Two Questions About #OccupyWallStreet

I swear I'm not trolling. I'm sympathetic to #OccupyWallStreet. I just have logistics questions.

1. What was the rationale for a demonstration seeking to physically occupy Wall Street to cross into Brooklyn?

2. How did the NYPD on the Brooklyn Bridge actually arrest 700 people? In this video, the police are vastly outnumbered. If these arrest figures are correct, these were some orderly-ass protesters who would have had to willfully submit to arrest, even after the nets came out on the bridge. Which makes reported incidents of brutality seem even less justified. (Not that police brutality is ever justified, but you get my point, I hope.)

Like I said: logistics questions. I'm not seeing news accounts of the arrests explain. 

Meanwhile, Micah Sifry explains how and why he went from #occupywallstreet skeptic to supporter.

Comments

[Richard Shindledecker]

The cops are just doing what uber-police commisioner Dimon tells them to do. (or is that uber-mayor Dimon?)

[EdMigPer]

I believe the reason they were going to the Brooklyn Bridge was to head to a park beyond it. They were told they could use the walkway and that's it, but the police acted like they were creating an alternative route for the protesters to cross and some people followed. It could be that the instructions didn't reach the thousand or more who were going to cross and those who didn't hear tried to follow the police officers, and the rest followed those ahead of them.

The police brutality that occurred supposedly happened at the front of that march when the police began blocking them and rounding them up. Those people resisted arrest, believing them to have been led astray on purpose and then the police began getting excessively violent, even throwing punches carelessly into the crowd.

And if you look at some of the video, like of the little girl in the funny green hat getting arrested, you'll see that, yes, the protesters are exceptionally calm about all of this. Perhaps some of the brutality was merited, but the police *did not* continue warning those who began following them that it was illegal for them to do so. They kept walking and some protesters followed them. The police silence about not following them and then trapping the protesters is why the protesters argue it was intentional entrapment.

[Fnord]

With all due respect: Thats not police-violence. This is policeviolence: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSwsBjQZFUc&noredirect=1

[fuster]

The demonstrator from Hawaii who lives in this house says that they were told by the police to stick to the walkway.-------

"However, the NYPD has released its own video that shows at least some of the protesters were warned, first at the base of the bridge and then again mid-span.

The NYPD video also shows protesters sitting down in the roadway, and some of what the officers say is drowned out by the crowd."

http://statenisland.ny1.com/content/news_beats/criminal_justice/148220/conflicting-videos-tell-two-sides-of--occupy-wall-street--mass-arrest/

[manolo blahnik]

Now we have a great walkway that goes to the beach and to the canals that came from the partnership of community with government

[Timberland Boots]

I just sent this post to a bunch of my friends as I agree with most of what you’re saying here and the way you’ve presented it is awesome.

[תאורת לד]

Amazing video regarding wall street. I enjoyed it deeply. The people opposed criminal public detain, knowing them to have been led down the wrong path on purpose and then the police began getting too much chaotic.