It's official, #OccupyWallStreet seizes The Brooklyn Bridge!

Over 700 have been arrested

www.nydailynews.com...

Oddly enough in the link it says dozens but the article's title says 700+

Originally posted by jhn7537
Lets be real for a second.... Are we to expect ANY changes from these protests? I'd like to think that the 10,000 protesters would make a difference, but I just dont see our corrupted system being altered by a small group of people...I hope I'm wrong...

If we want change, these protests will need to turn violent.......just saying

They won't need to turn violent, they just need to grow. One thing I hope to see come out of this is dumping our politicians. Americans need to re-acquaint themselves with our government and how it functions, we need to sniff out and be sure of the people we elect to represent us. We also need to realize that sometimes the failure of a person we vote in isn't a personal one but the environment they were sent into.

If social media can be a tool to organize a movement it can also be a political tool, we need to talk to eachother about our local and national elections so that WE can vote in people that will truly represent US, and not have this broken mess. WE can fix this.

I still feel these protests are not going to do a damn thing. Are the protests making the unaware Americans more aware and caring? No, thanks to the culture industry that keeps us sedated, thanks to disinformation/propaganda campaigns that mold the ideology for many Americans.

All these protests are doing is displaying how some people are angry. It will last a little bit and then people will go home (after getting screwed over and arrested...which will further put them in a stinkhole if charged with anything because it is getting harder and harder to get a job these days). I feel its like an election...all this promise for change but no change ever comes. (None that is important anyway).

Are they going to reduce the size of the federal government because of your protest? No
Are they going to stop cutting spending to education because of your protest? Of course not.
Are they going to stop bailing out corrupt elite corporate leaders because of you? No, they are practically the same entity and will survive as long as they possibly can.
Are they going to stop violating your Constitutional rights? AHAHHAHAHA you have no rights, just privileges that are allowed to make you think you have all this freedom.

Originally posted by Kali74

Originally posted by jhn7537
Lets be real for a second.... Are we to expect ANY changes from these protests? I'd like to think that the 10,000 protesters would make a difference, but I just dont see our corrupted system being altered by a small group of people...I hope I'm wrong...

If we want change, these protests will need to turn violent.......just saying

They won't need to turn violent, they just need to grow. One thing I hope to see come out of this is dumping our politicians. Americans need to re-acquaint themselves with our government and how it functions, we need to sniff out and be sure of the people we elect to represent us. We also need to realize that sometimes the failure of a person we vote in isn't a personal one but the environment they were sent into.

If social media can be a tool to organize a movement it can also be a political tool, we need to talk to eachother about our local and national elections so that WE can vote in people that will truly represent US, and not have this broken mess. WE can fix this.

It is more than just growing, but size is important. There is more to protesting than simply standing on a street all day and blocking traffic. It is called the "great refusal" by Herbert Marcuse in the One Dimensional Man (an amazing book btw published in the 60s). This is where we refuse spending on useless new #. When iPhones are coming out multiple times each year and everyone continues to buy them...this is not helping. We need to cut back on useless spending. Buy generic stuff or don't buy it at all. My phone is not even touch screen.

And as to your idea of electing people who represent you...that seems unlikely in our current form of government. It is called totalitarian democracy by some...where the citizenry is given the "right" to vote but that is the extent of their control over decision making processes. After the politician CONVINCES people to vote for him...he/she is not really obligated to fulfill promises.

We see this now when big businesses are bailed out over and over (and many of whom engaged in multiple levels of corruption) while the common man is left out. This is because your life, your happiness is not worth their time because the survival of THEIR economy and THEIR way of life is more important than helping the people. They will help to the extent that enough people are happy so they won't revolt or disrupt the flow of wealth into their pockets.

reply to post by Nola213

You know if they had just let them pass they would have cleared the bridge in about 30 minutes, instead the police decided to block traffic, pen them in and arrest them for about 5 hours. Hmmm.... I've heard of traffic jams in NYC taking longer than half an hour.

This movement has spread across the country and even down to Florida.

Every major city around the country is holding gatherings for the 99%... It's easiest for me to find them on facebook... but a simple Google search of "Occupy (insert city name)" will lead you to their web pages where they list events and times and places. At the bottom of this post are a few that I found in Florida. I hope this is helpful.

