I usually prefer not to use this journal for this sort of thing, but I need every pair of eyeballs I can get for this.

On September 17th, a couple thousand people (including me) descended on Lower Manhattan for an action called Occupy Wall Street. Inspired by the occupations of Tahrir Square in Cairo, Puerta del Sol in Madrid, and Syntagma Square in Athens, it aims to be a months-long encampment in protest to the excessive influence of banks, corporations, and the top 1% of earners on society. Whether you agree with these grievances or not, I need you to pay attention.

While I, myself, have been going back home periodically, several hundred people are staying, camped out, in Zuccotti Park, a few blocks away from the (police barricaded) Wall Street. This is entirely legal under New York City law. However, police have been looking for every small opportunity they can use to arrest anyone. This morning, they did so. Brutally:



Reportedly, the arrests were related to the fact that tarps were covering equipment to protect them from the rain, and police claimed that this constituted the erection of a tent. The people arrested were not resisting, and yet excessive force was used on them. The kid in the purple, shown starting around 3:00, was having an asthma attack and shouting that he could not breathe. As you can see, the police held him down. He may be in critical condition.

Again, whether you agree with the message of this protest or not, it is a peaceful, legal, and non-violent action which is being subjected to police brutality. Please, spread this video and this story, because the media may not.

UPDATE 9/21: From occupywallst.org:

Before we say more about what happened to us it seems important to point this out: we do not think the police are our enemy. They have jobs, how could we fault them for that, when one sixth of America lives in poverty? when one sixth of America can't find work? The police are part of the 99 per cent.

The police informed us that the tarps over our equipment counted as a tent, and were therefore illegal. We objected to this interpretation of the law. One of us sat on top of the tarp to keep the police from extralegally removing our possessions.

[...]

In the first video you can clearly see a senior police officer hurling a protester face first toward the ground. Luckily the protester's blow was cushioned, but that didn't keep him from losing a piece of his tooth.

In the second video [The one I've posted here] police drag a protester across the ground, cutting his hands. You can clearly hear a police officer say that the young man will receive medical attention – in spite of this, it was our medics who bandaged him when he was released. Later, you can see the police deny a young man an inhaler during an asthma attack which the crowd explains may kill him.

After these events the police continued pressuring protesters with extralegal tactics by stating that a protester on a bullhorn was breaking a law. The protester refused to cease exercising his first amendment rights and was also arrested. Then the police began to indiscriminately attempt to arrest protesters, many unsheathing their batons, in spite of the protest remaining peaceful. In the end the police arrested seven of our members, holding five without charge for more than twelve hours.