18-11-2011, 04:31 AM
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Occupy Wall Street November 17: Journalists Arrested, Beaten By Police
![[Image: r-JOURNALISTSOCCUPYWALLSTREET-large570.jpg]](http://i.huffpost.com/gen/408482/thumbs/r-JOURNALISTSOCCUPYWALLSTREET-large570.jpg)
The Huffington Post Jack Mirkinson First Posted: 11/17/11 12:27 PM ET Updated: 11/17/11 01:17 PM ET
As thousands of Occupy Wall Street protesters took to the streets on Thursday, journalists once again found themselves a target of police violence and arrests.
Reporters took to Twitter and, in some cases, to television to spread the word of the heavy hand police were using against them. It appeared to be a repeat of a similar scene two days earlier, when journalists were roughed up and arrested as the NYPD forcibly cleared the Occupy Wall Street encampment in lower Manhattan.
Lucy Kafanov, a reporter for the RT television network, said she was hit with a police baton while trying to film the protests. She told another reporter for her network that she had her press credentials clearly visible, but was still struck. She also said that she witnessed another reporter from the IndyMedia network being "slammed against the wall" and arrested.
"It does not seem police are making a distinction between press and protesters," she said. Other journalists reported similar incidents.
"Saw NYPD hitting a man with a nightstick. Tried to take a picture but police grabbed me and shoved me across the street," DNAInfo editor Julie Shapiro tweeted. "The NYPD just slammed a barricade into a photographer," another report read.
The Daily Caller also said that two of its reporters were "assaulted" with batons.
Josh Stearns, a member of media reform group Free Press who has been tracking the arrests of journalists at Occupy movements, estimates that 26 have been arrested in total since the protests began two months ago. On Thursday, that number looked set to grow substantially, as reports of arrests poured in. Baltimore reporter Ryan Harvey and In These Times writer J.A. Meyerson -- were reportedly arrested.
In addition, a picture said to be of Keith Gessen, editor of n+1 magazine, being held on the ground by police was tweeted. Gessen and two other journalists were later said to have been arrested, and video footage emerged of Gessen being taken away by police. His case was somewhat different than the others, though, since he appeared to be participating in civil disobedience. He latermade a statement to a local ABC station explaining why he had participated in the protests.
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[B]Wall St. Protesters Clash With Police; 250 Are Arrested
![[Image: 20111117_OCCUPY-slide-9K4O-articleLarge-v2.jpg]](http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2011/11/17/us/20111117_OCCUPY-slide-9K4O/20111117_OCCUPY-slide-9K4O-articleLarge-v2.jpg)
A group of Occupy Wall Street supporters took a subway to an evening rally in Foley Square. More Photos »
By CARA BUCKLEY
Published: November 17, 2011
Thousands of protesters across the country flooded streets, squares, bridges and banks on Thursday, snarling traffic and often clashing with the police in a show of support for the Occupy Wall Streetmovement, two months to the day after the demonstration began.
Multimedia
![[Image: 20111117_OCCUPY-slide-0ZF6-thumbWide.jpg]](http://graphics8.nytimes.com//images/2011/11/17/nyregion/20111117_OCCUPY-slide-0ZF6-thumbWide.jpg)
Interactive Feature
A Day of Protest, and Arrests
Related
Connect with @NYTMetro on Twitter for New York breaking news and headlines.
In Lower Manhattan, protesters tossed aside metal barricades to converge again on Zuccotti Park after failing in an attempt to shut down the New York Stock Exchange. In Los Angeles, more than 20 protesters were arrested after ignoring orders to vacate downtown streets. In Denver, 100 protesters marched by government buildings and intersections, bringing traffic to a standstill.
Organized weeks ago, the so-called day of action came two days after the police cleared the Occupy Wall Street encampment from Zuccotti Park in Manhattan in an early morning raid. Ousted from the park that had become their de facto headquarters, protesters looked to Thursday to gauge the support and mettle that the movement had retained.
"We failed to close the stock exchange, but we took back our park," said Adam Farooqui, 25, of Queens. "That was a real victory."
Throughout Manhattan on Thursday, about 250 people had been arrested by the evening, many after rough confrontations with the police. The police said that 5 protesters were charged with felony assault, and that 7 officers and 10 protesters were injured.
