The realization that my office is a five-minute walk from Zuccotti Park, home base of Occupy Wall Street, combined with my excitement about the plan that was announced yesterday to hold Kol Nidrei in the park convinced me to spend my morning among the protesters.
There’s plenty you can read about Occupy Wall Street out there. Here, in photos and observations, is the Jewish student angle I know you’ve all been waiting for. If you’re interested in a more general Jewish angle, check out this article from The Jewish Week.
Approaching the park: I walked down Broadway toward Zuccotti from the Fulton Street stop on the A train. Several blocks away, you can already see the police barricades. This photo was taken just one block north of the park.
The ever-present media: It was early in the day when I went down, so the full crowd of protesters wasn’t around yet. But it did seem at times like there were as many members of the media present as there were protesters. Everywhere I looked, someone was being photographed or interviewed–many on-camera. Above, the man with the “PROTECT MEDICARE” sign has positioned himself in the shot of a Spanish-language T.V. news camera.
To me, by far the most interesting thing on display in the park is the press. The conservatively-attired organizers are a close second. In this photo, a reporter from Reuters (left) is interviewing an organizer. I was surprised when I started to overhear this interview because I wouldn’t have guessed the man in the tie to be a part of the protest.
Another surprisingly formally dressed fellow:
I’m not sure if folks dressed like him have been with Occupy Wall Street from the start, but they’re certainly a part of the increased credibility that the protesters have been building in recent days, with the addition of endorsements from a variety of established organizations.
You can’t tell from the photo, but this guy was wearing a tie. For the moment, he was acting as press secretary while eating some falafel.
The journalists with audio or video equipment, like this Wall Street Journal reporter, were obviously easy to spot. But there were a million more like me, reporters from small publications who blurred the line between press and protester.
One reason I’m covering this in this way instead of in a straight reported article is that I’ve got a dog or two in this race. I’m not one for protests, but I sympathize with a lot of these folks. Stay tuned for the part where I actually pick up a sign….
Mic check! I had heard this described on NPR, but it was quite a sight to behold in person. When someone needs to make an announcement, they get up one of the marble benches and shout, “Mic check!” Then the crowd responds, “Mic check!” Repeat. The rest of the announcement–while I was there, usually stuff like, “The whatever group is meeting right here right now!”–is then delivered in short bursts, each of which is repeated by the crowd. They have no permit for an audio system and the police say they will confiscate any bullhorns. This happened three or four times during the hour and a half I was there.
The Occupied Wall Street Journal: The first issue of their newspaper arrived while I was there–a collector’s item, for sure.
This girl tried to convince me to do that mic check thing and actually did convince me to pick up a sign: I was having no luck finding a Jewish student, so I was just asking people if they knew of any. This girl, Alixis, suggested that I use the mic check method to find some. From my expression, she could tell I wan’t gonna do that. Then she suggested that I make a sign, which I did.
A little while later, I found my one actual Jewish student with the help of the sign, though he turned out to be a 27-year-old grad student who has worked as an organizer for several years–not quite what I was looking for. I did interview him and I may put up part of that interview tomorrow
Similarity to Israel’s tent city protests: Being a contemporary far-left crowd, many of the protesters aren’t comfortable comparing themselves to the tent protests in Israel, though they do talk plenty about Spain, Greece and the Arab Spring. However, the protest is most similar to the tent protests that sprung up across Israel this summer. Like the protests in Israel, this one is totally peaceful; while the protesters share a number of general concerns, they don’t have anything in the way of a particular agenda. Israel’s protests were also notable for their lack of political affiliation.
The sign in the photo to the right — “NO MORE DEMOCRATS or REPUBLICANS” — reminded me of that. There’s more on comparing Occupy Wall Street with Israel’s protests from Josh Nathan-Kazis, former New Voices editor, over at the Forward.
They’re not all kids: Most coverage of the protest has focused on college students and folks in their 20s and 30s, but there were plenty of older adults around as well this morning. Judging them by their burned-out hippie appearances, I assume many of them have been waiting for this to start again for decades. Others, however, looked slightly too young for this–the woman in pink scrubs in the photo on the right, for example.
