Stopping “stop and frisk”

The Occupy Wall Street Movement–initially written off as a bunch of white hipsters–has joined forces with black leaders and religious leaders in New York City. Together, they marched in solidarity with one another in order to raise awareness about the NYPD’s outrageous “stopping and frisking” policy, in which police officers stop and frisk young men of color for no clear reason.

John, a 25-year-old Navy veteran, spoke to a crowd at Zuccotti about his experiences with “stop and frisk.” While going to get Chinese food with friends, he was pulled over, handcuffed, and asked to perform a dance by the NYPD called the “Chicken Noodle Soup.” The leaders claimed that the NYPD is on pace to stop and frisk 700,000 this year in NY. 85 percent will be blacks and latinos, and 92 percent of them will have done nothing wrong.

Because of situations like John’s, Dr. Cornell West and Carl Dix, a spokeman for the Revolutionary Communist Party, led a march to a local police precinct in Harlem. With religious leaders and OWS protesters, they linked arms in front of the police station as an act of nonviolent civil disobedience. They were all arrested.

A tour of Zuccotti Park

Today is my fifth day at Zuccotti Park (or Liberty Plaza). The Occupy Wall Street Movement is getting bigger and bigger. Every day, it seems, there are more wannabe occupiers wandering in wearing backpacks and carrying bed rolls. For the most part, though, the people at Zuccotti are mostly visiting onlookers. And each time a new visitor comes by, I note a smile of amusement. (There are, after all, a lot of ridiculous things to be amused with here.) But I also detect a sense of enchantment. Many are inspired by the movement. For just sitting on my pack, I’ve had at least half a dozen passersby “thank” me for being here. Several have offered food.

Anyway, here’s a tour of the park….

There are many activities throughout the day. There are meetings, workshops, dining hours, performances, speeches.

There are a lot of impromptu performances. Here’s a four-piece bluegrass band.

Some occupiers from Montreal traveled down to NYC and put up this banner. In front of the banners, occupiers put their names on a sign-up sheet to perform music.

Occupiers and anyone who wants any get free food. Mostly, it’s simple fare like break and peanut butter, but I’ve had some incredible stuff like vegetarian lasagna, spinach biscuits, pepperoni pizza, bagels, plus chili, coffee, tea, water, etc.

There are a lot of educational workshops. Everything from meditation to leadership. Below, the Indian male and the woman in the red scarf–both economics professors from Columbia–teach us about the Federal Reserve and give suggestions on how to radically change how our economy works.

There’s a growing OWS library. Occupiers can freely take anything they wish and bring it back when they’re done.

There are two medical tents who treat people injured in marches or people with common illnesses.

Spiritual gathering. Each pair would “rise with consciousness” and lower “with peace.”

There is a drum circle that plays almost around the clock. From afar, they sound like heavy construction machinery.

Here’s the kitchen area.

Many occupiers have put their stuff in plastic containers; others wrap it up in tarps or large plastic sheets. We are sleeping shoulder to shoulder. It would certainly help if we had a larger park.

Many are living in cardboard box contraptions like this guy.

In the bottom left is my sleeping bag. I’m sleeping atop a tarp. The clear plastic (which I got from the comfort station) will be used if there’s rain. Luckily, the weather has been perfect since I’ve been here.

My view from the sleeping bag.

The last two nights many tents have been erected (despite being illegal), so I decided to follow suit and put up my little one-person Eureka.

There are lots of jobs the occupiers take up. This guy and I grabbed some brooms and dust pans.

Port-a-potties are banned from the park, so we occupiers must rely on local businesses. I’ve been going to a church and a nearby McDonalds. The wait is often 15-20 minutes for the men’s restroom.

If there’s any impression I want to leave with you, it’s just how diverse the crowd is. All races are represented. There are crazy freak out here who rail against Jewish people and who get high at night. But, for the most part, they are just normal people fed up with the state of democracy and want to do something about it.

Peter Schiff stopped by to claim how the 1% is doing us all a favor.

Local sanitation union stopped by.

Cops are everywhere.

The other night, parents brought their kids to camp out. There were probably 20-30 kids sleeping next to parents in a “child safe zone.”

Everyone is documenting the experience. The number of cameras is incredible. Just for carrying my backpack, I’ve been interviewed three times by visiting media outlets.

Occupying Wall Street

I got a ride from Coldfoot to Fairbanks — stayed with my friend Josh Spice for two days — flew to New Jersey — dropped off my laptop and other unnecessaries at an acquaintance’s apartment in Manhattan — and then moved into Zuccotti Park, just a few blocks away from Wall Street.

I’m writing this from Staten Island in a public library. The computers, unfortunately, do not have memory card adapters, making it impossible for me to include pictures.

I’ve slept in my sleeping bag in the park the last two nights. I’ll do a bigger post when I have more time and better technology, but for now, I thought I’d share some quick observations:

-The park place is packed. We are literally sleeping shoulder to shoulder. On one side of me was a lesbian in high school, and on the other, I think, was a transvestite. Both were very nice.

-There are ”freaks” here (not that there’s anything wrong with being a freak), but there are far more people who we’d consider “normal.” I point this out because whenever some insane anti-semite starts sqwaking, all the cameras get in his face. The media coverage, then, is probably giving the public the impression that Zuccotti is occupied only by dread-headed, acid-dropping nihilists. That’s not the case. There are old people and young people. Blacks, latinos, Asians, and Native Americans. Last night, “Parents for Occupy Wall Street” held a sleepover for kids. (There were probably 30-50 kids camping out in their own section of the park.)

-There are cops. Everywhere.

-Last night–Friday night–it felt especially packed. It seems the park is populated by 30% inhabitants and 70% visitors. It has a festival-like atmosphere. Very caring and giving. Positive vibes. Many of the visitors have thanked the occupiers for their presence. Last night, I broke bread with three Jewish visitors.

-Food is free, almost 24-hours a day. There have been tons of donated supplies: food, camping gear, brooms, medical supplies.

-There are various “working groups”: sanitation, cooking, dishwashing, medical, library. This place seems VERY organized, and while I’ve heard that there’ve been sanitation problems, things are actually pretty neat and orderly given the circumstances.

-The occupiers do seem to be, as they’re portrayed, fractured and unfocused. At one point yesterday, there were three ongoing speeches at different ares of the park: one on corporate greed at Wal-Mart, another on the evils of fracking, and another on unjust use of police force on blacks and latinos, who are being stopped and frisked in record numbers. Another group went to “occupy” a nearby museum. Some sort of unified message/agenda would do some good, I think.

-No one here wants handouts. While I’m sure some want it, I haven’t even heard anyting about “student loan forgiveness.” Ultimately, I think everyone’s just disillusioned with the state of our democracy. The one prevalent theme seems to be a disgust for corporate power, and corporate America’s ownership of our democracy. This protest is happening, I think, because voting is no longer a means of affecting positive change, as politicians are beholden to the corporate interests in power.

-Yesterday, I witnessed my first act of civil disobedience when Cornell West, Carl Dix, some religious leaders, and members of Occupy Wall Street were arrested when they linked arms in front of a police building to protest the NYPD’s outrageous “stopping and frisking” numbers. Good stuff.

-Despite being a nature-loving introvert now surrounded by pigeons and people and police, I’m enjoying my time here. Not sure how long I’ll be here, but I’ll put up photos and share more impressions when I can!