In more than a dozen cities, the demonstrations included marches across bridges, which protesters said were emblematic of a deteriorating public infrastructure. The largest of these marches was to take place across the Brooklyn Bridge.
Shortly before 6 p.m., about 80 protesters, including a New York City councilman, Jumaane D. Williams, were arrested for blocking a roadway that leads to the Manhattan side of the bridge. Protesters, many carrying candles, later filed across the bridge's pedestrian walkway and crossed the East River.
The demonstrations came as encampments nationwide were being cleared out by city officials. In Philadelphia on Thursday, about 75 members of Occupy Philly met to discuss how to respond to city notices, posted on Wednesday, urging them to leave their encampment because construction plans were imminent.
Occupy Oakland, where protesters have had sharp confrontations with the police, chose not to participate in the call to action, shifting its next planned protest to Saturday in an effort to "continue this national momentum," according to the group's Web site.
"I don't think anything is going to stop this," said Jack Kelsh, 47, a bus driver who joined protesters in Denver. "The more resistance they get, the stronger they are going to get and the more rallies you are going to see."
The events in New York City began shortly before 8 a.m. Throughout the morning, the protesters wound their way through the heart of the financial district in an increasingly tense cat-and-mouse game with the police. At one point, the protesters engulfed police vehicles, forcing them to halt, and broke police lines, only to be pushed back by metal barricades and swinging batons.
The stock exchange opened for trading as usual at 9:30 a.m.
The marchers returned to Zuccotti Park, hoisted the police barricades that had been encircling it and rushed past officers, some of whom began shoving demonstrators and throwing punches.
In the early afternoon, the police led a man with a bloodied face from the park. Onlookers said the man had flicked the hat from an officer's head and rushed into the crowd.
Shortly afterward, the police said that the hand of an officer had been badly cut by a shard of glass wielded by a protester near Zuccotti Park, and that the officer's attacker was in custody.
Protesters had planned to "occupy the subways" in all five boroughs at 3 p.m., but the activist turnout on the trains was scant. At 5 p.m., thousands of protesters and members of about a dozen unions converged on Foley Square.
"It's magnificent," Laurel Sturt, 55, who teaches elementary school at Public School 91 in the Bronx, said as she gazed at the crowd. "All great movements of the past started like this."
At a Midtown gathering of business leaders on Thursday, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said that the protests were a dire sign of the public's economic fears.
"The public is getting scared," he said. "They don't know what to do, and they're going to strike out." He added, "They just know the system isn't working, and they don't want to wait around."
[/B]
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Occupy Wall Street November 17: Journalists Arrested, Beaten By Police
The Huffington Post Jack Mirkinson First Posted: 11/17/11 12:27 PM ET Updated: 11/17/11 01:17 PM ET
As thousands of Occupy Wall Street protesters took to the streets on Thursday, journalists once again found themselves a target of police violence and arrests.
Reporters took to Twitter and, in some cases, to television to spread the word of the heavy hand police were using against them. It appeared to be a repeat of a similar scene two days earlier, when journalists were roughed up and arrested as the NYPD forcibly cleared the Occupy Wall Street encampment in lower Manhattan.
Lucy Kafanov, a reporter for the RT television network, said she was hit with a police baton while trying to film the protests. She told another reporter for her network that she had her press credentials clearly visible, but was still struck. She also said that she witnessed another reporter from the IndyMedia network being "slammed against the wall" and arrested.
"It does not seem police are making a distinction between press and protesters," she said. Other journalists reported similar incidents.
"Saw NYPD hitting a man with a nightstick. Tried to take a picture but police grabbed me and shoved me across the street," DNAInfo editor Julie Shapiro tweeted. "The NYPD just slammed a barricade into a photographer," another report read.
The Daily Caller also said that two of its reporters were "assaulted" with batons.
Josh Stearns, a member of media reform group Free Press who has been tracking the arrests of journalists at Occupy movements, estimates that 26 have been arrested in total since the protests began two months ago. On Thursday, that number looked set to grow substantially, as reports of arrests poured in. Baltimore reporter Ryan Harvey and In These Times writer J.A. Meyerson -- were reportedly arrested.
In addition, a picture said to be of Keith Gessen, editor of n+1 magazine, being held on the ground by police was tweeted. Gessen and two other journalists were later said to have been arrested, and video footage emerged of Gessen being taken away by police. His case was somewhat different than the others, though, since he appeared to be participating in civil disobedience. He latermade a statement to a local ABC station explaining why he had participated in the protests.
