Occupy Wallstreet
by Stacey Cohen
On Saturday, September 17, 2011, approximately 1,000 people congregated in Zuccotti Park in New York in protest of corporate greed, economic and social inequality, and government lobbyists. What this resulted in was something they had only dreamed of. This was the start of Occupy Wall Street, which now reaches across the globe. That night, nearly 200 hundred people camped out under umbrellas and in cardboard boxes, preparing to continue their peaceful assault on Wall Street. By Monday, seven people had been arrested, and Keith Olbermann of Current TV started his coverage.
With Olbermann taking an interest, the rest of the news agencies began to take notice of the group of mostly passive, yet vocal protestors. By day seven, The Colbert Report was starting to get involved by satirizing the protests. Unfortunately, that’s where some of the peace ended.
On September 24, thousands of protestors began to make their way uptown, forcing the closure of several streets. The police responded by arresting over 80 people. Soon videos began to surface, and people proclaimed police brutality, particularly in the case of a video showing a young woman being maced by a police officer. This caught the attention of the hacker group, Anonymous, mostly famous for hacking Bank of America and releasing several documents and the like. Anonymous posted a video on YouTube, threatening to take down the police if they heard of brutality in the next 36 hours. The next evening, filmmaker/activist Michael Moore addressed the crowd. Occupy Wall Street was on its way.
Occupy Wall Street soon lent itself to a rally by postal workers protesting a five-day delivery week instead of the six we’re accustomed to. Two days later, protestors in San Francisco attempted to occupy a Citibank, Chase bank branch, and the Charles Schwab financial institution. They became the first of the many breakaway groups.
In October, police arrested over 700 protestors as over 5,000 made their way across Brooklyn Bridge and into traffic lanes. Traffic was essentially stopped for over two hours. This was not the first time the protestors had become a hazard to the citizens of New York. In a dramatic turn, October 3 brought around the zombie walk. Hundreds of the protestors dressed as zombies and walked past Wall Street with fake dollar bills. Just days later, Occupy Wall Street got a huge boost.
Union members, students, and the unemployed joined the Occupy Wall Street movement, and the number swelled to over 10,000 people who marched from Foley’s Square in Manhattan to Zuccotti Park. They remained peaceful until nightfall when scuffles broke out and some 200 tried to storm the barricades that kept them from accessing Wall Street.
October 6 held the largest day yet. While the crowd in New York dwindled to its usual few hundred, 5,000 protestors marched in Portland, Oregon, and demonstrations were held in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Tampa, Houston, and Austin. The Occupy Wall Street message had now spread across the country. Even the president got involved, stating, “I think it expresses the frustrations the American people feel, that we had the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression, huge collateral damage all throughout the country…and yet you’re still seeing some of the same folks who acted irresponsibly trying to fight efforts to crack down on the abusive practices that got us into this in the first place.”
Two days later, protesters in Washington, DC were pepper sprayed as they attempted to enter and take over the National Air and Space Museum. Meanwhile, in New York, a thousand protestors marched to Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village amid rumors that the protest would now be centered there instead of Zuccotti Park.
On day 24 of the Occupy Wall Street movement, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg implied that he would not use resources to dissuade the group from their protest, as they were peaceful and had the right to demonstrate.
By mid-October, the Occupy movement had spread from East Coast to West Coast and beyond the nation’s borders. Around the world, thousands protested corporate greed and the financial system. Many of these protests were not done in the peaceful manner of the US protests, and reports of injuries from around the globe have been pouring in through the media.
Occupy Wall Street began with a couple hundred souls who had nowhere to go for answers about what is happening in our country. They were fed up with promises made by the government, the private sector, and the banks. With no money, no jobs, and months or even years of pent-up frustration, they struck the only way they could—by protesting. “We are the 99 percent” became their motto as they began their crusade against the injustice they perceived.
But what is it they want? To change our system? To create new jobs? The problem is, nobody really knows. This large, leaderless group wants change, but they don’t know how to go about it. While many groups of people find the protestors to be wasting their time and ours by expressing dissatisfaction with the nation’s unemployment rate and our economy in general, many rally to support the group for the exact opposite reasons. They believe that, while change doesn’t come overnight, the Occupy Wall Street Movement is engaging a new generation of people, a new generation that will become more involved in government and politics where it counts, and be able to make future changes. But what might those changes be?
