Occupy Wall Street: A bishop scales the fence into Duarte Park

Update5: The GA will be held in Times Square.  The occupiers were headed to the Red Steps except that the police are listening into OWS communications now and they decided to head it off by ejecting tourists.

Update4: The #OWS hashtag says that Plan B has been activated and that all marchers are to head to PERSEUS.  I assume you know what that means.  Another batsignal?  Something seasonal?  Sounds like fun.

This tweet sounds official:

@NYC_GANYC General Assembly

Tonight’s #GeneralAssembly will be at 60 Wall St. at 7:30. Come one, come all. #d17 #OWS

This was the original plan but it was adjusted on the fly.

 Soooooo, get out of Times Square, guys.  People are getting thrown off the Red Stairs.  It looks like the tourists are getting the boot,  not the protestors.  The protestors were not on the Red Stairs.  So, the cops have just pissed off a bunch of tourists and shoppers.  So, NOW the tourists are walking away saying, “Police State!”.  Great way to welcome people to the city.  Nice going, Bloomberg.

Update3: Police are moving into Times Square.  The march has broken up but this isn’t significant.  The occupiers are dispersed but the occupation movement tends to move in mysterious ways.  They’re at the Red Steps in Times Square.  There is a people’s march going on somewhere ahead.

OK, what are they up to??

There is a proposal to go back to Zuccotti.  But someone (is that Dwayne? *swoon*) says that they should stay in Times Square and have a general assembly there.

Update2: The occupiers are headed towards Times Square.  They were kettled briefly at 29th street and 7th avenue.  But the kettling nets were trampled by occupiers who sprinted away.  So, the cops let everyone go.  Now, the occupiers are marching more or less quietly to Times Square by walking in the street.  The cops are also walking in the street.  Tim the cameraman at The Other 99 livestream reports that the cops are targeting media, roughing them up and arresting them.  They are also monitoring the livestreams.  By walking to Times Square, the protestors are going to blend in with the theatre crowd.

There are people being tased!!

They are being forced out of the Times Square area.  Hey, that doesn’t seem right.  What if you have tickets?

The police are also looking for people who they think may be functioning in an organizational capacity.  One of the march “pacers” has been arrested.

Update:  The Occupiers have taken to the street.  They were headed towards Rev. Cooper’s house.  He has been representing Trinity Church.  But they were diverted by police.  So, they took to the streets, running the wrong way down one way streets.  The police don’t have good tactics to handle that.  There are now arrests in progress.  You can find some of the livecoverage at Wearetheother99.  Here is their livestream.  http://occupystreams.org/item/occupy-nyc-the-other-99

New chant: “Move like water, burn like fire”

The street is now kettled.  Police are moving in saying that no one is getting off this block.

Looks like the cameraman may be about to be arrested.

Damn, I’m sorry to have missed this one. You have to check out this video if you haven’t seen it yet. The occupiers built a ladder and went over the fence into Duarte Park at 6th and Canal. And who was the first one over? It was a bishop and several other clergy. They dropped down to the other side but this whole idea was planned in advance because a second ladder was dropped into the park and connected to the first ladder so that occupiers didn’t have to jump down.

Check out the video here http://llcdn8.twitvid.com/twitvidvideosv2/Y/F/H/YFHNZ.tmp.mp4?e=1324163520&h=ebbd237fc47d56fa5ed80697e39a8821

Sorry, I’m blogging on my iPad so I can’t embed without major headaches.

This is absolutely the right thing to do. We are seeing a replay of the demonstration at the Temple with Trinity Church playing the role of Caiphas, cooperating with the Romans to keep the riff-raff in check. I know the church has been generous with their hospitality and hot chocolate. But what the occupiers need is a space. Now is the time to make a commitment. Otherwise, the Trinity has lost sight of what it means to be Christian. You do not want to be the ones who threw out the people protesting the money changers and the jackbooted thugs they support.

