization protests, too. Rich people always have enough money to either buy the protection they need, or live far away enough from the source of the inconvenience. It's just ordinary folks who get threatened by this sort of activity.

If I were a Repuke, I'd find some way to keep cheering the protestors on, to do even more outrageous things. It manufactures the fear that the GOP feeds on.

City officials in Bangalore, India, have recently hired cadres of drummers to stand outside the homes and offices of tax dodgers.

But it is a little fatuous to suggest that banksters won't be inconvenienced at all if the pressure can be maintained outside their places of business on Wall St. I have my doubts, to be honest, but my hopes, too.

BKNY Mellon -- Wall Street
Deutsche Bank -- Wall Street -- Frankfurt globally
Goldman Sachs -- northwest of the World Trade Center
Credit Suisse -- Manhattan mid-town
Morgan Stanley -- Manhattan mid-town
Barclays -- Manhattan mid-town -- London globally
Citigroup -- Manhattan mid-town
BNP Paribas -- Manhattan mid-town -- Paris globally
JPMorgan Chase -- Manhattan mid-town
Toronto Dominion -- Cherry Hill, NJ and Portland, ME -- Toronto globally
State Street -- Boston, MA
Bank of America -- Charlotte, NC
Wells Fargo -- San Francisco, CA

The much reviled Bank of America is headquartered in Charlotte, NC, the former home of Nations Bank, which took over Bank of America. They still have a considerable presence in San Francisco. Their Countrywide Mortgage subsidiary, which was the biggest screwup in the business is in Calabasas, CA. BofA has operations in Boston that were acquired with Fleet Boston. Their Merril Lynch acquisition was headqarters in the World Financial Center west of the World Trade Center in Manhattan.

JP Morgan Chases US retail banking and mortgage units are mainly located in Columbus, OH, with other operations in Chicago, Houston, Dallas, etc.

Protests can be symbolic. The WTC, to take an obvious example, wasn't targeted because the specific people inside were directly and materially connected to the grievances acted upon.

It costs a small fortune to have that convenience at one's disposal.

and want to go to a show, or eat at a nice restaurant, or visit friends in the city who really can't get out to the countryside? Do they deserve to be inconvenienced?

If the answer is yes, then don't expect them to be terribly sympathetic to our causes.

or is that beneath some people. I've driven in Manhattan. Just finding a parking spot is an adventure to say the least.
Mostly, we would take the Train from Stamford, then Subway and,or Taxi to our destination, but, then, I'm willing to lower myself and take Public Transportation, like most folks.

don't do mass transit. It's bad enough if you have to use some smelly taxicab.

Sounds like your answer is that anybody with a car is some kind of snob. Being as the vast majority of Americans get around that way, don't expect them to man the battlestations at OWS with you.

It's your future too.

was there myself Saturday. we will get hit much worse by rising bridge tolls & by rising bus & subway fares, than by these demonstrations. in fact, these protests might be what saves our travel costs from rising - by doing what this city & the country should have done some time over the past 4 years - raise taxes on the wealthy.

the Fail is on the part of our supposedly representative Government - at every level.

Yes.

Yes.

And yes.

The goal is clear...

Stop letting Wall Street big wigs off the hook. We all know about the fraud. No one has paid for their crimes since (and including) friggin' ENRON!


And of course getting arrested is part of Satyagraha... Civil Disobedience.

the idea is to get the head-buried-in-the-sand voters, who keep electing corporate flunkies to Congress & the White House, to open their minds & understand how they are getting screwed, and how they are enabling the exploiter class to screw their neighbors & the weakest among us - destroying whatever shreds of humanity we have gathered in about 15 million years of evolution. because, if this doesn't wake them up to elect decent human beings to represent them & it doesn't wake up the exploiters to the fact that we are all not dumb sheep to be led to the slaughter & are pissed as hell, the alternatives are not gonna be pretty.

not so much.

Then join hand in hand, brave Americans all,
By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall
1768 Liberty Song

Let’s get this on folks, general nation wide strike! Hit these greedy CEOs, bankesters, stock brokers, rich and their political whores in their bankbook and make them bleed greenback. It's the ONLY thing they understand!

which is always the bottom line. Also a permit is required to shut down a road or bridge. Gettign arrested for breaking laws isnt that heroic.

specifically so they could be arrested. Nice try, though.

Occupy Wall Street – the story of the Brooklyn Bridge 'trap'

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x5014620

Block traffic while complaining about the wastes of skin who did this.. Get arrested.

Making life harder for people who had nothing to do with it. Because you gotta get media attention somehow. It is right to arrest the protesters for doing that.

If they ever really threaten the system, they won't have to worry about media attention and getting arrested any more. They will disappear. You know this.

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

Maybe you missed the part where they looked like they were ESCORTING THEM down the road
Maybe you missed the part where they had the vans and buses ALREADY THERE, waiting

DO YOU THINK WE'RE STUPID?