****
[B]Wall St. Protesters Clash With Police; 250 Are Arrested
James Estrin/The New York Times
A group of Occupy Wall Street supporters took a subway to an evening rally in Foley Square. More Photos »
By CARA BUCKLEY
Published: November 17, 2011
Thousands of protesters across the country flooded streets, squares, bridges and banks on Thursday, snarling traffic and often clashing with the police in a show of support for the Occupy Wall Streetmovement, two months to the day after the demonstration began.
Multimedia
Interactive FeatureA Day of Protest, and Arrests
Related
- City Room: Occupy Protesters and the Police Clash in Lower Manhattan (November 17, 2011)
- Room for Debate: Does Congress Hear the Occupiers? (November 16, 2011)
Connect with @NYTMetro on Twitter for New York breaking news and headlines.
In Lower Manhattan, protesters tossed aside metal barricades to converge again on Zuccotti Park after failing in an attempt to shut down the New York Stock Exchange. In Los Angeles, more than 20 protesters were arrested after ignoring orders to vacate downtown streets. In Denver, 100 protesters marched by government buildings and intersections, bringing traffic to a standstill.
Organized weeks ago, the so-called day of action came two days after the police cleared the Occupy Wall Street encampment from Zuccotti Park in Manhattan in an early morning raid. Ousted from the park that had become their de facto headquarters, protesters looked to Thursday to gauge the support and mettle that the movement had retained.
"We failed to close the stock exchange, but we took back our park," said Adam Farooqui, 25, of Queens. "That was a real victory."
Throughout Manhattan on Thursday, about 250 people had been arrested by the evening, many after rough confrontations with the police. The police said that 5 protesters were charged with felony assault, and that 7 officers and 10 protesters were injured.
In more than a dozen cities, the demonstrations included marches across bridges, which protesters said were emblematic of a deteriorating public infrastructure. The largest of these marches was to take place across the Brooklyn Bridge.
Shortly before 6 p.m., about 80 protesters, including a New York City councilman, Jumaane D. Williams, were arrested for blocking a roadway that leads to the Manhattan side of the bridge. Protesters, many carrying candles, later filed across the bridge's pedestrian walkway and crossed the East River.
The demonstrations came as encampments nationwide were being cleared out by city officials. In Philadelphia on Thursday, about 75 members of Occupy Philly met to discuss how to respond to city notices, posted on Wednesday, urging them to leave their encampment because construction plans were imminent.
Occupy Oakland, where protesters have had sharp confrontations with the police, chose not to participate in the call to action, shifting its next planned protest to Saturday in an effort to "continue this national momentum," according to the group's Web site.
"I don't think anything is going to stop this," said Jack Kelsh, 47, a bus driver who joined protesters in Denver. "The more resistance they get, the stronger they are going to get and the more rallies you are going to see."
The events in New York City began shortly before 8 a.m. Throughout the morning, the protesters wound their way through the heart of the financial district in an increasingly tense cat-and-mouse game with the police. At one point, the protesters engulfed police vehicles, forcing them to halt, and broke police lines, only to be pushed back by metal barricades and swinging batons.
The stock exchange opened for trading as usual at 9:30 a.m.
The marchers returned to Zuccotti Park, hoisted the police barricades that had been encircling it and rushed past officers, some of whom began shoving demonstrators and throwing punches.
In the early afternoon, the police led a man with a bloodied face from the park. Onlookers said the man had flicked the hat from an officer's head and rushed into the crowd.
Shortly afterward, the police said that the hand of an officer had been badly cut by a shard of glass wielded by a protester near Zuccotti Park, and that the officer's attacker was in custody.
Protesters had planned to "occupy the subways" in all five boroughs at 3 p.m., but the activist turnout on the trains was scant. At 5 p.m., thousands of protesters and members of about a dozen unions converged on Foley Square.
"It's magnificent," Laurel Sturt, 55, who teaches elementary school at Public School 91 in the Bronx, said as she gazed at the crowd. "All great movements of the past started like this."
At a Midtown gathering of business leaders on Thursday, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said that the protests were a dire sign of the public's economic fears.
"The public is getting scared," he said. "They don't know what to do, and they're going to strike out." He added, "They just know the system isn't working, and they don't want to wait around."
[/B]
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