There is a showdown looming for tomorrow morning at the Occupy Wall Street site. Mayor Bloomberg said last night Brookfield Properties, the owner of the park, wants to clean the park in stages during the day. I can tell you this would be no easy task given how much stuff is in the park. Many are of the opinion this is a way to evict the protesters since new rules stating no mattresses or tarps would allowed after the cleaning.
After seeing the park in the rain yesterday there is no question of the necessity to have tarps with all of the equipment and objects in place!
For anyone who missed my post last week on the park, here is what the site looks like with few people present. I shot this photo last February.
Below are many photos I shot yesterday afternoon. If the Mayor and owners of the park are successful in eviction these photos will be a record of the park just two days before the confrontation.
Above and below: with the camera set to panorama mode the site is shown in extreme wide angle.
A speaker, Dr. Robert Thurman, the Buddhist scholar, professor of religion and Sanskrit at Columbia University, and father of actress Uma Thurman, was interviewed after he spoke to the group. Someone next to me said he was a guest on Bill Moyers' program in the days when the program was still on the air.
Here's a longer and clearer video of Robert Thurman speaking at that moment:
The communications group under a tent:
The food group serving lunch:
This photo shows only half of the police vehicles parked along the street:
There was some ongoing cleanup taking place after the rain:
Another panoramic shot of the park:
The number of participants nationwide had jumped some 300,000 from the figure on Sunday:
A sampling of videos I shot yesterday. All are in HD video and with stereo audio:
AP footage of arrests a few blocks from the park:
So, we'll wait to see what transpires tomorrow between the city and the group. I won't be present to see it but I can assure you the TV crews will be around for this one!
Photos, videos (except the AP video and the second video of Robert Thurman), and text are © 2011 by B+Co., Inc.
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jmac1949
Robert Steibel
Texas Means Friends
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http://act.truemajorityaction.org/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=266
Great post and photos, Designator. Thanks!
rated
The communications group.. just fascinates me.. Here it is one guy who tweets..:)
HUGGGGG
"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!"
--sinclair louis
"One withstands the invasion of armies; one does not withstand the invasion of ideas."
--victor hugo
occupy wall street, my speech to the masses
As you know from the news reports the confrontation over cleaning the park did not happen. There is live blogging taking place at the park: Salon and the NY Daily News, just to mention two outlets.
@Shiral, thanks for the link for the petition you left yesterday--the outpouring of support helped to cancel the cleaning scheduled for today. (No problem about the name spelling:)
@Sharon, I'll be interested to see your story and photos on the Memorial after you visit it!
Often they seem like jackals. I went down to support them and of course I wasn't allowed to speak. They are the more ignorant people I have ever met. They freeload off New York and claim it is their constitutional right.
But this is the most shocking. I joined the Library. I had by far the most experience and should have taken over. They censored my blog posts and unbelievably tried to track down my social work degree presumably to put a blog on my spotless record. In a public forum they told me to take my meds and go home. Most of these people are under 30.
I was praying that Bloomberg would man up and evict the freeloaders who think they are the second coming when they deserve
I cannot go there ever again. For two nights I had recurrent nightmares of gang rape. I have worked with thousands of teens and never met any who disrespected me utterly.
You are encouraging the worst elements of youth to see themselves as the new Jesus Chris. It is sickening, sickening, sickening. Think about the library. I criticize the free donation library as a cataloging opportunity. And I am facing with losing my ability to practice social work because they are engorged with self-importance.
This has got to stop. Frankly I am beginning to think the Republicans are right that the Democrats killed family. No ordinary person thinks they are anything but freeloaders who have wasted their lives and now want to hate all the hard-working people in the world.
It would never occur to any of them to actually go out and help people. Do you think people who visit Manhattan and never leave this space are emotionally healthy?
I shudden for our future.. It is the most depressing thing I have een. It makes me want to vote for Michelle Bachman.
Katherine Hawkins and Vanes'sa Wyeth who have been heroically worldsaving all their lives have never been interviewed. And yet they always demand what's wrong with them that they are not here. I had hoped the police could lock them in a library.
I am not talking about the kids that visit after work. I am talking about the occupiers. I think they are terribly dangerous and trouble is ahead. No one knows who is there. It could be the Manhattan Rapists convention for all anyone knows.
They only want adults who adore them. They refuse to respect any authority. And you are aidding and abetting people the like of which I have never seen in my life.
Asserting that they could be rapists because they wouldn't let you take over a function is a bit over the top, don't you think?
@Libby ~ I am impressed that you spent the night in the park as your part in solidarity with the group! I would not have been able to sleep a wink if I had been there. Thanks for telling your story and it would be wonderful to see an expanded version in a post!