From
a post at Gothamist.com:
The big Occupy Wall Street march which drew thousands to lower Manhattan ended calmly, but things between the protesters and the NYPD have escalated in the past hour or so: Occupy Wall Street spokesman Patrick Bruner says, "Reports of our medics treating several pepper sprayed protesters. Mounted police officers. Barricades block Broadway and Liberty." And then there's this video of a high-ranking NYPD official (wearing a white shirt) batoning protesters who are trying to breach a barrier:
I hate to sound cliche, but this is what a police state looks like. Now, I usually hate videos like this--they only show us the violence of the police and provide no proof that the protesters weren't violent. However, this protest has been going on for weeks now and so far I have yet to see video of protesters being violent
at all. So, until I see some proof, I'm going to take the protesters at their word and assume that they are peaceful. And since there's now plenty of footage of police officers abusing their power (and abusing the protesters) I'm going to assume that said-footage isn't preceded by protester violence.
After all, the cops have cameras too, now. Where is their footage showing that police-on-protester violence was necessary?
Hit up
that Gothamist post for more video clips, including one of a local Fox camera man ending up on the ground and another that captures a street cop explaining that he hoped his little night stick would see some action. I really want to give the cops the benefit of the doubt, but they really seem to have given in to the whole "us vs. them" mentality. It's the job of the police to protect ALL New Yorkers, not just themselves and the law.
