So when you ask where did they go,
Where are those rabble all gone?
Well we'll meet you in Zuccotti Park,
For we'll all be back there anon!
Michelle Devlin
The night I wrote this poem, November 15th, 2011, the camp at Zuccotti Park in New York City was raided in the middle of the night by NYPD, effectively ending the months-long occupation of the previously insignificant and unknown plot of land in the heart of America's financial district.
Since that night, the work of Occupy has continued on, wherever and whenever social injustices and blatant corporate cronyism, nepotism and elitism can be found.
In New Jersey, Occupy Sandy volunteers rallied to make sure that food and water was taken to the vulnerable, going where-no-fema-dare-go.
Occupy Foreclosure groups defended the homes of Americans who were being illegally foreclosed upon by the big banks, offering everything from legal advice to their physical presence in the face of police intimidation and eviction.
Now comes a call out to re-occupy Wall Street on this coming June 1, 2013. The Re-Occupy Facebook event reads:
- We are going to Re-Occupy Wall Street this Summer and this time we are going to get it right. This is going to be a Peaceful Protest designed to speak truth to power and wake people up. Everyone is welcome regardless of your skin color, your gender, your sexual preference, your religious beliefs, or political affiliation. We are all uniting as one to Protest Corporate Greed over Human Need and Wall Street International Globalist Banksters that are robbing us blind via Quantitative Easing and Tax Payer Dollars going to Banker Bailouts. WE ARE THE 99% AND WE ARE TOO BIG TO FAIL!!!!!!!
We now know without a shadow of doubt that the crackdown on Occupy was ordered by the banks themselves, that the NYPD, Homeland Security and the FBI baited, targeted and entrapped activists in a concerted, highly organized and deliberate effort to criminalize, marginalize and stifle dissent in America. It backfired on them. The Courts found in case after case that police forces across the country had used illegal kettling tactics, conducted illegal arrests, used undue force and brutality, as well as the vindictive and willful seizing and destruction of property, such as The People's Library at Liberty Plaza, for which the police department was forced to reimburse Occupy $350000.
Will Zuccotti Park a.k.a. Liberty Square be re-occupied? And if so...will the same brutal crackdown occur again? Or will the recent wins by protesters in the justice system send a message to the corporate oligarchs that there are still those who hold up the laws of the United States of America. The law of the land, it seems, will prevail, as those activists who pushed against the system found out so serendipitiously...and yes somewhat surprisingly in case after case where damages for wrongful arrest have been rewarded to protesters.
It almost makes you feel it's safe to go out in the streets again, doesn't it?
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).