Live Through This

A Protester’s Account of the Occupy Wall Street Brooklyn Bridge March

I figured I should write down what happened today, before I forget or before too many stories get muddled together.

My friend, my partner, and I arrived at Zucotti Park around 3 for the march, which began quickly, after everyone shared various rules. (No violence, write the phone number for legal council on yr arm, etc, etc)

We marched through lower Manhattan, and no route was specified, but we were told to not pass the head of the crowd, which was carrying a banner. Cops stood by and kept us on the sidewalk.

Then I noticed we were approaching the Brooklyn Bridge.

Cops were ushering people onto the bridge, but as I noticed we were walking into the roadway, I started to get scared. We climbed over the fence onto the pedestrian bridge. The first half of the crowd continued on the road, while the second half continued on the pedestrian bridge. Cops were flanking both sides of the entrance to the bridge and there was no way to turn back. As we walked up the elevated pedestrian bridge, we heard cops call for backup and they drove 2 police vans backwards up the bridge to where the protesters were. They stopped traffic and then brought vans in from the other side as well and trapped the protesters.

We watched from above as people began climbing the cords and metal of the bridge to escape the cops. People on the pedestrian bridge were trying to pull people up out of the roadway. 

We continued forward into Brooklyn as the cops brought a net onto the bridge from the Manhattan side. 

By the time we gathered into the park in Brooklyn, only a few hundred of us were left.

Cops began surrounding the park, and we all disbanded.

One of my friends was in the area where cops had people corralled. According to her Facebook updates and tweets, and other updates from trapped protesters, a child was arrested, and busses were brought in to arrest every single person. All of the men were taken first, and then all of the women.

They were told they were being arrested for disorderly conduct.

The police led them there and trapped them.

Please reblog this. People need to know what happened, and cops need to be held accountable for their actions.