New York protesters struggle to get back on feet

Robert Reiss holds a sign outside Zuccotti Park
© AFP Stan Honda

NEW YORK (AFP) – Depleted, bedraggled Occupy Wall Street activists trickled back Wednesday through heavy security to the New York square where their movement was born two months ago — and vowed to keep fighting.

On the first day after police evicted the tent camp on Zuccotti Park in a surprise night raid, a small but determined group of protesters made clear they were not giving up, with plans to mount an attention-grabbing demonstration on Thursday.

“THIS IS SO NOT OVER,” a hand-drawn cardboard sign read.

Efforts were made to restore smaller versions of the protest camp’s old library, medical center and kitchen, although these were reduced to a handful of books, a bag of random medications and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

“Anything the cops have done will only invigorate us,” said Joe Diamond, 28, helping sustain the tech-savvy Occupy Wall Street movement’s live Internet broadcast from Zuccotti Park.

But while protesters promised to strike back — with demonstrations announced for the New York Stock Exchange and Brooklyn Bridge — there was no disguising the blow dealt by the police raid.

Only a handful of serious protesters reappeared early Wednesday, when the largest group in Zuccotti Park was comprised of homeless men, several of whom appeared to have mental problems, or be under the influence of drugs or drink.

One man cried hysterically, shrieking “The police took away my babies.”

Another lay down on the cold ground, while a friend carrying a sign that read “Legalize Marijuana” placed a cigarette in his mouth. A woman wandered about, talking to herself, saying: “In some ways it would be good if people spent the day in the Metropolitan Museum.”

By lunchtime, about 200 people were peacefully assembled, playing protest songs and engaging in earnest debates about economic inequality in the United States and corruption on Wall Street.

But the square, which protesters had previously tried turning into a sort of anarchist utopia, now resembled a miniature police state.

Although Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the goal of the eviction was to return Zuccotti Park to the general public, the square was fenced off, with private guards manning the entrances and police officers patrolling outside.

Newly enforced rules barred sleeping bags, tents and other gear. A few protesters still slept there overnight.

“I did it out of solidarity,” Leina Bocar, 31, said after her night on a granite bench.

She said the private security guards hired by the park’s owners kicked her awake in the night to take away the sleeping bag she’d sneaked in. But Bocar, like other veterans of the protest, said she was undaunted and believed Occupy Wall Street would get stronger.

“This is an international movement and if there are no tents, it really doesn’t matter,” she said.

Another man added: “It’s like a boxing match. You might get knocked down in the third or fourth round but you get up.”

Margaret De Cruz, a volunteer health worker, stood in the drizzle, guarding the small collection of medicines left after the raid.

She said the crackdown reflected the authorities’ fear of the street protest. “This is getting too powerful,” she said.

But looking at the dominance of substance abusers and disturbed people in the early morning crowd, she sighed: “I wish we could go back to not having all the homeless people and addicts. But it’s hard. The Occupy people want to be open. You can’t turn people away.”