Thousands of people flooded New York Streets yesterday for Operation Occupy Wall Street.  What is this operation?  It is the unified approach to getting our financial, social, and political problems solved with the help of the people through solidarity.  It is not a party or protest for the youth of America; it is a movement that involves all people from all ages and ethnic backgrounds.  It is a fight for the 99% against the 1%.  It is something that all of us need to take part in.

We arrived in New York at about 9 or 10 p.m. Friday evening.  The scene around Liberty Square, or the headquarters of the movement, was one that would have led you to believe that there was no movement whatsoever.  With barely a hundred people, there was not much happening.  The pouring rain had dampened most of the spirits that were in attendance.  We found the group rallied around some central figures doing what they called a General Assembly.  During this assembly, the participants have been forced to be creative in getting their messages across.  The police force has taken away all forms of loud speakers, bull horns, or what have you.  In order to get the attention of the crowd we hear the familiar phrase that we saw on youtube.com, “Mic-Check”.  The speaker at the time, for this is a group of unified people and all voices are heard, yells, “Mic-Check” and the crowd yells it back to symbolize that the speaker has their attention.  All messages are spoken in short bursts of words which the crowd shouts back.  It is an ingenious way of keeping the communication up and going.

We asked around for what little news was available for us.  Being late at night, half of the people were tired, hungry, and wet.  We did manage to get a few short words from the participants though concerning why they were there.  The basic message is that, “We are mad as hell, and we are not going to take it anymore!”—Howard Beal, Network (1976).  Most of the willing participants for interviews this first night were from college grads or students who were there with or without their professor’s consent.  Some had been granted leave from class as long as they agreed to write about the experience.  Others had abandoned their jobs, school, and homes to attend this historic event.   Whatever the cost, people were willing to sacrifice what they had to in order to join.

The following morning, we arrived back at Liberty Square to see that not many more people had joined.  We approached the camp from a block away and witnessed a total reinforcement of the police force that was standing guard around the perimeter.  We counted over one hundred police officers climbing out of vans to start crowd control.  The officials from the city had pulled officers from all over to control us.  With vans, sirens, and armed police escorts patrolling the perimeter, it appeared as if the scare tactics they were employing would work.  We found that people would approach the camp and then would just watch, outside of the police line.  Cameras were taking pictures of the occupiers and the scene seemed to become more of a tourist attraction. 

Being early in the morning, 8 o’clock to be exact, there was not much stirring in the camp.  The “tourists” were talking amongst themselves about the movement and how it seemed to be unorganized.  Most of the people who were spectators would not join because of the police occupation.  The General Assembly began with the familiar yell at about 9 a.m. and then it started.  

While the assembly was busy hashing out their daily affairs, the people around us began to notice that we were serious.  Our members decided to patrol our own perimeter with signs, optional clothing, and an attempt to appeal to those who would just watch.  Doing this seemed to get the point across for the numbers of occupiers began to swell immensely.  What started with around two hundred people at eight had become close to five hundred by ten.  By the time we decided to march, we had grown to close to a thousand.

The march began at noon with the banging of drums and the cheers of the occupiers.  The members who were marching formed around the square, carrying their banners and yelling things like “Who’s street?” and answering “Our street” and “Banks got bailed out we got sold out”.  After two laps around Liberty squared, we headed out through the streets.  As we marched, we gathered more and more people.  By the time we made our second turn we had well over two thousand people with more joining as we passed by chanting.  We were angry yet civil; loud yet orderly.

Every street we walked down was full of people; either watching or just going about their lives.  We were constantly being cut off by police barricades as we marched down whatever street we could.  Whenever we tried to get the people who were watching to join us, the police would push us back into our march, sometimes violently.  They did not want the crowd to get any bigger.  While marching, we found that those of us who were louder, who were passionate, who were keeping us together were being targeted by police.  Several of the organizers had been arrested by the end of our second or third street.  Police would grab those of us who were on the outside of the march and wrestle us to the ground, cuff us, and drag us away.  When this happened, we would stop and yell “Let them Go” and “Shame” at the officers.  This was met with tense situations of the police pushing against the surrounding crowd as the crowd pushed back. 

Apparently we have the support of several major legal groups as well as the National Lawyers Guild.  Most of us had the phone number for the Lawyers Guild written on our arms in case we were arrested.  We were told that if we did get taken in, to say nothing and ask to make the phone call.  This resulted in most of the arrests only holding the people for several hours.  Some of the occupiers were sent to Belleview, which we were told was a mental institution somewhere uptown.  The funny thing was that the doctors had been aware of the occupation and were turning these people out as soon as they were delivered.

As we continued to march, we kept being redirected by the police.  This was not in our best interest so instead of staying on the sidewalks, which we had been doing for the sake of order in the streets, we decided to occupy the streets as we marched.  This resulted in total confusion by the police.  They could no longer predict our movements and barricade our march.  We were walking between cars, circling around in intersections, and generally stopping the flow of traffic through downtown New York.  The result of this was that we marched to Union Square and assembled for further instructions. 

