This is like a trip down memory lane. (Well, if Memory Lane happens to be lined with cop cars covered in feces anyway.) Remember when Occupy Wall Street was The Next Big Thing? And how it was going to rise up to be the counterweight to the Tea Party… an unstoppable force being promoted 24/7 by MSNBC and CNN? Ah, good times.
But then things seemed to fall apart, particularly in the Northeast and the Midwest, because … well, it gets cold in the winter. What’s an anarchist to do? But they promised to be back in the spring with fresh financing, a new plan and ground breaking activism. But… that never really happened either.
But don’t give up hope! What better time to recharge the batteries than on your one year anniversary? And to kick things off, how about a nice commemorative march in the city that started it all?
About 300 people observing the anniversary of Occupy Wall Street marched to a small concrete park in New York’s lower Manhattan that served as headquarters for the protest movement and was its birthplace.
Police patrolled the crowd Saturday and took at least a dozen people into custody near Trinity Church that borders Zuccotti Park. Police confirmed they made arrests, mostly for disorderly conduct, but they did not have a total number.
Protesters marched from Washington Square Park and headed south down Broadway to Zuccotti Park, chanting as they went. The group later thinned out.
300 people? Seriously? This is New York City. You can get twice that many homeless to show up in under an hour if a donut truck breaks down near Central Park. Hell, if you get ten women to demonstrate their right to go topless in public, you can get three times that many reporters to show up in Gotham. Do you know what we call three hundred people near Washington Square Park on a Saturday in September? A really slow day at Washington Square Park.
Seriously, what happened to Occupy Wall Street? There’s an election coming up in barely six weeks with huge questions of policy on the line which are important to both sides of the debate. If you’re not going to do it now, when would you? Is there anyone running this show anymore?
Meanwhile, with little fanfare and even less media coverage, FreePAC showed up in Ohio and prepared to put thousands of boots on the ground, visit neighborhoods in key sections of the Buckeye State, deliver yard signs and reach out to voters across the spectrum. Dear Occupiers: this is what activism looks like.
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