We’ve replaced crucifixion with indefinite detention but the obliteration of the protestor will happen just the same. Where is Obama in all of this? Will he allow the scenes of oppression and thuggery spread from Cairo and Syria to NYC?

Is this a free country? And where are the rest of the Christians? Shouldn’t they be down there, helping each other over the fence?

OccupyWallStreet D17: Where is that space?

Today is the 3 month birthday for Occupy Wall Street and there’s going to be another party, this time in an effort to RE-Occupy NYC.  I went to the N17 party and was surprised and delighted by the batsignal on the side of the Verizon building.  Who knows what they’re planning for today?  I hope it’s spectacular.

This party will start at Duarte Square at the corner of 6th Avenue and Canal St.  The birthday announcement hints at another sleepover.     Hmmmm, what does it mean?  Here’s the poster:

So, it looks like you can tune into the festivities on WBAI at 99.5 on your fm dial (as we used to say in the 70s).  WBAI is the NYC station for Pacifica Radio.  The station announcement says that the event will feature appearances by Lou Reed, Patti Smith, Cornell West, Michael Moore and others.  I think using the radio station is a good idea.  The people’s mic is pretty effective when you’re standing there and it has a peculiar way of focussing your attention but it’s harder to convey a lot of information since everything has to be parsed into short phrases with long delays between each one.  This should help occupiers coordinate  messages.  There is a live stream available for those of you following along at home.

There also seems to be some interesting movement around the concept of occupying the space at 6th and Canal that is owned by Trinity Church.  I don’t think this is Duarte Square (or is that the name for it?) but it’s at the same intersection.  Trinity Church is holding out on giving this space to the occupiers for some reason.  Who knows, maybe Bloomberg called the Church’s insurance company and suggested that the church might be held responsible for cracked heads.  Or maybe he told them they would have to pick up the tab for security.  Or maybe the problem is that Trinity Church owns so much acreage in Lower Manhattan that they are sort of like the Temple in Jerusalem where the moneychangers go to do business and pray.  Sure, they’ve been kind by offering their bathrooms and hot chocolate and everything but hosting the occupation on their own property is a bit more of a commitment than they want to make.  We musn’t upset  the benefactors in a season of charitable giving, right?  Whatever the reason, the eviction from Zuccotti park leaves the occupiers with no outside visible place to hold their open air salon.  I loved the fall days in Zuccotti park when there were so many people  stopping in to participate.  The smear job on the occupiers was outrageous and highly inaccurate.  And without a physical space, it is impossible for ordinary Americans who are curious about Occupy Wall Street to check it out and find that the occupiers are – ordinary Americans.  From the letter from the National Council of Elders to Trinity Church, the importance of occupying a physical space is spelled out:

We know that some question the need for Occupy to continue to occupy physical space but we have witnessed the impact of communal, inspirational, face-to-face contact in which people can be visible to the world and to one another. We have also been challenged to respond to the question from Occupy, Where can you go if you don’t own something? Does a public even exist if it has no space? And finally, like visionaries before them, many Occupiers have chosen to give up everything to invest in a future that does not exist except in their dreams and visions. In a world where the majority of our nation is oppressed by economic and racial inequality, experiencing isolation and dehumanization at every turn, the Occupy movement in its public presence has provided hope and purpose and a pressing challenge to us all.

So, I hope that Trinity Church relents and realizes that this is the right thing to do and that NOT doing it would be more than a little like collaborating with the Romans to keep the peasants from speaking out during passover, if you get my drift.  If the occupiers are willing to freeze their asses off for justice in America, how can Trinity Church not want to assist in this courageous act?

Anyway, ’tis the season.  I don’t think I can go today.  Brook is having a Solstice party this week and she’s offering to help clean.  How could I pass up an offer like that?  Besides, I’ll only go if she goes.  Hmmm….

Can this be topped?:

Wouldn’t you like to find out? 😉