No right to protest in America: Occupation of Wall Street thwarted thanks to ignorant police

NY Stock Exchange / Wiki Commons

Madison Ruppert, Contributing Writer
Activist Post

Back in July, Adbusters began promoting a move to occupy Wall Street in protest of the rampant corruption, market manipulation and out of control greed that is destroying our nation today.

Adbusters was hoping for a turnout of some 20,000 angry Americans who would occupy Wall Street for months.

Unfortunately, it appears that the number was less than 1/20th of their goal, or less than 1,000 activists, according to AFP.

However, different news outlets are reporting very different numbers. MSNBC reported that “More than 1,000 demonstrators descended on New York City’s Financial District” which is a significantly larger number than that reported by AFP.

It is also worth noting that MSNBC characterized the protest as an invasion of the NYC Financial District, which is a very interesting choice of words.

How can citizens invade public property that belongs to their own country? Well, they can’t. MSNBC would just like to implant subtle language that makes these protesters out to be something other than Americans attempting to get our way of life back in a peaceful manner.

In order to stop Americans from utilizing their right to protest, the police (who, on the whole, protect and serve the elite while they subjugate, dehumanize, exploit and abuse the average citizen) blocked off all of the streets near the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the Federal Hall.

The plan was to transform the Lower Manhattan financial center into an “American Tahrir Square,” but instead it was yet another show of force by the corrupt police that support the financial oligarchs that systematically rape the United States and its people.

The protesters that did show up flocked to an area roughly 1,000 feet away from Wall Street, Trinity Place.

Many of the protesters showed up with sleeping bags and backpacks and are planning to sleep there for an indeterminate amount of time.

Among these devoted activists was a 24-year-old named Steven Taylor who told AFP that he would sleep there and that, “A lot of us we will [sic] sleep here”.

Some marched around the square while others shared food (something the government Mafia seems to hate as evidenced by the arrests of Foot Not Bombs activists in Orlando) or discussed the engineered economic crisis.

Activists came from around the world to participate in this failed occupation, including a professor of law from Spain named Javier Dorado. Dorado compared the protest with the widespread Spanish demonstrations which, in some cases, turned brutally violent.

One protester said, “We know where the money is going! Revolution in America!”

Unfortunately, as long as we have a police force willing to protect the same elites who are robbing them blind on a daily basis and making brutal cuts to social services and public budgets, there can be no revolution.

The chief spokesman for the New York City Police Department defended the restriction of our right to protest by saying that, “A protest area was established on Broad Street at Exchange Street, next to the stock exchange, but protesters elected not to use it.”

Personally, I find the entire notion of a “free speech zone” or a “protest area” to be completely antithetical to the Constitution and the entire American way of life.

When we sit by and accept these blatant restrictions of our rights, we allow further infringements to take place. The free speech zones and protest areas will get smaller, farther from the events being protested and thus increasingly marginalized.

Police used metal barricades to keep protesters from freely protesting wherever they please, which is our constitutionally protected right.

When somewhere around 15 activists took a moment to sit on a Broadway sidewalk and lean against one of the metal barricades that cordoned off Wall Street, police started issuing threats of arrest via megaphone and according to the New York Times, “a police chief shoved a newspaper photographer from behind.”

It is this type of threatening and illegal thuggish behavior coming from police that we must not stand for. As an American, I have every right to protest wherever I please on public property. The entire system of permits to protest and such is an affront to a free and open society.

Of course, the police mentioned that “no permits had been sought for the demonstration”. No permits should ever be sought for any demonstration. It is not free speech if you have to get permission to speak, plain and simple.

If we want these demonstrations to have any real effect we need to organize much larger numbers which absolutely overwhelm the police presence.

We need not seek permits; instead we need to properly organize massive peaceful protests free from agents provocateur that have plagued far too many organized demonstrations in the past and justified police crackdowns on those peacefully protesting.

We must engage in civil disobedience without violence on such a scale that the police who are ignorant enough to keep protecting the parasitic elite will have no choice other than to let it happen or be totally overrun by the power of a truly free society.

Until more Americans wake up and start taking an active role in demanding political and social justice, we will continue to see police thwart attempts like this.