Sadly, breaking the law is the only way to get the media's attention and this is needed to let citizens know what is happening. The protest remained peaceful and that is important. However, to get politician's attention protesters may have to destroy property and this is not so peaceful. They may need to break a few of a bank's windows. Protesters have to be careful not to harm any people.

The scurrullous scumbags who run this country value property more than people. Police state violence against people is trivial compared to a broken window, in their minds. Wall Street commits economic terrorism every single day. It is time for People to get their attention...or, as they like to say it, send a clear message to the terrorists that we will not back down. This will not stand.

I think it's great! Yesterday I saw a lot of coverage on local news stations that usually avoid real news like the plague

because it interferes with your life. The revolution will go on without you ...you might as well join the other side.

in the way. Now, STFU and go back to your peasant life in USA, Inc.

I mean no disrespect to legitimate sex workers.

FYI link to DU thread: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=2040153&mesg_id=2040153

That is so telling.
Thank you for posting it.

The police are controlling where the demonstrators end up.

Protestors heading toward Wall Street follow police barricades in order to get there.

That needs to be seen all over the internet.

(Seeing as how his name appeared with the Ministry of Truth edited version.)

:yourock:

the protesters were entrapped by police. Note for the NYPD...they are NOT going away...they are only going to increase in numbers with antics like this from your dept.

What do you think?

I'll be checking out the Houston Occupy on Oct. 6 to see if any of the trade unions are involved (we've got massive refineries down here - lots of union action). Unfortunately I don't speak much Spanish but I will see who is involved so far.

The news told me so! :sarcasm:

Today is Mahatma Gandhi's birthday.

Gandhi Jayanti or Mahatma Gandhi Jayanti is a celebrated holiday in India on October 2 each year. It marks the anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi's birth on October 2, 1869. Gandhi is remembered for his contributions towards the Indian freedom struggle. Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869, and died on January 30, 1948. He was a political and spiritual leader in India and played a key role in the Indian independence movement. Gandhi developed the novel technique of non-violent agitation, which he called "Satyagraha", loosely translated as "moral domination".

He is known for his non-violent civil disobedience in India and South Africa. These included the start of the non-cooperation movement in 1922 and the Salt Satyagraha or Salt (Dandi) March starting on March 12, 1930. Through Gandhi's efforts, India finally gained its freedom on August 15, 1947. The nation mourned for him after he was assassinated on January 30, 1948. The United Nations' (UN) International Day of Non-Violence is also held on October 2 each year to coincide with Mahatma Gandhi's birthday.

In the demonstrations today, mark Gandhi's birthday.

Now, the city has to deal with 700 arrests. It makes the news. Good job, protesters. There is no effective civil disobedience without arrests.

this needs to happen again. bigger.

I think we have reached a point where making the news makes relatively little difference. The PTB are not embarrassed by exposure anymore. And the system is built to ignore things. Its going to take breaking the system. More people nonviolently forcing (not just being herded into in convenient sized arrestable groups) arrests. Enough people that they cannot hold them all. And that do not go home afterwards, but return to the streets. Enough people that even after they arrest the first thousand, ten thousand, 50 thousand that walk onto a bridge, still more people come to the bridge, to wall street, to stand and be heard.

And outright lies and spin. It's obvious, 100%. CNN says 700 people were given tickets. No mention of arrests.

It's starting to pop up in the MSM - CBS covered it too (online - I don't know about news shows because I watch very little on the teevee).

Face it, the press may be owned by conglomerates but they love a big story. If this grows they can't help but cover it. They'll of course put their own spin on it, but they are definitely starting to notice.

they led with "a small disorganized protest has grown into arrests for people blocking the Brooklyn Bridge"

They said little more.

If three people show up somewhere wearing revolutionary war hats with teabags hanging from them, media covers it.

The Wall Street occupation has been going on for days and days and people got arrested last weekend, too..

If Lindsay Lohan writes letters in her nail polish or makes a face at a judge, media covers it.

Yes, if this gets too big--and we get too many more stories from overseas or international outlets--US media will cover it, but not because they love a hig story. Media decides what makes a big story, even if it is a nothing story.

Media will cover it because they have no choice. And, yes, you are right, they will spin.

And snark. The LAT coverage of the start of the LA occupation was nothing but demeaning snark.

Today's media is repulsive.

So we'll make our own media. Twitter, You Tube, Facebook - that's where the kids are anyway & they are who we need for the long haul.

If they take you into custody, and transport you, and charge you, you've been arrested. It's a process, not necessarily a level of criminality. Ticketed means it's a misdemeanor, and you don't have to appear in court. I think.;-)

In fact, I posted on a thread earlier this morning right in LBN where the OP article said citations.

