Jimmy Breslin: People Rise, Cops Blink and a Human Rights Movement Takes Root in a New York Park

Published on Monday, October 17, 2011 by the New York Daily News
People Rise, Cops Blink and a Human Rights Movement Takes Root in a New York Park

by Jimmy Breslin


Bell Dobbs went to lower Broadway and Wall Street by his personal transportation. It's a fine ride on his bike that has no name and a lot of years and slams and mileage on it as the worn paint and many scratches and dents show.

Dobbs parks his bike in an alley and locks it to the fence and goes on today's business. Certainly put him as Wall Street. You must identify him as a gentle-speaking complete enemy. And we forget one major detail: His bike is faded red.

Once he dismounts, Dobbs, lanky with a great voice, passes Wall Street for Zuccotti Park on Broadway, which is threatening to become historic. He is a marcher, a rabble-rouser and press spokesman for the crowd that each day is gathering more and more for the protest against the 1% of this city, if not the entire nation. The rich treat big money like they permanently own it.

Dobbs got to the heart of the protests at the park on Broadway, where there were only 66,000 square feet. There are 43,000 to an acre. So you have an acre and a half, a suburban-size yard that is packed with a young throng hardly able to wait to get the feet moving. ..................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/10/17-6

For years he told us about all things New York.