Occupy Wall Street: October 14, 2011 Showdown

All photos taken today, Friday October 14, 2011 between 5:45AM and 8:30AM. Resized and resampled to VGA, click any to enlarge. Photos are in the order they were taken.

I woke up at the ungodly 4AM and got the 5AM ferry to Manhattan to get photos of the planned showdown between the Wall Street Occuposers and the Fist of the State, as embodied in the NYPD.

The Occuposers had a 7AM deadline to clear space for a planned professional clean-up of Liberty Plaza. This cleaning is done daily. I’ve seen it done. It involves power-washing. Power-washing of sidewalks happens daily on Broadway in front of all of the skyscrapers, with external building surface power-washing also done almost every week. So the request by the entrusted owners of the Plaza was not unusual. And unlike the Occuposers, I’ve wondered if the Plaza owners are still paying their cleaning workers even though they haven’t been able to do their job for several weeks now.

Of course, TV and other media were out in force. They expected a riot or some kind of shit.

There were at least as many spectators — including media — as there were Occuposers. I saw someone tweet there were “thousands” at the Plaza. That’s bullshit. Maybe a thousand in all.

Oh look at this …

… that’s a rare peek inside the Wikileaks truck.

More of TV:

Some of the materiel at the Plaza:

Seeing someone in a mask was not a good sign:

Some more of the materiel at the Plaza …

… someone had to write “Not Trash” over it.

Buckets of cleaner …

… and an array of useless brooms …

… which will never clean like a power-wash will.

Some of the crowd …

… and at this point I have to reiterate that it’s my policy not to photograph or publish faces unless people are displaying themselves with a sign. But this time it couldn’t be helped. If you were there and your face is here, that’s too bad in this instance. Given the amount of media and other cameras there, your face showing up somewhere on this day is inevitable.

You’ll see those two signs again later.

That’s the “People’s Megaphone” made out of “papermachet” [sic]. It’s bloody useless. A stupid leftover Hippie trinket with no functionality at all. Spare us, children!

More of the materiel at the Plaza:

They were packing up:

He was already packed and dragging his stuff:

Even more of the materiel at the Plaza:

Which brings me this: Do they even know what the hell a siege is?

Another mask:

And click to enlarge this one …

… to see the guy with a red bandana over his lower face.

And this guy …

… was with two other people who had their faces done up like that. That’s to defeat facial recognition software. Good for them!

Regular readers will already know that this is my favorite sign evar …

… but do you want to know how fucked we are? Here’s how fucked we are: A cop looked at that sign and said, “Who’s George Bailey?!!?”

This is when I began to get worried:

The cops had shifted position and were moving down the line of barricades. I was trapped in the Plaza with everyone else. I kept looking around to see where the phalanx of cops would rush in from to arrest everyone.

And my concern wasn’t without merit. The cops were dressed for arrests:

And they started being hard-asses to people who were in the street outside the barricade, demanding they go inside!

And then we had another People’s Mic failure. I had to learn via osmosis as the minutes went on that the clean-up had been postponed. But I caught the moment of that announcement from those who could hear:

I’ve read on Twitter that White Nationalists are trying to glom onto this. This guy and some others set themselves up for a big photo-op a lot of press were capturing:

I don’t know if he’s a skinhead, but that haircut isn’t usual in New York City, really.

Some of the crowd around that staged photo-op …

… and the group of people who set it all up:

No, seriously …

… that guy was recording video with his MacBook camera!

Another mask …

… and I did not ask him nor intend for him to pose like that.

More materiel at the Plaza:

And see, this is why the Plaza trustee has concerns about the state of it …

… don’t stand on the fucking tables!

And if they actually cleaned the Plaza …

… then why the hell did I come across that? Also, the Plaza’s surface is all frikkin gritty. You can feel the unwashed filth if you rub your feet on the surface. Crappy brooms and mops aren’t going to get rid of that!

People listening to the General Assembly …

… and I still couldn’t make out one damn word of it!

Legal observers …

… this shouldn’t be necessary in America, dammit.

This is a sign …

… of ignorance. In Las Vegas, just about every sidewalk in the casino district is private property. Try to protest there and you have to be in the street — which is also illegal! There’s your Heinleinian-LOLbertarian “privatization” in its disgusting endgame. Take that sign to Las Vegas.

