At last, a slideshow of my photos from Zuccotti Park. I went down there on Sunday, and spent a couple hours among the Occupiers. I spoke to a lot of people, asking questions, debating a bit, and trying to figure out where they were at with all of this. And oh, my, did I learn a lot.
This post is just photos with my comments, based on my conversations with them. I walked all around the perimeter of the park (it’s not that big, really, just 33,000 sq ft), and spent a lot of time walking around inside the encampment, visiting the various tables and people sitting with their own signs. The photos are in the order in which I came across them. I censored nothing, and believe I’ve covered the full spectrum of activists and causes therein. Video and a full report will follow soon.
Hosted by EyeTube – My thanks to ASE.
I had the pleasure of seeing the Occupy demonstration at St. Paul’s at close hand today.
It was all rather underwhelming: a smattering of ‘socialism is the answer’-type stands, a personable Asian man sitting at a table with leaflets espousing the values of Islam, and lots of rather nice tents. The people all seemed charming enough, if a little underemployed.
This was not so much the vanguard of the glorious revolution but a little bit of Glastonbury in the City.
I half-expected to see a 200-strong BBC crew operating out of a convoy of Winnebagoes but I was disappointed.
Great work David and well done to ASE. I would like to cross blog on ATW if that is OK and on my twitter stream.
By all means, DV.
Training in Powerpoint presentation skills badly needed by many of these Occupiers. You would think Sorros could have funded it. Or the Bill and Melissa Foundation.
What is sad is how little grip any of these protestors have on how anything works. The “redistribution” theme (“down with greed” etc) is very apparent. It is all about the share of the cake, never about the size of the cake.
Every one who has gone this route has ended up with equal shares of a size zero cake. Epic Fail. They want wealth redistribution, but don’t understand what enables wealth creation in the first place.
They seem typical of the type – trying to look poor and downtrodden but failing miserably. I don’t think they’ll be stuffing their clothes with copies of the Guardian to keep warm this Winter. As for wealth redistribution – strictly applies to other people’s wealth.
And could it have been Daddy’s “greed” that paid for the school fees, the skiing holiday and the iPad at Christmas? Of course not. “Greed” is only ambition in the sort of people who should damn well know their place.
Well done David. The stench must’ve been almost unbearable!
It would appear that only 1 in 10 of the tents outside St.Pauls are occupied at night.
Mummy and Daddy must be worried that Tarquin and Talulah may catch a chill, so are treating them to a hotel room.
All the tents I saw were occupied. Most were high quality. There were a few people laid out in sleeping bags as well.
The left-wing freaks on your side of the pond are obviously made of sterner stuff than their British counterparts!
Part time revolutionaries:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2053463/The-thermal-images-prove-90-tents-St-Pauls-protest-camp-left-overnight.html
It’s been said elsewhere, but aren’t these empty tents a damn sight more of a terrorist threat than an empty suitcase left lying around? If I were a terrorist – sorry, militant – that’s exactly the sort of cover I’d be looking for.
Thanks for enduring that on our behalf!
Two things stand out for me.
The first is their seemingly universal lack of ability to make a well laid out and readable sign. They all need writing lessons. It’s as though these people have never been educated, which I’m sure is not the case. Their disorganised, shambolic lack of discipline is manifest in their tatty cardboard scribblings.
The second is the complete lack of a unifying message. If a protest becomes about anything and everything, it’s essentially about nothing in particular. That makes it very easy for them to be dismissed as just ‘the usual suspects’ – attention seekers, malcontents and trouble makers looking for somewhere to set up their next activist jamboree.
These are the people that we’re supposed to believe have the diagnosis to our systemic problems and the prescription to the creation of a healthier future. I think I’ll pass, thanks all the same. Perhaps you should have suggested they write a manifesto and form a political party. See how many ‘Twinkles‘ you got.
Meanwhile working class Americans cannot afford to take time out for a trip to New York. This farce reminds me of the similarly spoilt hippy brats who occupied a public park in 1960s San Francisco. They too should have been spanked more when they were little.
Thanks David – giving time and opportunity to actually read what the protestors think they are protesting about rather than the BBCs view
Nice work, DP. A good comanpion piece to Zombie’s account of Occupy Oakland over on the other coast (see also his round-up of the later rioting).
I see Laura Trevelyan has a finally done a report on the disturbance the Wall Street drum circle is causing local residents and businesses. True to form she ignores the divisions it is causing amongst the protesters themselves. The BBC is trying desperately to maintain the fiction that the occuppiers are a united movement; its reporters – clearly sympathetic to the cause – must be painfully aware of the potential for Life Of Brian mockery and are thus making no mention of splits and factions.
And look who they’re sending to cover Occupy Chicago – Daniel Nasaw and Matt Danzico. Right-on!
Compare Trevelyan’s sanitised report with this one from CBS News:
“There is drumming. There are trumpets. There are bugles. There are tambourines. There’s yelling and shouting and chanting late into the night,” resident Ro Sheffe said.
Another concern of those who live or work in the area is where these people use the bathroom. John Tuttle works a few blocks away, and said some protesters’ behavior has become a health hazard.
“I saw a gentleman who was actually using Tupperware containers to urinate in. He actually was dumping it in the street,” Tuttle said…
Meanwhile, police are still looking for two suspects who they say are wanted for threatening to kill a woman inside Zuccotti Park after she filed a police complaint.
Police said that on Monday at around 10:30 a.m. three suspects approached a 24-year-old woman in the park and one of them threatened to kill her after a complaint she filed resulted in the arrest of the suspect’s friend.
That arrest came from an incident on Oct. 11 in which the victim and her friends were assaulted inside the park after an offer to sell the women drugs and spurned romantic advances.
Funny how CBS manages to include these details. I guess they employ better journalists than the BBC.
Just realised I forgot to include a link to Trevelyan’s report in my first comment above. Here it is.
The BBC seldom mentions that many “protestors” quite like the idea of their demos turning into street violence :
http://www.breitbart.tv/more-video-of-occupyoakland-police-conflict-surfaces/
http://www.breitbart.tv/violence-erupts-at-protests-in-greece/
Channel 4 just as bad as you`d expect.
They really didn`t like the notion that these weekend rebels and part time revolutionaries were playing at it and a fractured shower of privileged agitprop tosspots…and Channel 4s limpit wasn`t going to let the Tory MP finish a sentence where he might bring up the Telegraphs study of the empty tents.
Apparently they were all back home changing the kitty litter…any chance of us reporting them all to the RSPCA…or even the ALF if they don`t walk their iguanas “appropriately”.
How come the BBC haven`t offered them that car park of theirs…and bill Livingston for all their Oystercards to get into town!