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It has been suggested that Pepper spraying of the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators be merged into this article. (Discuss) Proposed since September 2011.

This article documents a current event. Information may change rapidly as the event progresses, and initial news reports may be unreliable. The latest updates to this article may not reflect the most current information. Feel free to improve this article or discuss changes on the talk page, but please note that updates without valid and reliable references will be removed. (September 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Occupy Wall Street

;Inaugural Poster for the Occupy Wall Street protest.

Date

September 17, 2011 (2011-09-17) (Constitution Day) – ongoing

Location

New York City, USA

Methods

Civil resistance, Civil disobedience, Street protests

Status

Ongoing with "occupy" movements spreading to other cities, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Portland

Parties

Anonymous, AdBusters readers, and Democracy Now!

Lead figures

Non-centralized leadership

Number

By October 1, 2011: 5–10,000

Casualties and losses

Arrests: 780 +

Injuries: count pending

Occupy Wall Street is an ongoing demonstration opposing negative corporate influence over U.S. politics and a lack of legal repercussions over the global financial crisis. It was initially called for by Adbusters and was inspired by the Arab Spring movement, particularly the protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square which resulted in the 2011 Egyptian Revolution.

The aim of the demonstration is to begin a sustained occupation of Wall Street, the financial district of New York City, to protest corporate greed and social inequality. Organizers intend for the occupation to last "as long as it takes to meet our demands." Demands are in the process of being negotiated and developed.

The protest was coordinated with similar though smaller events nationwide; as of September 27 the Occupy Wall Street site reported that "52 cities were occupied or organizing" including Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland, and Chicago, as coordinated on Occupytogether.org.

Background

After the late-2000s recession that left many countries on the edge of bankruptcy, with weakened economies and unemployment at very high levels, a Canadian-based group, the Adbusters Media Foundation, best known for its advertisement-free anti-consumerist magazine called Adbusters proposed a peaceful occupation of Wall Street in protest against the current leadership, U.S. politics and the failure to prevent or make effective changes in the global financial crisis. According to the senior editor of the Adbusters,“ basically floated the idea in mid July into our and it was spontaneously taken up by all the people of the world, it just kind of snowballed from there.” Although it was originally proposed by Adbusters magazine, the demonstration is leaderless. Activists from Anonymous encouraged its followers to take part in the protest, which increased the attention it received. Other groups followed, including the NYC General Assembly and U.S. Day of Rage.

Prior to the protest's beginning on September 17, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a press conference, "People have a right to protest, and if they want to protest, we'll be happy to make sure they have locations to do it."

Chronology of events

Main article: Timeline of Occupy Wall Street

September 17 saw the beginning of the Occupy Wall Street gathering. An estimated 1,000 people attended on the first day. NYPD police officers prohibited protesters from erecting tents, citing loitering rules. This led to masses of people walking up and down Wall Street and gathering in Zuccotti Park between Broadway and Church streets and Liberty and Cedar Streets.

On September 19, the stock market opened on Wall Street for regular business. Many major news sources began to publish articles on the occupation and Occupy Wall Street caught some mainstream media attention across a wide variety of sources. By Tuesday night the protesters numbered around 150, though there were more during the day.

On September 23, the action at Liberty Square, across the street from finance hub One Liberty Plaza in New York City continued. The Colbert Report satirized the protests and major newspapers including The Guardian and the New York Times covered the protests.

In a show of frustration over collective bargaining failures, on September 27, 2011 seven hundred United and Continental Airlines pilots- along with others from the Airline Pilots Association- demonstrated in front of Wall Street in New York. The pilots were in uniform, and walked in formation carrying signs that read, "What's a pilot worth? It depends on your perspective."

On September 29, protesters in San Francisco attempted to occupy Citibank, Chase, and attempted to enter a Charles Schwab financial institution.