How did Fox News (a Murdoch company) …

… manage to carve out the prime spot? It had the corner right at Broadway, the best spot to capture everything from.

More evidence these photos are from today …

… that’s the NY Post (a Murdoch publication) headline.

I have …

… no idea. But she was posing, others were taking pictures, so I swooped in for one too.

Both America …

… and its Captain are in dire straits.

She …

… seemed to be editing video, right there on the sidewalk.

More of the TV trucks:

Um, no. So far all you lot are doing is what NYC’s own homeless have done in Liberty Plaza. Except they’d let the Plaza be power-washed.

Inside the Plaza …

… someone updating something. Lots of Apple hardware in that Plaza.

This sign …

… is two decades too late to warn anybody. And is that one of the goals? War? Bloodshed? The normal 99% won’t support that. And even though I’ve said several times the French Revolution can teach us things, ultimately this is America and we just don’t do things that way. I don’t think anyone is looking to kill anyone. We want the financial sociopaths stopped by law. Here is my advice via Twitter for those seeking blood.

And yet more of the materiel in the Plaza:

And here is why that Plaza needs a thorough inspection …

… damage to the flowerbed. Don’t give me shit about how what you’re doing is So Important that you can just trample on things. You’re not on a battlefield. No one is shooting at you. I also wonder how much piss is in that Plaza and if there’s any human shit hidden in it. You know who takes pigs seriously? No one!

And here is a prime example of the lie of “democracy” …

… that guy in the white shirt commanded the attention of the “People’s Mic” several times. Other people who asked for the Mic’s attention were ignored. I’m not Fox News or the MSM. I say only what I see for myself. And this is why you lot have my contempt. It’s been earned. I’ve seen beneath your rock. It’s as corrupt as all the rest. And even worse: It borders on the delusional.

I don’t know what this sign means …

… it was on a lamppost on Broadway near Wall Street and a second one on another post had been ripped off.

The NYPD came prepared for many arrests …

… and those were only two that were visible. How many others were parked elsewhere waiting to be deployed? Did the brainiacs behind this occuposing send out any scouts to find out? I doubt it. Such thinking has not yet infiltrated their skulls.

Near Baal the NYPD had mustered:

And I couldn’t get a clean shot of this jacket …

… but that patch says “NYPD Counter Terrorism.” WTF!

Another NYPD assembly near the subway station …

… and those two signs I said you’d see again …

And this is where things began to amp up:

Riot police!

They started up Broadway from near the subway station. Occuposers were all around shouting, “Shame! Shame! The world is watching! Shame! Shame!” Yeah, that’ll really help. That’ll teach them. Did any of these eejits have any lines of communications set up to warn those at Liberty Plaza — blocks away — that such a force had been mustered? Of course not!

At any rate, after looking threatening for a few blocks, they suddenly stopped …

… and did a poor military-style assembly …

… and yeah, for reals, this guy was taking photos with an iPad …

… and then the force headed back down Broadway …

… and dispersed after reaching the subway station area.

And by then it was near 8:30AM and I’d seen enough and was exhausted enough and fed up enough with the occuposers that I decided I’d be better off going home.

I really don’t think I ask for much out of people: Just some goddammed ability to think. And so far there’s been no evidence of that in the Wall Street Occuposing.

I Follow several of the accounts on Twitter. And they’re just about all laughable. Really, “thousands” were assembled this morning? Is your ability to do math even worse than mine? If it is, what the hell can any of you say about economics? How about just telling the damn simple truth on all your Twitter accounts and let people decide for themselves? What you’re all doing on Twitter has a word: Marketing. And it seems that my “job” is to be the damn real-life Adbusters to you lot. Just because you’ve tweeted something doesn’t make it true. As I’ve been seeing for myself, with my own eyes, without any intermediation — or marketing — by anyone.

And stop patting yourselves on your backs about the “victory” this morning. All those politicians who got on Brookfield’s neck to delay things? They didn’t do that for you, they did it for themselves. Our City Council overturned the will of the people and let Mayor Prickberg have a third term in violation of what we the people had voted for! So if you’re stupid enough to think you have real supporters — or god forgive you being this damn stupid, actual friends — in them, just pack up and go. You’re not up this task at all.

You’re not changing any damn thing. You’re just whining.

And being ineffective even at that.

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