To be honest, I feel like an idiot for not knowing too much about the riots in Tompkins Square. Upon reading that first article, I found myself shocked. First, the fact that officers could be so brutal and get away with it is disconcerting (“largely on the evidence of a four-hour videotape made by local video artist Clayton Patterson, seventeen officers were cited for “misconduct.” Six officers were eventually indicted but none was ever convicted” (4)); moreover, it seems that these evictees were left only with each other. It’s interesting to see that instead of attacking one another, they loosely organized into a coalition and “took” the park. I doubt this kind of action would take place today; though people don’t always recognize that the homeless are human beings, there are more available options for evictees and the like. Now we just have to wonder: these homeless were made homeless because of the effects of gentrification; even though more options are now available to the homeless, should now efforts be focused toward the anti-gentrification movements? Is providing homeless shelters but no guarantee of stable housing where these people had been previously living just a solution for the symptom of a much bigger problem?