After massive marches throughout NYC, Occupy Wall Street occupies Brooklyn Bridge, "bat-signals" on Verizon tower

Looks like Mayor Bloomberg's apparent plan to squash the Occupy Wall Street movement by evicting protesters from Zuccotti Park earlier this week only added fuel to the fire. This morning, occupiers swarmed into Wall Street by the thousands, effectively blocking access to the financial center. And at the time of this blog post, by various estimates some 20 to 30 thousand people are marching on to the Brooklyn Bridge footpath—not the roadway, so far. All this just hours after the mayor mockingly predicted at a press conference that tomorrow's newspaper headlines would be about how few protesters bothered to show up (less than a thousand, as he said? Maybe in your dreams, mayor.)

Tim of "The Other 99%" (who deserves a Pulitzer for his amazing ongoing coverage, AFAIAC) has two live video streams: one, two. The local FOX affiliate has a helicopter above, with truly dramatic aerial views of the massive march. Live stream here.

NYPD says 245 have been arrested throughout the day, and The New York Times now reports that about 60 protesters, including a City Councilman, have just been arrested near Brooklyn Bridge. One can only imagine that given the tense situation and the unprecedented number of protesters, this number will rise before the night is through.

And like the bat-signal, someone is projecting "99%" and a beautiful series of statements on the side of the Verizon building there. (snapshots below by @nicoles, and @jennasauers below.)

The projection starts, "MIC CHECK." It continues as a kind of stop-motion manifesto and poem, written on the side of the building in light.

WE ARE THE 99% // YOU ARE A PART OF A GLOBAL UPRISING // DON'T BE AFRAID // YOU ARE UNSTOPPABLE // ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE // A CRY FROM THE HEART OF THE EARTH // THIS IS THE BEGINNING // OF THE BEGINNING // OCCUPY [long list of cities around the world ] // OCCUPY EARTH // LOVE // LOVE // LOVE.

I'll post the whole text (or video) here when I can find it. It is the most beautiful work of art, even viewed over a poor-quality web video stream. Over the presence of tens of thousands of marchers, it must be overwhelming.

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

MORE: occupy wall street • ows

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Brainspore

Sounds like a better way to get the attention of the 1% than the planned subway protests. Most people who are stinking rich don’t use public transit anyway.
http://twitter.com/openfly ǝɔʎoſ ʇʇɐW

I wrote this last night: http://www.music-piracy.com/?p=589 I figure it accurately sums up my feelings concerning this OWS stuff.
Kyle Byron

Awesome! Stay creative, stay hungry! Occupy Black Friday!! Read all about it here:

http://bit.ly/v7DEok
pigpen23

inb4 MLK
pigpen23

but seriously, big ups NYC! forget your fear!
MB44

Dear Authority,
It would appear that the more you try to control this movement with violence and intimidation, the more empowered it becomes. There may come a point when you actually have to address the movement’s legitimate concerns, instead of trying to crush it. It would seem like things have progressed beyond your control…
With Concern,
A Part Of The 99%
Guest

If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine….?
- http://mordicai.livejournal.com Mordicai
  
  The more you tighten your grip, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.
- Guest
  
  We’re all midi-chlorians now.
http://twitter.com/vitorjoanni Vitor Joanni

Despite all my support and the attention I’ve been paying to the movement, I’m a bit disappointed that they’re using the footpaths. When you have this many people, the streets must be claimed to disrupt “business as usual” (in this case, traffic). Well, congratulations anyway, I’m looking forward to see what’s next. Keep up the good work.

- a supporter from Brazil
- pigpen23
  
  “I’m a bit disappointed that they’re using the footpaths”
  
  that’s kinda just cuz people (not all, just liberals) don’t know what’s up in the states. they’re afraid that if they take the streets or disobey cops they’ll alienate people. quite the opposite. if they were being real i’d actually be involved haha!
William Joseph Dunn

“Bat signals”? I wonder what Frank Miller would think of this…?
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_OAUXAA362EXWLYVMPJOKLFB5JQ Incipient Madness

Way to go New York. You have to show every effort they make to stop you makes the movement grow.

Occupy Houston shut down a bridge today for a couple of hours. Buffalo Bayou has about eight bridges crossing it in the downtown area but there was still quite a traffic jam. We gotta get those building projections. Shell USA headquarters and the Wells Fargo tower are just across the street.

Hey New Yorkers, make it last all night. And remember that millionaire steel magnate Herman Blume is on your side:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA8YbjyBQzI
Cowicide

Cow looks at all the naysayers (you know who you are) like this….
http://mordicai.livejournal.com Mordicai

Weird. I guess no one could have seen that applying clumsy & sloppy authoritarian force would backfire, though.
Cowicide

the mayor mockingly predicted at a press conference that tomorrow’s newspaper headlines would be about how few protesters bothered to show up
http://insight.pinkonbrown.org/ Dr P Fenderson

NYPD is reporting the current number of people on the bridge to be ~32,000.
- Cowicide
  
  Right, police scanners estimate the crowd at 32,650 people.
  
  But you’ll notice the mainstream media keeps avoiding reporting on how many people are there or just keep saying “more than 1000″.
  
  The media is frightened. I love it.
  - robuluz
    
    32,650? Holy fucking crap, man. You ran out of hippies and college students a while back there, you’ve got REAL PEOPLE on the streets now.
    
    Probably time to start thinking about carefully regulating your financial markets.
  - http://insight.pinkonbrown.org/ Dr P Fenderson
    
    Exactly! Reading the livestreams of tweets is also hilarious – the abundance of OccupyTrolls is astounding. Mentioning how small the crowds are (??) and complaining about traffic. The mainstream media outlets are doing a pretty good job of turning a small percentage against the rest of the public. Like watching the “Which cup is the ball under?” game being played.
    
