Feed

Occupy Wall Street

By Drew Grant 12/24/12 12:48pm

Occupy Wall Street

FBI keeps tabs on OWS

Just Because You Are Paranoid Doesn’t Mean the FBI Wasn’t Monitoring You: Occupy Wall Street Edition

It turns out that all you crazy, post-hippy Occupy Wall Streeters were right: the government does not have your best interest at hearts. In fact, the FBI just released a heavily redacted memo that details some of the ways that it used its anti-terrorism surveillance power to keep last year’s OWS campaign heavily guarded.

Released by the Partnership for Civil Justice after it pursued the documents under the Freedom of Information Act, the items included will just serve to (depending on your worldview) reinforce your paranoia American security bureaus having the carte blanche to become Big Brother, or terrify you into validating the belief that those kids with the drums and the dreadlocks were planning another 9/11. Read More

By Drew Grant 9/17/12 3:30pm

Occupy Wall Street

Video

Protesters clash with police today during the one year anniversary of OWS.

Update: Occupy Wall Street’s One Year Anniversary Liveblog: The Arrests, the Music, the LiveStream and the Plan (Video)

God how time flies. Just 365 days ago, we hadn’t even heard of Occupy Wall Street, horizontal democracy, or a Statement of Autonomy. It was a heady time, when we remained blissfully ignorant of what the 99% referred to, and never thought to question who owned Zucotti Park.

This weekend, preparations began in earnest for OWS’s one year anniversary. It’s almost like the party didn’t take a six month sabbatical where it dropped off the face of front page news. Luckily, it doesn’t take much to make the media wax nostalgic for the days before the tents went up, and even though today’s planned activities sound a lot like a peaceful version of that scene in The Dark Knight Rises, there is definitely excitement in the air. Below, we follow the OWS news of the day, as it happens. If you have any tips, photos or footage that you want seen, send them our way. Read More

By Adrianne Jeffries 6/06/12 11:53am

Occupy Wall Street

Occupy Wall Street, October 13, 2011. (Photo: David Shankbone)

Occupy Wall Street to Occupy Itself

All along, the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York has been comprised mostly of white kids. Not to say the movement is or was all white kids, but despite the existence of a committee for people of color, there are and were a lot of white kids occupying Wall Street. But Occupy Wall Street won’t tolerate divisions based on race, class or gender at Occupy Wall Street. There will be a meeting.

“Race, Class, Gender, Privilege and Power at Occupy Wall Street (A Real Discussion and Plan to root it out and EVOLVE from it!)!)” is one of the events listed in today’s edition of the email newsletter sent out sporadically by the Occupy Wall Street group New York City General Assembly. ”Almost no one will deny that racism in our society exists, but what’s not so clear is the depth of its presence within the Occupy Wall Street Movement,” reads the description. Read More

By Drew Grant 5/02/12 5:09pm

Occupy Wall Street

Video

Hipster Cop loses hipster vote (YouTube)

Hipster Cop Rick Lee Loses His Cool With Musicians During May Day Jam Session (Video)

Occupy Wall Street 2.0 has saw some familiar faces in the mix during yesterday’s May Day protest, including “hipster cop” Detective Rick Lee. Yet the man who only months ago posed for “cool” magazine G.Q. and stood as a beacon of individualism in Ray Kelly’s otherwise not-so-beloved police force is now a Grumpy Old Man, reported Gothamist this afternoon. Apparently the springtime version of Hipster Cop hates music! Read More

By Hunter Walker 4/25/12 8:00am

Occupy Wall Street

OWS-Subway

Lost In New York: Can Occupy Find Its Way Back To Prominence In The Crowded, Distracted City

You can still see traces of the Occupy Wall Street encampment that once stood in Zuccotti Park—a contingent of police officers by the plaza’s entrance and an NYPD watchtower standing guard on Zuccotti’s
northern edge. However, the protesters who made this park their home before being evicted by the police last November are largely gone and the news trucks that formerly stationed themselves outside have departed in favor of a Chabad Mitzvah Tank.

On a recent afternoon at Zuccotti, The Observer encountered handful of tourists and businessmen on lunch breaks but there was nary a demonstrator in sight. At nearby Federal Hall, there were about 11 Occupiers holding signs and sitting on the steps. On the street below, workers were seemingly oblivious to the Occupiers in their midst.

“You’re a Republican?” a suited man asked his friend as they briskly passed by. “Good man!”

Seven months into the movement, the Wall Street that protesters are ostensibly trying to occupy has become inured to the spectacle of carnivalesque protests, demonstrators sleeping on sidewalks and mass arrests. And it seems the rest of the city has too. The protesters are in danger of becoming just another discordant note in the daily din that New Yorkers are so adept at tuning out, like panhandlers, street performers, sidewalk preachers and the other distractions of urban life. Read More

By Steve Huff 4/13/12 1:59am

Occupy Wall Street

Seems appropriate.

Occupy Wall Street’s Newest Protest: The Sleep-Out

Occupy Wall Street grows more inventive with each new protest action and the movement’s latest tactic may be well-suited to many who have, until now, followed events passively via the Internet: protesters are sacked out tonight on sidewalks  not far from the New York Stock Exchange. What’s more, the concrete naps of the disaffected may have more legal protection than a tent in Zuccotti Park: Read More

By Drew Grant 3/26/12 11:39am

Occupy Wall Street

Protesters in Union Square (Getty Images)

Union Square Loiterers Confused, Angered by Occupy Wall Street Protests

Over the weekend, 14 people were arrested during Occupy Wall Street protest in Union Square. The participants were demonstrating against Commissioner Ray Kelly and police brutality, and friends told us to avoid the area at all costs.

“The police are really jumpy today,” The Observer was advised.

But protesters had another group to contend with: the burnouts, skaters, and drug dealers who spend their days in the Square, and didn’t appreciate the extra heat OWS brought to their stomping grounds. Read More

By Steve Huff 3/18/12 8:56pm

Occupy Wall Street

Cecily McMillan/Facebook

Updated: Occupy Wall Street Activist Cecily McMillan Arrested for Assaulting N.Y.P.D. Officer (Video)

While there is a great deal of dispute over the content of the video showing the arrest of 23-year-old Occupy Wall Street activist Cecily McMillan Saturday night, the N.Y.P.D. has no doubt as to who was in the wrong. The Daily News, in an article about an investigation into online death threats made against the police on Twitter as well as comments in a UStream chat, reports that Ms. McMillan was “seen elbowing her arresting officer in the face” as she was being led out of Zuccotti Park.

The officer who arrested the activist was reportedly injured as well: Read More

By Steve Huff 3/18/12 1:38am

Occupy Wall Street

Cecily McMillan/Facebook

Updated: Occupy Wall Street Activist Cecily McMillan Allegedly Beaten By N.Y.P.D. (Video)

Cecily McMillan, an Occupy Wall Street activist once profiled in Rolling Stone, suffered a seizure Saturday night during protest action near Zuccotti Park. Many on-scene reported Ms. McMillan had trouble breathing after she was tackled and handcuffed by law enforcement.

A video uploaded to Youtube late Saturday night purports to show the attack. Two women can be heard commenting, “There’s Cecily,” then there is confusion as the police clearly perform a violent take-down on someone in the crowd.

According to Jeff Sharlet’s November, 2011 article about the Occupy Movement, this may be Ms. McMillan’s second violent encounter with police. She is an organizer for the Northeast region of youths involved in the Democratic Socialists of America, which Mr. Sharlet reports is “the largest socialist organization in the United States.” Ms. McMillan, however, once led a more conventional life: Read More