Occupiers Hit a Blue Wall in Lower Manhattan
OWS protesters tried to set up a new encampment in a vacant lot in lower Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood Saturday, but failed when police entered the area and made arrests. Retired New York Bishop George Packard was first over the fence. He was among those busted.
OWS protesters tried to set up a new encampment in a vacant lot in lower Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood Saturday, but failed when police entered the area and made arrests. Retired New York Bishop George Packard was first over the fence. He was among those busted.
The foiled attempt marks a day of disappointment for Occupiers who view a dedicated and visible physical presence as necessary for growing the movement. Trinity Church, which owns the unused lot, has refused to make it available to OWS. On Friday, two Occupiers finished the 14th day of a hunger strike intended to pressure the church to open up the lot.
Demonstrators timed Saturday’s effort to honor the one-year anniversary of the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi, the Tunisian fruit vendor whose act of defiance is credited with kicking off the Arab Spring. –ARK
Josh Harkinson with Mother Jones:
After Bishop Packard tumbled over the fence, he climbed onto a wooden bench and waved for the crowd to follow. Other priests mounted the ladder while the the crowd yanked up the base of the fence to make a large opening. Someone cut the lock on a gate. Soon, dozens of people were inside, talking, dancing to rap music from a boom box, and urging the rest of the crowd to join them. But the party couldn’t last. The police, taken off guard at first, came pouring through the gate with flex cuffs and arrested everyone who didn’t flee, including Packard. I personally witnessed about a half dozen arrests in progress, but the final tally will probably be higher.
Watch footage of Bishop Packard entering the lot here:
Your support matters…
Independent journalism is under threat and overshadowed by heavily funded mainstream media.
You can help level the playing field. Become a member.
Your tax-deductible contribution keeps us digging beneath the headlines to give you thought-provoking, investigative reporting and analysis that unearths what's really happening- without compromise.
Give today to support our courageous, independent journalists.
Women
It takes effort to track the impacts of mass mobilizations like #MeToo, Occupy or Black Lives Matter, but understanding social change is impossible without such work.
If Democrats have any hope of unseating Donald Trump in November, they must stop smearing their party’s frontrunner and his supporters.
Not only have the bankers responsible escaped culpability, but we remain vulnerable to another crash. What's worse, now we have Trump.
Only by abandoning our two-party duopoly can we begin to imagine an alternative future.
Truthdig Editor in Chief Robert Scheer and musician Densmore discuss how young gun control advocates are continuing the legacy of the Vietnam protests, the activism behind The Doors' music, and more.
A propaganda war is raging over the legitimacy of the voting process in Crimea and the neutrality of the international observers who went there.
You need to be a supporter to comment.
There are currently no responses to this article.
Be the first to respond.