rigorousintuition.ca

We had participated in an anti-arrest / legal workshop that day with lots of pointers on how to combat kettling, what to say, what to do, etc. I just don't know how it could have been combatted up on the bridge. I'm sure the organizers made a quick logical decision, they seemed to have a lot of experience with getting arrested.

Some people just can't afford to get arrested, they'll miss work tomorrow and will be fired, or literally just can't afford court costs, legal fees and fines. Or that little kid. Jesus.

I mean, I was mentally prepared to be arrested during the march, despite the convivial tone, but I still didn't want to be.

JackRiddler wrote:Went there yesterday

Free wrote:I was on the Brooklyn Bridge.

Luther Blissett wrote:Bruce Dazzling and I were both on the Brooklyn Bridge as well

Fantastic, well done... thank you.

And Plutonia seems to be involved as well. It'd be funny if we met her and did not realize it.

Sorry Luther, I'm in Canada.

But I've got a hellava date on Oct 15!



Cheers to you guys who've mingled with the epicentre! This is what we've been waiting and preparing for isn't it?

I'm so excited I can't sleep! Getting stuff ready. Bringing one friend who will be doing citizen journalism and another who just found out that her bank won't be renewing her mortgage. Putting together a care package to ship to #occupywallstreet on Monday. Ohboyohboyohboy!!

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Escaping from Zip Ties: Breaking (Rear)



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#OccupyWallStreet Brooklyn Bridge arrests

Free wrote:I was on the Brooklyn Bridge. The march from Liberty Park was huge, moving from City Hall onto the bridge, too many to fit on the pedestrian side of the bridge walkway where it was legal to cross, and no protester organizers or police telling marchers not to cross on the road, so the march flowed into both the walkway and the road (illegal due to obstruction of traffic).

Luckily, I was on the walkway, which is elevated. From there we saw everything. The police started calling on their radios, and reinforcements came from the other side to block off the marchers, then started arresting them. The arrests that I saw were peaceful and non violent with hundreds of people overhead filming, snapping photos and chanting "Let them go" some yelling, 'dirty pigs' others 'we still love you', etc. Just heard on the radio that the Brooklyn Bridge is open again, it was shut down outbound until 8:30 or so.

If any of my pictures are any good I'll post them later. I went to Slutwalk too. All in all a glorius, satisfying day... Hallelujah!

The above is a pretty good description of how this went down, except that it doesn't convey how exhilarating it was to SHUT DOWN THE BROOKLYN FUCKING BRIDGE, YO!!!!

As Luther Blissett said, we were there together, and he is a fine young gentleman who you should all be proud of.

As for my fate, well, I managed to get off the bridge just before they fenced off the Manhattan side (they had already fenced off the Brooklyn side). Free mentioned this above, but we were pretty evenly divided between the pedestrian walkway and the road. I was on the pedestrian walkway, taking photos and video of the arrests, although it was difficult to get any really good shots because the cops were standing in front of us and deliberately blocking. I thought that we'd be safe there from any NYPD involvement because I figured that they'd concentrate all of their forces on the road portion of the bridge. I was wrong, though. By the time I left, I'd guess that there were at least 75 cops on the pedestrian bridge, and that was quite enough to kettle everyone in, which I'm certain they did not long after I escaped.

The pre-march group was very interesting. I spent my first hour in a meditation circle. Then, as Luther said, we participated in a sort of Protest 101 workshop, where we were given strategies in dealing with the police and our potential arrest. After that, we witnessed a pretty heated argument between a protester who published a Broadsheet called The Occupied Wall Street Journal and a guy who felt that the publisher should have sought more input from the the people who consider themselves the leaders, and that the movement was being misrepresented by the Journal. The whole thing made me worry about infiltration and I commented to Luther that I hoped there wasn't an operative smiling somewhere and twisting his moustache, saying "nice, my work here is done."

Anyway, again, this was an awesome day, and I'm hoping that it continues to grow at the pace that it grew this week.

Come and protest. We need as many of you as we can get!

As usual, here are some pics:



























There are stills from the cell phone vids I'm still processing:





At this point the cops were standing at the edge so that we could no longer film what was going on below on the road.

Thanks for the RI reports from everyone, and photos from our 99ers on the scene. Thank you for going too! Good to know everyone is okay.
And lastly, thanks for getting a good shot of the flag they're using. I never got a good look at it.

@thenormaj
Norma J
!!! RT @washingtonpost Total number arrested at #OccupyWallStreet protest on Brooklyn Bridge up to 700, @AP reports. wapo.st/qXQExI

Bruce, would you happen to have a link to those photos, like a flickr page or something?

And if so, would you mind if I (we) shared it?

Glad you avoided arrest!

Aw man Bruce right back at you. I'm super glad you're not in jail, but I gotta say first and foremost that im fucking pissed that this girl potentially is:



I'm anticipating all of this is going to increase visibility and public discourse. I really hope the country starts taking this seriously. There was a lot of optimism out there and even more true dedication and spirit than that. You can tell these people are in it for the long haul.

I hope the broadsheet issue was settled. The simple solution was to continue publication (if at all possible, I'm sure it was expensive) with the input of this guy who felt he had a claim to the "message" since he's been sleeping in the park for 14 days. It seems that he specifically wanted a vote. The angry-looking bald guy in Bruce's photo was pro-broadsheet, and at one point in the row removed his shirt to reveal a gigantic red star tattoo on his back. Quite effective.

Nordic wrote:Bruce, would you happen to have a link to those photos, like a flickr page or something?

And if so, would you mind if I (we) shared it?

Glad you avoided arrest!

Yes, I'd like to share some of those too, with permission. And thanks to you and all who've been in the thick of it and reporting back.

Edited by Al Baker eh?

Oh right, he's the police headquarters bureau chief lol!

https://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/13/busi ... wanted=all

Courtesy of @Bailey_Carson via twitter

I can no longer see the "NYT edited" graphic. Bummer.

Plutonia wrote:

Edited by Al Baker eh?

Oh right, he's the police headquarters bureau chief lol!

https://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/13/busi ... wanted=all

Courtesy of @Bailey_Carson via twitter

and it needs to be seen!



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700 arrested at Occupy Wall Street protest as demonstrators and NYPD shut down Brooklyn Bridge
BY JOHN DOYLE AND RICH SCHAPIRO
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Originally Published:Saturday, October 1st 2011, 5:26 PM
Updated: Saturday, October 1st 2011, 11:05 PM

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/201 ... z1ZaowBSIB

WOW! I wish I were there. It must have been amazing to stand on that bridge! Thanks everyone for the updates and stories.

Our little Seattle version grew to a couple hundred in today's action and there are 22 people camped in our downtown park tonight.

I'll be going out after I install my show this week.

Apropos of nothing (and please don't let this derail the thread): the ubiquitous guy (and it's always a guy) holding the infowars.com sign.

Every demonstration I attend, there's that guy. Of course I don't mean that guy, but rather a guy, with that sign. They sure know in which direction the cameras point.

Anyway, I suppose, God love 'em. They mean well, though I think Jones is poison. I just abhor the attempt to piggyback and brand mass action.