On Saturday, October 1, seven hundred Occupy Wall Street protesters were reported arrested while blocking one lane of the Brooklyn Bridge. On Saturday, protesters also gathered in Albuquerque, N.M., Boston and Los Angeles to express their solidarity with the movement in New York.

Demands and goals

According to Adbusters, a primary protest organizer, the central demand of the protest is that President Barack Obama "ordain a Presidential Commission tasked with ending the influence money has over our representatives in Washington."

The protest has been criticized for its lack of focus and actionable agenda. In an article that was critical of the protesters, Ginia Bellafante wrote in The New York Times: "The group’s lack of cohesion and its apparent wish to pantomime progressivism rather than practice it knowledgably is unsettling in the face of the challenges so many of its generation face — finding work, repaying student loans, figuring out ways to finish college when money has run out." Glenn Greenwald responded to this criticism, writing "Does anyone really not know what the basic message is of this protest: that Wall Street is oozing corruption and criminality and its unrestrained political power—in the form of crony capitalism and ownership of political institutions—is destroying financial security for everyone else?"

The desire to form a more coherent agenda was evident around the 13th day of the occupation, with sentiment in the encampment generally split along two lines: those who want the protest to remain amorphous and to grow through spectacle; and those who want to draft focused demands about wealth disparity.

Opposition and support

Conservative and right-wing commentators in the media and financial sector raised fears of unrest in the run-up to the event despite the organizers' insistence that the occupation would remain non-violent. In an interview with The New American, Ron Arnold of the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise claimed that, "American radicals are planning hundreds of simultaneous violent uprisings to topple our system of capitalism...I'm talking about anti-capitalist terrorists in our own country." The Blaze, a conservative news website, criticized U.S. Day of Rage's involvement in the demonstration and compared the event to the violent "Days of Rage" protests in 1969. An article published in the New York Daily News described the protesters as a "bunch of spoiled brats."

Political commentator and writer Keith Olbermann criticized mainstream media for failing to cover Occupy Wall Street, saying, "Why isn't any major news outlet covering this? ... If that's a Tea Party protest in front of Wall Street ..., it's the lead story on every network newscast." Canadian writer Naomi Klein supported the protest, saying, "This is not the time to be looking for ways to dismiss a nascent movement against the power of capital, but to do the opposite: to find ways to embrace it, support it and help it grow into its enormous potential. With so much at stake, cynicism is a luxury we simply cannot afford." Filmmaker Michael Moore spoke against Wall Street, saying, "They have tried to take our democracy and turn it into a kleptocracy." Educator and author Cornel West addressed the frustrations that some critics have expressed at the protest’s lack of a clear and unified message, saying:

It’s impossible to translate the issue of the greed of Wall Street into one demand, or two demands. We’re talking about a democratic awakening...you’re talking about raising political consciousness so it spills over all parts of the country, so people can begin to see what’s going on through a set of different lens, and then you begin to highlight what the more detailed demands would be. Because in the end we’re really talking about what Martin King would call a revolution: A transfer of power from oligarchs to everyday people of all colors. And that is a step by step process.

Support for the demonstration amongst mainstream liberal groups varied. Progressive blogger Zaid Jilani, writing for ThinkProgress, wrote that the protesters' anger against Wall Street banks was not unreasonable "because Wall Street’s actions made tens of millions of people dramatically poorer through no fault of their own." The left-wing blog Crooks and Liars commented on the demonstration, with blogger Susie Madrak writing, "I have a feeling this might be a good one."

Rap artist Lupe Fiasco donated tents and a mobile sound system for the occupation; he also wrote a poem to help inspire the protesters. Comedienne Roseanne Barr spoke to protesters during the first day of the demonstration, describing Wall Street financiers as "the people who decimated our economy and caused all the problems in the world." Susan Sarandon spoke at the demonstration saying, "I came down here to educate myself...There's a huge void between the rich and the poor in this country." Other celebrities lending their support were Russell Simmons, Anti-Flag, Margaret Atwood, Noam Chomsky and Radiohead.

