NYC: Occupiers block Wall Street, march over Brooklyn Bridge

CounterVortex

New York City police arrested some 200 protesters on the morning of Nov. 17 as hundreds converged on the Financial District for a “Shut Down Wall Street” action to note the two-month mark of the Occupation movement. With Wall Street itself under tight police control, protesters blocked surrounding intersections, and some scuffled with police. That evening, some 30,000 rallied at Foley Square and then marched over the Brooklyn Bridge. Participants prominently included unionists, especially from SEIU 1199 (hospital workers) , CWA 1101 (Verizon) and the Professional Staff Congress (CUNY). At the entrance of the bridge, a blinking sign read, “Peds on the roadway are subject to arrest”—a reference to the mass arrests of Oct. 1. The march took hours to cross to Brooklyn on the pedestrian catwalk. Hundreds of activists also attempted to occupy the Union Square subway hub during rush hour, and then marched down to Foley Square. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said five police officers were injured in the morning civil disobedience.

Zuccotti Park, which was evicted by police two days earlier, is now behind police barricades, with only two small and tightly controlled entrances on opposite ends of the square where the public can enter single-file. As protests took place around Lower Manhattan, Zuccotti was largely empty apart from several orange-jacketed security men from the private firm that owns the park. (Occupy Wall Street, Inner City Press, AlJazeera, BBC News, Nov. 17; World War 4 Report on the scene)

See our last post on the struggle in New York City.

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  1. OWS protesters shut down “Law & Order” set

    Reality fights back against the Simulacrum! From the Daily News, Dec. 9:

    More than 100 Occupy Wall Street demonstrators stormed the set for "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" across from the Manhattan State Supreme Courthouse, shutting down production of an OWS-themed episode. "We made it so that they could not exploit us and that's awesome," said Tammy Schapiro, 29, of Brooklyn. The protesters arrived around midnight at Foley Square and roamed around the park inspecting tents and signs built by the production company. "This is not us," said Drew Hornbein, 24, of Brooklyn Heights. "We are not part of corporate TV America."