For those who are unable to attend they are requesting that you post replies and messages on their websites. Tell them what grievences you want addressed. Otherwise they will have to make their own best judgement about what will benefit the 99% of American's. (I won't be in Florida but I will be attending in my Home State.)

Each location will eventually vote on a declaration and probably a list of grievences. Here is what they came up with in NYC. www.thetruthdenied.com...
I will be very interested to see what each different region has in common and what they hold seperate. After all, what New Yorkers find important may not be what people in my hometown find important. Aint democracy grand!

www.facebook.com...

www.facebook.com...

www.facebook.com...

www.facebook.com...

www.facebook.com...

reply to post by Tulkor


I see your point, however this is exactly how awareness grows. Share your ideas with the OWS, they are gaining direction and no it isn't to just block traffic and cause annoyances. Hop on their social media sites and contribute. This is the time, people are realizing that we are in a situation without many directions left to travel. Soon we won't be able to afford our gadgets and internet etc...on a massive scale. We are finally being hit where it counts, our materialism.

Finally in the Canadian MSM!

news.ca.msn.com...

"About 700 protesters demonstrating against corporate greed, global warming,..."
Demonstrating against global warming. What a joke! lol

reply to post by MidnightTide


If true, (alot of reports are saying this as such) means that all arrested will be let go without charge. Just gotta wait until sometime this week though and if they are not formally charged by 6pm tonight NYC law says they must be released.

Since this a non terrorist action this falls under the jurisdiction of The NYP and orders all who are not charged by Hour 24 to be released. NYPD has no authourity over Federal law and only FBI, DHS can make arrests domestically regarding terrorist actions and law there reads as you must be charged by Hour 96 or else you must be released.

With the amount of people out of work TPTB should tread lightly on this situation. My reasoning is that if they somehow mishandle the masses of protesters, it will result in pulling the remainder of the sleeping masses into the cause.

It seems to me every time someone is wrongly handled in this situation, the live feeds show people all over the USA and World what is going, then draws more people in.

Originally posted by PapagiorgioCZ
"About 700 protesters demonstrating against corporate greed, global warming,..."
Demonstrating against global warming. What a joke! lol

Shall we say, someone was doing a spin job. Climate change cannot be stopped and cannot be protested against.

Originally posted by doctornamtab

Originally posted by studio500
Yet on the live feed they are all being arrested one by one, despite this being a peaceful protest so far.

www.livestream.com...


This could turn nasty at any moment.

I think theyre arresting people because its illegal to be blocking traffic and in most places its illegal to protest without telling the city when and where and for how long. If you go out of the designated area they'll arrest you

Agree with u on the blocking traffic part, but the people have a right to peacefully assemble in any place at any time. The regulations passed inhibiting that are a direct and blatened disregard for human rights.

Maybe it's time to block a little traffic.

The politicians sure don't listen to the people they are suppose to represent, so a little traffic congestions, on the Brooklyn Bridge might just catch some people's attention.

My hats off to them for doing something, other than sitting on the asses and complaining.

reply to post by mutatismutandis


NYPD forced them onto the blacktop on the Brooklyn instead of going on the pedestrian plaza walkway.

Ok, I foung this video. I don't know if it's been posted yet. It seems that you have the same two cops trying to cause some trouble and one of them get reprimanded . That's right at the start of the video. Now, After a minute or so those two are sent to get this one guy ....it seems, Just check it out.

www.youtube.com...

Btw, they weren't attempting to hold the bridge. They were attempting to cross it on their way to another park on the other side. I've heard a lot of people asking what their goals are and what they are attempting to prove.

Here is their oh-so-subtle point.

1. Everyone knows that politicians are for sale to the highest bidder.
2. By extention this means our political system is for sale.
3. Less than 1% of Americans control enough wealth to purchace a politician.
(Most of these figures come from 2007. Average income per family : Bottom 90% $31,244... Top 1-10% $164,647... Top 1% $1,137,684 and above. motherjones.com...)
4. Therefore 99% of American's have no real influence in our political socio-economic system.

That is why we are the 99%. And by definition if you are an American and earn less than $200,000 per year you also are part of the 99%.

We live in a country that is supposed to be "of the people, by the people and for the people." All they are trying to do is give a voice to the people. Well 99% of the people anyhow.