    I’ve been using TweetChat to follow #ows, #n17, and #occupypdx (I’m in Portland) and it’s been really intense tonight. Gigatweeter is another good one, and you can have everything on one screen…but you cannot change the update speed or font size. Citizen news, ftw!
pigpen23

the real question though, is if all of this (to borrow a 25 year old phrase) can move “from protest to resistance?”
- Cowicide
  
  It already has and the resistance is wearing them down. And, don’t forget… it’s only been 2 months. We’re just getting started.
  - pigpen23
    
    i hope so. i’m a jaded old man. well, 30 is pretty jaded if you’ve been doin this shit half yer life, anyway. 99 looked promising, 03 looked promising until miami, 08 looked like things were heating up . . . just can’t say i’m hopeful, esp with this piss poor “99″ class analysis. if cops and bosses and anyone being “non-violent” (whatever the fuck that means) are part of your “99″ then i’m not (not directed at you, cowicide).
    - Tunacorn
      
      I think the meaning behind “non-violent” is relatively straight-forward. Also, sounds like you are into an incredibly elitist form of protest. Have you never met a decent cop? Have you never been employed by a good boss? Believe it or not, there are people in the world who will pay you good money to do work, and they will treat you well.
xenphilos

Holy crap, this is AWESOME.
- Donald Petersen
  
  Yeah it is. Just saw this from the NYTimes CityRoom blog linked above:
  
  “One of those arrested on Thursday included a retired Philadelphia police captain, Ray Lewis, who has been taking part in the demonstrations in uniform. Mr. Lewis says that the police are being exploited by the richest 1 percent of America, The Associated Press reports.”
  
  Now that’s the kind of thing I’ve been waiting for.
Aaron Hodges

The hope and change Mr. Obama promised is only alive with those protesting in the streets. Proud of you NYC.
Gainclone

Seems as if the mainstream media chooses to comment largely on the violence inflicted upon police officers by protestors, making little or no mention of the in(con/re)verse. WHAT IS UP WITH THAT I WONDER?
- jerwin
  
  The police are crybabies.
  
  6:51 p.m.: The OWS protests are still going, but a quick update on Brandon Watts, the man who was bloodied in a confrontation with police earlier in the day at Zuccotti Park. The New York Times reports that Watts has been charged with attempted assault and grand larceny.Earlier in the day, there were unfounded rumors circulating on Twitter and in the comment section of live-streams of the protesters that Watts had been died from head trauma. But those rumors, which always seemed questionable at best, are clearly not true. Still, we’re guessing that his supporters won’t be pleased with the fact that Watts now has two criminal charges to go along with we imagine is a pretty substantial gash on his head.Watts reportedly was arrested after he knocked an officer’s hat off his head. The Times reports that the assault charge is for throwing a AAA battery and the larceny is for taking the officer’s hat.
  
  sourceGrand Larceny? Must be some fancy ass hat.
  - Another Kevin
    
    New York law provides that it’s always grand larceny if property is stolen directly from the person of another. So grabbing the cap from an officer’s head would count.
http://twitter.com/orbis_quintus badger

Who do we start petitioning to get @punkboyinsf @OakFoSho @Iwilloccupy serious recognition as journalists? These people deserve awards like Pulitzers and Peabodies.

These livestream/ustream guys have poured their hearts into chronicling exactly what’s happening, and despite supporting the OWS movement, remain sober and objective enough to ask the right questions of the right people at the right time. It’s awe inspiring and deserving of recognition beyond even supporters of the movement.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=695903977 John Neumann

I caught Tim’s broadcast this morning around 10 am and next thing I knew I had spent 8 hours following every turn and story. It was fantastic.

Bravo to Tim and all the Other99 crew for doing such a great job.
http://profiles.google.com/walter.guyll Walter Guyll

“OWS Protesters Chant ‘Follow Those Kids!’ As Small Children Try To Go To School On Wall Street”

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/11/17/ows-protesters-chant-follow-those-kids-as-small-children-try-to-go-to-school-on-wall-street/
- Guest
  
  That sounds unlikely to me. Rather, it’s unlikely those creeps were part of anything realted to the OWS.
  
  It’s easy to show up to a public protest and try to discredit a movement you viscerally disagree with. Even easier with press access.
  
  I worry what lengths will be gone to to try to stop this, yet I also wait anxiously to see.
Eric Plourde

With the Verizon building, I was thinking the next step should be to hijack the famous advertisement by Verizon and switch it to “CAN YOU HEAR US NOW?” and have it broadcast on all buildings bat-signal style…
awjt

Occupy needs to get smarter. They could have coordinated with people in cars to drive in a phalanx and then stop in the middle of the road, allowing the protestors to swarm the streets in safety, blocked by the stopped cars. Do their thing, then let the drivers pass. The phalanx of car-occupiers then melts back into the streets. No one would know who they are, no harm came to anyone, and a greater effect would have been achieved.
- pigpen23
  
  that’s been done a few times actually. it’s pretty effective, if you can find people that own cars. protip: a little bit of blue tape on your plate goes a long way . . .
http://codeflow.org/ Florian Bösch

Can anybody actually cite an example where a protest against an uncorrected situation perpetuated by the establishment and authority, was successfully “squashed” short of actual genocide? I mean a single instance where exerting aggressive authority worked to extinguish a protest. Ya know, just a single one.
far2canadian

I was also particularly struck by the *wide* disparity in the crowd numbers and events that are reported here and those reported in the MSM. @Xeni I would love to see a side-by-side comparison of the coverage of this event. I think it would provide a great education to your readers to see a bar chart of the estimated crowd size as reported by different media channels.
miasm

Tim Pool for the Pulitzer.
Damn right!