New York police officers arrest Occupy Wall Street protesters during a march over Brooklyn Bridge
WORD ON GLOBAL REVOLUTION: As news that New York Police arrested 700 Occupy Wall Street protesters as they marched across Brooklyn Bridge, it was also noted that the New York Police Foundation recently accepted an unprecedented $4.6 million donation from JPMorgan Chase, to ‘enable the New York City Police Department to strengthen security in the Big Apple’.
According to a JPMorgan Chase press announcement, the gift was the largest in the history of the foundation. The money, it says, will pay for 1,000 new patrol car laptops, as well as security monitoring software in the NYPD’s main data center.
New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly reportedly expressed his “profound gratitude” JPMorgan Chase CEO and Chairman Jamie Dimon for the company’s donation.
The 700 peaceful protesters arrested, including three members of the Occupy Wall Street media team and lawyers, were reportedly charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest after being allowed on to Brooklyn Bridge, which police then sealed off, effectively ‘kettling’ about 1000 marchers before picking off individuals.
Also among the arrested was a 13-year-old girl, who police officers surrounded and handcuffed as onlookers shouted “Shame on you” and “let her go”. The girl was carted off to be processed, regardless.
Despite the arrests, the mood among the protesters, now estimated to be in the tens of thousands, remains upbeat and peaceful.
Since beginning their sit-in in New York’s financial district more than two weeks ago, the New York protesters have become very much embedded in ‘Liberty Park’, building a brand new community from scratch, which now has a library, food and fresh water supplies, a children’s play area and a variety of other communal services and events, such as mass meditation sessions and music jams.
Participants say the mood in the park is electrifying and very positive, despite the increasing number of campers making little free space available.
Dubbed a ‘social experiment’ by which decisions are made by general assemblies, at which all have the chance to air their views, the NYCGA made their first declaration on 3oth September.
The declaration claims that: “corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power.”
It goes on to list the main grievances against corporate-driven government policy which the protesters wish all the world to be aware of, including:
- Taking houses through an illegal foreclosure process
- Taking bailouts from taxpayers with impunity.
- Perpetuating inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.
- Poisoning the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.
- Holding students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.
- Consistently outsourcing labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.
- Using military and police force to prevent freedom of the press.
- Continuing to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.
- Blocking generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives or provide relief in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantial profit.
Click here to see the full declaration.
Click here to watch live video feed of the occupywallstreet gathering.