I was watching the livestream when this all went down. For the people wondering if this protest is spreading, consider this. Just a week ago people were showing up in just the hundreds. The past couple of days, people have been starting to show up in the thousands. Not only that, this movement isn't specifically wallstreet. I encourage you to look up the Boston protests that just happened the other day infront of Bank of America. This is spreading to many areas through out the country including LA, San Fransico, and many other places. Also, the previous high viewcount on the livestream was, I believe, only 6000 viewers on Friday. On saturday the viewcount reached 23000 people and remained above 10000 people even long after the situation on the bridge.

Now regarding the situation that took place on the bridge. There had been some confusion as to whether or not protestors were purposely lead into an "illegal" side of the bridge. I think this video will show you what happened, and how it happened: t.co...

Another interesting thing to point out, though not very surprising, is the censorship on the medias part regarding this whole movement. For one, twitter is not allowing occupywallstreet to trend in the US. Not only that, there is practically no MSM coverage. Whenever there is any coverage, it is mostly against the protesters. i51.tinypic.com... is one example of this. Now some reports are coming in that facebook is censoring certain pictures that are uploaded onto profiles that have to do with occupy wallstreet. (that info came directly from the livefeed earlier) Select pictures are literally being "blacked" out, as in only a black background is showing up where there should be a picture of the protest.

Another thing that is somewhat concerning, is theelitist.net...
arrest-of-protesters-at-occupywallstreet
Coincidence? I doubt it.

For anyone wondering where the livestream is, it's at: www.livestream.com...
Not always live, their media center goes through some technical diffulties from time to time between losing signals, recharging batteries, etc.

reply to post by TheImmaculateD1


Tea party protesters, which were a broad collection of mostly right-wing people with some left-wing supporters, never obstructed traffic. The Occupy Wall Street protesters, which are a broad collection of mostly left-wing people with some right-wing supporters, will obstruct traffic.

There is actually one difference between left and right wing that I know of, which is that the left-wing does not have respect for individual property rights. If you had respect for individual property rights, you wouldn't be obstructing traffic. Its true that Occupy Wall Street owns the roads because they paid for them with taxes just like everyone else, what they are doing is actually attempting to block other people's access to that property even though they also paid for it just as much.

Blocking specific traffic, such as traffic to the Federal Reserve, is something I'd view as acceptable. Blocking all people without consideration that they may just be minding their own business is unacceptable and a violation of people's property rights.

That said, I do support the Wall Street Protesters goal of raising awareness of the problems. Once the politicians move in to hijack the movement, I will cease my support of the effort because ultimately they, like the tea party, could disallow that from happening. There was a time where politicians would get booed at tea party rallies, and now politicians get cheered at them. The same will be true with Occupy Wall Street unless they make a concerted effort to stop that from happening, which I don't believe will happen.

The Occupy Wall Steet movement is Tea Party II.

reply to post by TheImmaculateD1


fairly certain you changed the context. The crowed took it over. Not commandeered. The two are quite different.

Alright. This is a huge joke. These people are either protesting nothing or literally have no idea what they are protesting about. The death of capitalism? Corporate influence in Washington? The legalization of Marijuana? Come on. This is ridiculous. Capitalism isn't corrupt, the corporations that propagate greed are! Guess who feeds these corporations each and every year? We do. You want to know why this is going on? Because a bunch of hipsters who want to feel entitled are bored and want to go do something. People hear words like "communism" and think it's cool and different than what is going on in America now so they want to protest it. I live in Philadelphia and here are some pictures I found online from a meeting last night:







You really think these MORONS know what the hell they are doing? They are just lazy hypocrites trying to feel like they are worth something. Work for yourself, make your own future, don't let the government do it for you! Sheesh. I love how the big wigs at JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs are just laughing at this herd of losers from their high-rise offices on Wall St. Come on people, change and reformation is needed - but not like this. DEFINITELY not like this. I'm considering going to NYC just to smack some sense into these misguided miscreants. The NYPD should herd these people onto the Brooklyn Bridge then toss them off, they are counter-productive to any kind of revolution which this country is in need of. The only thing they have changed is the amount of traffic on Facebook and Twitter. I mean honestly. Give me a break.