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

By: Another Kevin

Another Kevin — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 22:17:00 +0000

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.

By: miasm

miasm — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 18:42:00 +0000

Tim Pool for the Pulitzer.
Damn right!

By: Tunacorn

Tunacorn — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 18:20:00 +0000

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.

By: far2canadian

far2canadian — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 16:20:00 +0000

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.

By: Florian Bösch

Florian Bösch — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 15:50:00 +0000

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.

By: pigpen23

pigpen23 — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 10:37:00 +0000

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 . . .

By: awjt

awjt — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 10:15:00 +0000

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.

By: pigpen23

pigpen23 — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 08:39:00 +0000

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).

By: Eric Plourde

Eric Plourde — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 07:37:00 +0000

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…

By: Guest

Guest — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 04:50:00 +0000

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.

By: Walter Guyll

Walter Guyll — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 04:46:00 +0000

“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/

By: John Neumann

John Neumann — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 03:58:00 +0000

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.

By: Dr P Fenderson

Dr P Fenderson — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 03:09:00 +0000

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!

By: robuluz

robuluz — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 02:45:00 +0000

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.

By: jerwin

jerwin — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 02:38:00 +0000

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.

By: badger

badger — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 02:24:00 +0000

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.

By: Gainclone

Gainclone — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 02:03:00 +0000

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?

By: Guest

Guest — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 02:00:00 +0000

We’re all midi-chlorians now.

By: Donald Petersen

Donald Petersen — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 01:55:00 +0000

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.

By: Aaron Hodges

Aaron Hodges — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 01:54:00 +0000

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

By: xenphilos

xenphilos — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 01:50:00 +0000

Holy crap, this is AWESOME.

By: Cowicide

Cowicide — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 01:49:00 +0000

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.

By: Cowicide

Cowicide — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 01:38:00 +0000

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.

By: pigpen23

pigpen23 — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 01:19:00 +0000

the real question though, is if all of this (to borrow a 25 year old phrase) can move “from protest to resistance?”

By: Dr P Fenderson

Dr P Fenderson — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 01:16:00 +0000

NYPD is reporting the current number of people on the bridge to be ~32,000.

By: Cowicide

Cowicide — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 00:43:00 +0000

the mayor mockingly predicted at a press conference that tomorrow’s newspaper headlines would be about how few protesters bothered to show up

By: Mordicai

Mordicai — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 00:40:00 +0000

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

By: Mordicai

Mordicai — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 00:39:00 +0000

The more you tighten your grip, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.

By: Cowicide

Cowicide — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 00:37:00 +0000

Cow looks at all the naysayers (you know who you are) like this….

By: Incipient Madness

Incipient Madness — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 00:33:00 +0000

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