While we were stopped, our group began to spread itself thin.  We had no idea where we were going after Union Square.  Some wanted to go to the U.N. while some thought we should head to Wall Street itself.  It was then that the police decided to move on us to break us up.  With our ranks being stretched out in several directions, the police were quick to bring out the orange nets they used as barricades.  It was quite comical to watch the police run from one intersection to the next trying to keep us together.  We ended up jumping over a police car barricade which eventually caused the police to give up in their containment efforts at the square.

As we headed away, towards Wall Street, the police got in front of us and steered the front of the march into a street that they had blocked off at the far end.  Before we realized what was happening, half of the lead of the group had been corralled like cattle.  We were separated by the police with at least 80 members being arrested while the rest of us fought to get them free.  There was an intense struggle to get our comrades out of the barricade.  I was personally thrown against the wall of a building and then pushed out into the street where I landed on my back for videotaping the scene.  My friend Jake had been trapped in the corral and barely escaped by diving under the barricade and running the opposite direction of the march.  This was the end of our march for the day.  We had decided to break off into small groups and make our way back to Liberty Square to regroup and assess our damage. 

It took about an hour and a half to return from the 12 mile march.  Our spirits were down for the loss of our friends.  I still had not heard from Jake and was contemplating how long we would be at this occupation if we had been arrested.  I would find out later that Jake had escaped during the scuffle.  I also had found out that during this altercation, pepper spray was used on several of the females that were with us and some of the guys had been beaten by the police.  We had a report that one of our members was in serious condition and was being denied medical treatment by the police.  It was decided that there would be a march, in silence, to the police precinct and to ask for our friends to be released or at least if they were okay and if we could request medical assistance. 

I met up with Jake about two hours after the police intervention.  We decided to leave that night for home, not wanting to be stranded in New York without the support that we would require.  There are no showers, no public restrooms, no power supply, and little other resources we could pull from.  The occupation has support, but not enough to keep it going.  $25,000 have been donated so far but that is not much for the close to a thousand people still there.  We thought it in our best interest to get back while we could and try to gather more troops for the cause. 

As night started to fall and we rounded up our last interviews, we found that the group had become quite docile and the atmosphere had become that of a festival.  Drums were beating, horns worn being blown, and people were singing and cheering for our accomplishments of the day.  We had successfully increased our numbers and received more local media attention than we had ever had.  There were reporters from The Guardian, Democracy Now, and several of the local news stations.  The interviews that were given were not by a bunch of mindless hippies.  In fact, the whole square has been designated a drug free zone for those who thought that we would be smoking pot and dropping acid. Given the age difference found in the crowd, it is more acceptable to obey the obvious laws that would get us arrested.  Instead of a bunch of doped up hippies, we find that we are a group of the old and young, the experienced and novice, the wise and the naive.  We are the representative 99% who just aren’t going to take it anymore.

As for the reasons for this occupation; they should be self explanatory.  Everyone who reads this is a member of the 99%.  We should not think that the 1% would ever grace us with their presence.  They won’t.  In fact, some of them have threatened to shower us in champagne.  We could use the drink guys!  We are fighting against the inequality that has become more than reality in our country, it is the norm and the people do not question.  We are against corporations being considered human and being allowed to give as much money as they want to elections.  94% of all elections have been won by the biggest spender, is that really what democracy is about?  Those who have the gold make the rules?  I thought it was a nation,”…by the people, for the people”, not on the backs of the people for the benefit of the few.  America was built by the poor, the workers, the unskilled laborers.  It is time that this oligarchy that controls our government be abolished and our voices are heard again.  Elizabeth Warren is right when she states that nobody gets rich by themselves.  We all helped these guys make their money and have slaved for them ever since.  Now it is time to take back what is ours.

As we were leaving New York, we felt sad that we could not stay.  It is our opinion that we should stay as long as it takes.  We wanted to continue our support for this.  Seeing our new friends thrown to the ground and zip-tied by the police was infuriating.  We were protesting, which is our right as people of America.  We were not hurting anyone.  We were not violent.  We were peaceful.  We were brutalized.  And still, the majority of you out there will not even take the time to Google it or search for it on YouTube and facebook.  Most think it is too late to change and that things are okay the way they are.  There is no point in discussing the current standings of America in the world.  We all know that we are falling further and further behind.  We are trying to change that.

Some things to keep in mind when reading about the occupation or watching the movement on the internet are that we fight for you, all of you.  We don’t know you and we don’t need to.  We have no clue what is getting out about our movement.  We suffer from a media blackout.  We are searching for our brothers and sisters around the globe who are occupying their closest major city.  There are at least 20 other occupations starting or happening at this moment.  We need your help.  We need your support.  This will not work without all of you helping us.  We need to work together to stop this corporate tyranny and to restore America’s standing in the world.  Help us help you!

Here is an address for the movement in New York.  If you donate, no perishable items or checks.  Money orders are fine and other forms of donations are accepted.  Food has been donated through a pizza place by the square.  They need water, blankets, food items, spare batteries for electronics (without the internet, this would not happen), and anything else you can think of.  We are small in number most of the time but with your help, we can grow until we get the change we need. 

UPS Store

118A Fulton Street no. 205

New York, New York 10038

C/o Occupy Wall Street

Solidarity brothers and sisters!

More Links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwnvOqUWEQQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEgFfs-8ZNs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrFQs5X-I1Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zyYEFKU9gY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dE7lHLgtZRM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Tw3sFtXSH4