She looks too young to have any firsthand nostalgia for Civil Rights or Vietnam activism. Her sign expressed her anxiety about being able to retire at a reasonable age, an expression of the frustration with corporate greed and lax governmental social welfare programs that many of the protesters share. Hell, if anything, that’s the level on which I most relate to the protesters.
But the aging hippies were certainly there too. This guy (who I later watched start a fight with a homeless guy over another table he wanted to use) had a button-pressing operation set up. When I approached him, he was telling a girl to take a button and wear it with pride. He said something about how she can keep it her whole life as a reminder that she was a part this protest. The only thing was asking for in return for each button was that it be worn all day.
Chaotic messaging: A de facto government of loosely organized volunteers have sprung up in the center of the park (more on that further down), but this display is indicative of the messaging problems Occupy Wall Street is suffering from. These signs face Broadway, the busiest and most tourist-infested street that borders the park, so this is what the casual spectator will see.
“WE ARE THE 99%”–an expression of the flipside of the wealthiest one percent–is the closest thing to a slogan you can see in the park. But I suspect that’s the case more because someone decided to have a bunch of sings and flyers printed up with that on it than because the whole occupation community decided that was the tagline they wanted to use.
Within 30 minutes of my arrival, I had acquired three different lists of demands being handed out by different people. Lists of demands is an odd way to categorize these since they don’t have much in the way of a position from which to bargain. Rather, these lists are more like platforms.
They serve food and the Jewish social justice movement is present: I ran into Ari Hart (above), founder of Orthodox social justice organization Uri L’Tzedek. The occupation provides food to its army of occupiers all day at this assemblage of tables in near the center of the park. I had just arrived when I saw Ari. He had also just arrived so he couldn’t help me out with locating Jewish college students, my mission there this morning.
If nothing else, the protest’s communal activities are organized according to their loose sense of a group ethos. A washing station is provided so protesters can bring reusable dishes.
Sleepyheads abound: This photo was taken shortly after 10 a.m. There were a lot of people still asleep when I arrived. (And when I left around 11:30, for that matter.) Surely this is not helping to do away with the notion that Occupy Wall Street is just a bunch of spoiled middle class kids, however incorrect that impression may be.
The tape infrastructure and the medical facilities: When I first arrived, park seemed to be a formless mass of people scattered among piles of tarps and sleeping bags (above left). After I’d walked around for a few minutes, I started noticing the tape. The area bordered in red tape (above right) is designated as the first aid area. The green tape designates the borders between walkways and sleeping areas.
When I made the mistake of stepping inside of it to take a picture, I was curtly removed from it by a fellow in baseball cap with a cross of red tape on it. I heard him griping that whether or not the occupation is legal, they should be allowed to run some electricity in and provide porta-potties to keep the crowd in the park safe and see to their medical needs.
Tax weed, fund schools: It’s not clear if this individual is suggesting the legalization of and subsequent imposition of a sales tax on marijuana and that we fund schools, or if he’s suggesting the legalization and taxation of marijuana to fund schools. Either way, it sounds like good policy to me.
This protest has a sense of humor: But it’s not just silly; it’s clever. Consider that this Zuccotti Park statue is a monument to the suit-wearing Wall Street-types the protesters are after. He’s been transformed into a send-up of the people he was made to reflect, as he gives eternal consideration to attending this march advertised on the flyer he’s holding.
Is this all just a spectacle? Before snapping this one, I said, “You know you’re just asking for it, right?” His response was to make the face he’s making in the photo.
After I took the picture I said, “I’m not a tourist anyway; I’m a journalist.” “Yeah, we love journalists around here,” he said. Then he said something about how he really does wish people would stop seeing this as a spectacle and just join in. I said, “Without making a value judgement: You do know that this is a spectacle, right? Whether or not it’s a stunt, it is a visual spectacle.” He responded by complaining that there are too many spectators. (Never mind that he’s sitting on the edge of the park baiting them.)
Then the owner of the plaid shirt at the right of the photo chimed in: “But sometimes it’s good for people to be spectators.” He explained that they’re here to be seen and have their voices heard. Without spectators, he seemed to imply, what’s the point?