They are trying to deflate the movement, not get publicity for "mass arrests". They hope they just removed 700 occupiers from the occupation. If people think that once they have been fined they have expressed their civil disobedience, and then remove themselves from the occupation, then the movement will lose steam. That is the current strategy to defeat The 99%. To counter it will require long term commitment, demanding civil trials to clog the courts, and more people. It's going to be an interesting winter, I think. We'll see. :thumbsup:

1st Precinct: +1 (212) 334-0611
NYPD Switchboard: +1 (646) 610-5000
NYPD Central Booking: +1 (212) 374-3921
NYPD Internal Affairs: +1 (212) 741-8401
Mayor Bloomberg: +1 (212) NEW-YORK or +1 (212) 374-3921

Power to the People! :hi:

in the park and drove them like cattle to the street in front of the convention where media cameras were set up. the Hippies were there protesting the war in Viet Nam.. they were compressed and beaten bloody for the media to condemn as a violent mob. i had just started college, the family was watching something on TV when the news cut in with a close up of 2 cops holding a guys arms out another cop had him in a choke hold and 2 others were taking turns hitting him in the head as hard as they could with riot batons.. he was covered with blood. my Reich Wing father turned into a war protester. they told my brother they would send him to Canada and support him..

i was in Berkeley during anti war demonstrations, we had huge community meetings, they were infiltrated by government goons trying to get us to riot and set fires. the moderator pointed and said them... people ran up and took their photos, as they ran out the moderator was yelling."we are sending your photos to the F'n FBI asshole.. several others quietly left later. those guys were "Suits" they never wore Levi's.. the ones they had on were new.. new bandanna head bands, they looked like a Fascist's cartoon idea of what a hippie was with shinned leather shoes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAOXnenrYGA&feature=related

http://www.chicagotribune.com/topic/politics/elections/democratic-convention-(1968)-EVHST000046.topic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrlYRWD_tnA&feature=related

were they really riots or peaceful demonstrations being punished for diss'n the Fascist government using goons.?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jb22dA5_-w8&feature=related

Fuck this fascist BS!

nt

time and place restrictions have been held constitutional. That why distance restrictions can be placed on Westboro Church, but they can't be banned outright.

you can't walk into traffic. You put yourself and other st risk when you do such things.

it might be worth while to refuse to accept the conditions of an OR bond and stay in jail. It would not take long before there is simply no place to put anyone.

all on the NY taxpayer ....how many can the jails hold???

it is close to a thousand what happens when its a million
the jails and justice system will be swamped

Carrying loaded firearms with "Blood of Tyrants" placards a few dozen metres from where the president is speaking, in a country that has already lost four presidents to gun-toting madmen, is completely above board, but peacefully protesting against the bonkers and traitors---oh, terribly sorry, bankers and traders---who have wrecked your economy merits detention by the authorities???

Is that about right? Because I do try hard not to make assumptions about other countries.

they weren't arrested for protesting as such, they were arrested for blocking the road, and something else i think that i can't remember

Blocking a motorway is worse than implicitly threatening President Obama? I think not.

otherwise nothing at all in the media around here. Get 20 tea partiers together and they get massive coverage. Arrest 700 and it's "Move along. Nothing to see here."

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Source: Business Week

Anti-Wall Street protests escalated with more than 700 arrests over the weekend, thrusting the once- dwindling demonstrations into the national spotlight.

The rallies, which began 16 days ago with a goal of occupying Wall Street for months, spread to cities including Los Angeles and Boston, where 25 people were arrested Sept. 30 after police said they refused to leave the lobby of a Bank of America Corp. building. The next day, New York City police halted a march over the Brooklyn Bridge and took hundreds of activists into custody for blocking traffic. Some people arrested claimed officers had tricked them into leaving the pedestrian walkway.

“The huge event on the Brooklyn Bridge is likely to bring thousands more into the movement,” said T.V. Reed, a professor of American studies at Washington State University who wrote “The Art of Protest: Culture and Activism From the Civil Rights Movement to the Streets of Seattle.”

On placards and in chants, protesters are citing Americans’ frustrations with a financial industry that received unprecedented taxpayer bailouts while damaging an economy in which unemployment remains above 9 percent. They aim to put Wall Street on the defensive, just as firms seek to shape regulations and influence next year’s general election.


Read more: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-10-03/anti-wall-street-protests-reach-prime-time-with-mass-arrests.html

---

Now this is a grassroots movement. Not the B.S. GOP Operative lead, Koch funded tea party.

because it seems to be steadily growing

you didn't think they were going to be "fair and balanced" about their reporting, did you?

As much as they've tried, they can't ignore the story any longer.

POWER TO THE PEOPLE! :headbang:

BOA and others have a lot to learn.

This is huge news across the world and the lying media are finally revealing some truth about one of the biggest protests since the 1960's? How fair and balanced of them, they deserve our utmost loyalty. :sarcasm:

The greatest peacemakers and fighters for Justice

Always were arrested. Gandhi, MLK, Mandela, the list goes on and on. Evil will be defeated, it always is.

that shows the police redirecting and leading the protestors from the pedestrian walk to the street of the bridge. Things will not be interesting until they show that. Americans don't have any clue as to what goes on in their country.

Here the police lead a crowd including children into a trap and then ID everybody, hold them for a few hours and send them home. Who knows how many former offenders or folks with outstanding warrants will now be forced into sabotaging the movement. Maybe no one, but that is a possibility.

The New York Police Department is a disgrace.