Occupy Wall Street: News Round-Up

[Trigger warning for police brutality.]

New York Observer—Occupy Wall Street Megamarch's Aftershocks: Senior Police Officer Beats Protesters With Baton: "A video of a lieutenant, captain or inspector-rank police office hitting protesters with a baton ... emerged from the scene [last night] near Occupy Wall Street's headquarters at Zuccotti Park in the Financial District, where police [were] barricading the protesters with metal fences in order to control the large and agitated crowd." [Below video, which shows police brutality, as described, may be upsetting.]


Via Andy, below is video of a black female police officer setting up a barricade, and she turns to say something to a white or Latino male police officer (off-screen at that point), who says, "My little nightstick's going to get a workout tonight." The person holding the camera asks, "Why?" as the female officer says what sounds like, "I've never used it." The male officer replies, "I have," and then hits the ground with it. The female officer looks visibly uncomfortable.


More video and news items below the fold...


Fox New York (that's the local NY Fox affiliate, not the conservative Fox News Channel)—Occupy Wall Street Arrests; Fox 5 Crew and Protesters Hit by Mace, Batons: "While covering the Occupy Wall Street protests on Wednesday night, Fox 5 photographer Roy Isen was hit in the eyes by pepper spray from a police officer and Fox 5 reporter Dick Brennan was hit by an officer's baton." [Below video, which shows police brutality, as described, may be upsetting.]


Raw Story—PHOTOS: Inside Occupy Wall Street at Liberty Square. A slideshow of "photos of a day with the movement."

CNN—Wall Street protests mark 20th day Thursday: "Thursday marks the 20th day of Wall Street protests and the grassroots demonstrations against income inequality, corporate greed and other social ills appear to be picking up steam. The crowds at the 'Occupy Wall Street' rally on Wednesday seemed to be the largest since the protests started. At the event, protesters and officers scuffled and New York police arrested 28 people for various offenses including one facing charges of assaulting an officer."

Esquire—What They've Come to Find at Occupy Wall Street Is America: "It is entirely possible—even likely—that the protests themselves will sink into history. Already, there's an effort underway to marginalize them in the public mind, and not entirely because so much of the media is owned and operated by the same corporate class that runs the institutions against which these protests are aimed. This a movement based on class, which, as an issue, most Americans don't much like to confront, largely because to admit that it is an issue is to admit that a great part of the American self-image is a delusion. We do not all have an equal chance. The game is rigged. The economy has been turned into a casino and the house always wins, and we are not the house any more. Not for a long time. Not by the longest shot. And if that's all these protests ever say, if that's all that ever gets shouted into the rising autumn wind, then that's an effort worth making."

In case you missed it in yesterday's blogaround: People of Color Occupy Wall Street.

Rich Yeselson, "research coordinator at Change to Win, a skilled organizer, and a thoughtful historian of social movements in America and Europe," in the WaPo—The four habits of highly successful social movements:

[T]he emergence of the Wall Street movement is a reminder that the liberal left has not in quite a few years actually driven anything like a mass social movement in this country. When Obama was elected, some people made the mistake of thinking that an election-bounded jolt of energy that conflated a charismatic candidate with a popular political vision was such a movement. Nobody thinks that anymore.

The left does have something important however: a coterie of several thousand intellectuals, academics, writers, and engaged professionals who articulate liberal public policy, generate empirical and analytical expertise through the Internet, the media, and universities, and staff the offices of advocacy groups and progressive politicians on the local and national level.

The Hill—Dems rally behind Occupy Wall Street protest movement: Lots of statements; how about some boots on the ground?

The Guardian's live coverage is here.