Political views of protesters

This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

The protests have brought together people of many political positions. Communists, Socialists, Social Democrats, Social Liberals and Libertarians are openly participating in the protests. The protesters' messages seem to be mainly those of left-wing political views, such as raising taxes on the rich, raising taxes on corporations, ending corporate welfare, support for trade unionism, and protecting Medicare and Social Security in their traditional forms. Libertarians who are protesting want to end the Federal Reserve and are protesting the execution of Troy Davis. There seems to be little to zero right-wing politics involved in the protests.

Arrests and police interaction

The protesters marched toward police station and various other targets

The New York Police Department have made arrests during the protests:

Four protesters were arrested for wearing masks.
One protester was arrested for crossing a police barricade and resisting arrest.
Two protesters were arrested for entering a building belonging to Bank of America.
One protester was arrested for disorderly conduct.

At least 80 arrests were made on September 24, after protesters started marching uptown and forcing the closure of several streets. Most of the 80 arrests were for blocking traffic, though some were also charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. Police officers have also been using a technique called kettling which involves using orange nets to isolate protesters into small groups.

On October 1, 2011, protesters set out to march across Brooklyn Bridge. The New York Times reported that more than 700 arrests were made. 10 buses were used to carry protesters off the bridge. Spokesman for the New York Police Department, Paul Browne, vouched that protesters were given "multiple warnings" not to block pedestrian walkways on the bridge, and were arrested when they refused. Rumors flew across Twitter, saying the department planned to use tear gas to quell the marchers, but the department reportedly does not use such tactics for crowd control.

Pepper-spraying incidents

Main article: Pepper spraying of the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators

File:Anthony Bologna.jpg

Officer Anthony Bologna, NYPD

On September 24 witnesses said they saw three women collapse on the ground screaming after they were pepper sprayed in the face. The incident took place near the intersection of 12th Street and University Place in Greenwich Village, during a march between Zuccotti Park and Union Square. Officials said that the protestors did not have a permit for the march. A video posted on YouTube and NYDailyNews.com shows uniformed officers had corralled the women using orange nets and one suddenly sprayed the women before turning and quickly walking away. Another woman who had been caught up in the net and pepper sprayed reported other incidents that she believed to be unnecessary use of police force. The Police Department’s chief spokesman, Paul J. Browne, said the police had used the pepper spray “appropriately." According to the spokesperson, “Pepper spray was used once after individuals confronted officers and tried to prevent them from deploying a mesh barrier — something that was edited out or otherwise not captured in the video.” Activists later published the name and contact details of the officer seen spraying the women with pepper spray, and encouraged members of the public to complain about his conduct. The police officer who used the pepper spray was identified as Deputy Inspector Anthony V. Bologna aka "Tony Bologna" of the New York Police Department. Bologna has previously faced civil rights complaints for his role during the 2004 Republican Convention held in New York City, for allegedly committing false arrest and civil rights violations.

A second video posted by a photographer, Andrew Hinderaker, on the political blog Daily Kos appeared to show another pepper spraying incident. According to Hinderaker, who was wearing his press card, he had been on East 12th Street and saw officers drag a woman from behind a net and throw her on the ground. He photographed the scene and then started walking away when he was sprayed. Although Hinderaker said that he was not sure who had sprayed him, the video appears to show Bologna spraying the photographer directly in the face.

The following day the group Anonymous released a video in which they threatened the New York Police Department with the ultimatum:

We, as it is our duty to uphold the freedoms of the people will constitute a declaration of war against the NYPD if the brutality does not stop. If we hear of brutality in the next 36 hours then we will take you down from the internet as you have taken the protesters voices from the airwaves.

The 36 hours passed without incident. Both Raymond W. Kelly, commissioner of the New York Police Department Internal Affairs Bureau, and the office of the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus Vance, Jr., opened investigations on the pepper-spraying.