If you’ve been paying any attention to the news, you’ve probably heard of Occupy Wall Street. If I still lived in Queens, I probably wouldn’t have given it a thought, much less be interested enough to actually go and see what it’s all about. Which is exactly what I did last Wednesday, with my friend Genevieve.
I don’t know what I expected to see at Wall Street. A crazy mass of screaming psychos with no clear intentions or goals to speak of? Maybe. What I got though, was definitely not that. When Genevieve and I finally found the location of the protest (we didn’t really have much idea where we were going, we just kind of walked around the Financial District until we found it), we were surprised by how calm it all was. Granted, we went when nothing much was really happening. But it definitely wasn’t the insanity we thought we would see. There were some tables set up with food, a bunch of people meditating, numerous signs laid out for everyone to see, sleeping bags set up for those staying over, etc. There was also a plate of money with a really socialist implication that I’m not entirely sure how I feel about that I put below.
Meditation
"If you need money, take some. If you have money, give some." Like I said, not really sure how I feel about this...
Genevieve and I just couldn’t resist taking millions of pictures. We both had the same reaction: we just couldn’t believe how cool it was, that all of these people were just stepping out of their lives to join together and protest against something that really matters. The part I liked the best was seeing all of the signs that people had made. Some were pretty fancy, and others were just made of cardboard and written in sharpie, but either way, they were really cool (even the ones that I didn’t agree with – and believe me, there were plenty of those).
"People before profits" "Join us! This is for you!"
"You've got my back against a wall" "There's a time to reap and a time to sow"
"Raise your voice"
One observation I made about the protesters is that they weren’t all young. I thought it would all be a bunch of people in their twenties, maybe some younger college kids too, and even though they were in the majority, there were adults older than that there, which shows that it is more than just the youth supporting this movement. Another observation: a lot of them were really nice and friendly, not at all antagonistic or aggressive. The man in the picture below, for example, was more than willing to pose for a picture.
"Revolution is inevitable. Why not now?"
In the end, the only real problem I had with the protest had nothing to do with the protesters themselves. It was the cops. Again, if you’ve been watching the news at all, you’ll know the horrible things that the police officers have been doing to these peaceful protesters, beating them to the ground, macing them in the face, etc. Everything was calm when Genevieve and I went, but the police were still present, and there were a lot of them. And towards the end, when some people started marching, they were walking alongside them, “just in case” I suppose, but just in case of what? All these people are doing is holding up signs and chanting, all so that they can make this country a better place. And though I understand that the police want to make sure that nothing gets out of hand, there is no reason for there to be THAT many police officers, nor should they be using the methods they do for supposed “crowd control.”
Just a few of the police officers getting ready for I'm not exactly sure what.
NYPD escorting the protesters down the streets as they march.
But enough about the NYPD. In the end I’m really glad that I went down to see what Occupy Wall Street was all about, and I think I may go again, especially since more and more people are showing up every week. What it means for this country I don’t know, but either way, it’s definitely something I want to keep track of and maybe even be a part of.
(Maybe not that last part…we’ll see!)