The Occupy Wall Street Movement, or the 99 percent, as it is now sometimes being called, has no real leader. Without a leader there is no way to “behead the beast” or start talks to end the protest. For some, this has become very frustrating, as there appears to be no end in sight. How does one satisfy what is basically a civilized mob? They aren’t burning cars and ransacking buildings, but they are indeed a mob of sorts. One match could set it off into becoming one of the seemingly largest angry throng of people, hell-bent on changing the world by any means necessary. What would happen in this case?It is estimated that over $3 million dollars have been spent on overtime alone for the New York police force to ensure the protesters are safe, and to protect city buildings and the local populace from frustrated protestors who may decide the peaceful protest isn’t enough for them. For a group concerned about the way money is being spent, it seems that they are truly going about this the wrong way. I suppose a national letter writing campaign doesn’t have the same media-grabbing attention, but it may make a bigger social impact if hundreds of thousands of letters, written by the concerned citizens of the nation were to rain down over Congress. But then again, one of the things being protested is, of course, the money lobbyists spend convincing our governing bodies to do their bidding.
What would the world look like without the lobbyist and large corporations throwing their money and weight around to make sure the laws that are passed are favorable to them? Would it be better for America? If a lobbyist could present their case to a congressman, but couldn’t promise them a certain monetary value towards a pet project or a reelection campaign, how would it affect us? Would things stop getting done? Or would Congress listen more to the people they represent to make the world better for them? And if big business no longer supported part of the government, or different political parties, and that money dried up, would the government do more for the people instead of being happy with the status quo that lines their pockets while thousands lose their jobs and go hungry because of that simple greed?
But how many jobs are won with that greed? Big business may change zoning laws so they can build more stores—more stores mean more jobs. But what if those jobs only paid minimum wage? Not living wage, but minimum wage. Yes, hundreds of people are now employed when they weren’t before, but they still can’t make a living. Now, if big business stayed out of it, Congress could raise the minimum wage. But then again, businesses may suffer and have to let employees go because they could no longer afford them. Then there are more people out of the workforce, while those who are in it can make ends meet. What does this do to our economy?
The Occupy Wall Street movement wants to end the lobbyists and the big businesses that currently help run America, but is that really in our best interests? In addition to ending the current system of lobbying, job creation is on the forefront of the Occupy Wall Street movement. But how do you create jobs in a failing economy? It’s not as easy as it sounds, especially with so many businesses having to cut corners or close down.
With the current legislation in Alabama chasing many immigrants away, it is opening up hundreds of jobs, jobs that aren’t being filled by the same Americans saying there are no jobs. Granted, the pay isn’t great, and the hours are long and the work is hard, but there are jobs out there that aren’t being filled. Many Americans feel they are above this sort of work. But what if the jobless Americans took these jobs? Isn’t that one part of their goal down—job creation?
I feel that, while bringing attention to the current state of affairs is admirable, the money being wasted to protect protestors and the city from the Occupy Wall Street movement could be better spent elsewhere. Instead of spending that money on overtime for the police, the money could be used to fund a homeless shelter or a soup kitchen to provide warm beds and hot food to the homeless people of the city, a small thing to be sure, but much more helpful in the short run for the people in the area.
How does Occupy Wall Street hope to change what’s currently going on? Bringing attention is certainly part of it, but without a plan of action, an idea of how to fix the problem, how do they expect to succeed? I feel that they should come up with a list of what they want to accomplish—how does one expect to accomplish anything without a list of goals? A plan of action is needed. Without an actual leader, there is no negotiating or satisfying the group, and if you anger them, there is no one to rein them back in. It poses a potential threat to the safety of the cities where the protests are going on, particularly New York City, where the main protest is set. And this threat to safety could spread to all the other cities currently hosting mini-movements of their own, including on a global scale where we’ve already seen that it takes very little to inflame the masses, and the arrests and injuries are numerous.
I admire the participants of the movement for standing up for what they believe in and trying to make a change, but instead of coming up with ideas to present, using the resources available and coming up with a plan of action to further their cause, they are ignoring what’s available and acting like children throwing a temper tantrum because they didn’t get their way. How does that help anyone? And change is the idea behind this protest. This country needs change, and if this protest will lead to it, then I am all for it. This movement is just the beginning, and it’s setting a precedent for the future, but future movements may not be so peaceful, thereby placing the general public in danger. Hopefully I am wrong. Hopefully this will lead to changes in our government, and the way our economy works changes for the better.
For more information on the Occupy Wall Street Movement, visit their official Web site, www.occupywallst.org.
Stacy Cohen graduated from California State University, Channel Islands with a bachelor’s degree in English.
She is currently a freelance writer in her spare time.