Between The Bars

Let freedom Spring.

Occupy May Day: Pictures from the Williamsburg Bridge.

On a rainy May Day morning, at least 200 people marched from Brooklyn to Manhattan across the Williamsburg Bridge, and were met by around 100 police in varying degrees of riot uniform. The crowd was mostly local and largely peaceful. There were four arrests recorded. Police confiscated a shopping cart filled with riots shields fashioned from traffic barriers. Nearly every MTA train that passed the protest honked loudly in support.

James West compiled this short photo essay.

Silence is more powerful than words. This is incredible.

Students Pepper-Sprayed at UC Davis

It seems like every day a new story comes out about agressive pepper-spraying at Occupy protests from images of the first three girls in New York to Seattle’s 84-year-old Dorli Rainey to the Portland woman getting blasted with her mouth open. The latest video of cops using what seems to be insane amounts (really, how much of this stuff do they need to use for it to be effective?) comes from UC Davis in California where a group of students were hosed down while sitting on the quad yesterday.

See the video. [Blackbook]

They may keep out those with a press pass, you may not see video on local or national news because they were not allowed in, but while the revolution, in the most literal sense, may not be televised, it will still be heard. You can arrest members of the media, but never the concept of free speech. ”The revolution will be live.”

Gil Scott Heron-The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

At 2.43am, the New York Observer reported that photographers with credentials were barred from Liberty Square. Seconds later the director of editorial operations at Gawker reported that a CBS news chopper were ordered out of the sky by the NYPD. New York Times journalist Jarid Malsin went to jail in zipties. And 20 minutes later, we heard the NYPD was cutting down trees in Liberty Square, and from our office space we could hear the deployment of a Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD), a sound cannon. To be certain, we could see and feel that this operation had been planned carefully to exclude all media coverage, sending out a loud message about how dissent will be treated in this democracy.

Look out China!

(Source: spiers)

This video is amazing. On one hand, not all cops should be vilified, they are just doing their jobs and you can see how uncomfortable his words make them. They are part of the 99%. But on the other hand, this is exactly what the cops who have abused their power need to see and hear. Anthony Bologna and other white shirts who have been beating people needlessly should be forced to watch this to see what a real hero looks like. Introducing Sergeant Shamar Thomas and the members of Occupy Marines.

youngmanhattanite:

awpoops:

Ex marine yells at cops, telling them to stop being asshole bullies.

If you didn’t see this before, watch it now.

As protesters peacefully assemble, cops are at the ready to prove we live in a police state.

Mother Jones is doing amazing coverage.

motherjones:

MJ’s Josh Harkinson reports that cops are ready for mass arrests in New York. Full breaking coverage of the day of global action from the entire Mother Jones crew here: http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/10/occupy-wall-street-global-day-protest

brianvan:

nic-rad:

Same as it ever was!

hyperallergic:

Shepard Fairey Designs #OccupyWallStreet Protest Invite

If until now no bold-faced art world names have jumped into the #OccupyWallStreet ring, Shepard Fairey has officially become the first major artist to throw his artistic support behind the protests by designing the invitation to tomorrow’s “The Occupation Party” in Times Square. WNYC’s Brigid Bergin has the full story.