Occupy Wall Street @ Zuccotti Park and Washington Square Park, NYC – 10.15.11

Occupy Wall Street went global today! All over the world people have been protesting corporate greed, the failing economy, the rich, big business, the wars, and other issues. People are pissed and finally getting their voices heard, even though most of the media hardly ever cover the events. I decided to head down there today and document the movement. I’ve been following Occupy Wall Street (#OWS or #OccupyWallStreet) on Twitter and the live feeds from very early on and encourage everyone to do the same. Or better yet, get down there and show your support as well! Today’s photographs are from Zuccotti Park and Washington Square Park.

My day started out by taking the PACKED PATH train from Exchange Place in JC over to World Trade Center. I saw the recent additions added to the Freedom Tower at WTC and headed down to Zuccotti Park (Liberty Park) where Occupy Wall Street protesters have been staying and camped out for 29 days now. I arrived and people were already bickering at someone who was yelling at them. Some old man dressed up in an American Flag outfit and big flag. He didn’t last long at the park. I walked around several times to get some shots of all the people holding up signs. The crowd was varied, ranging from hippies to college students to punks to blue collared workers to older people. There was even some children as well. Just a melting pot of people coming together.

Then of course there was the gestapo, I mean the NYPD. When I was there, the cops just stood by the sidelines and bitch at you if you stood in one spot for a nano second because it needed to have a clear path of the street for the non-existence people coming. I snapped a picture, got yelled at from a policeman(woman) and moved along. I saw people getting fitted for business suits, getting hair cuts, getting their beards shaved(!), people debating, people sleeping, people making bagels, playing music. Camera crews were there but who knows if the footage will actually air or not.

A massive group was going to march from Zuccotti to Washington Square Park, and then to Times Square. I had no desire to go to Time Square because it just had bad news written all over it. As of right now, there are 100 people arrested and maybe 20,000 people showed up tonight! Insane numbers for a non-New Years Eve event. Of course the cops were kettling people with nets then and threatening the crowd with tear gas and arrests.

So earlier on, the crowd marched up to Washington Square Park but I took the subway to go up there and take pictures of the mass student rally. Students, former college graduates and teachers gathered to talk about their debts, and other things. Afterwards, right as I was about to go eat some awesome Brunch at North Square, the march met up with us, so we had to wait to cross. But I was happy about that so I could take pictures of everyone marching. The march had a heavy police presence, but didn’t see anyone stepping over the line. That happened later when people tried to close their accounts at Citibank and were arrested apparently. I guess that’s illegal now? After my brunch, went back to Washington Square Park to see all the people there and took more photos. I stayed around for a little bit longer before heading home for the day.

I was glad I went. It probably won’t be the last time I go down there.

The Entire Gallery

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Tags: 24-70mm f2.8, 70-200mm f2.8, autumn, cops, documentary photography, Freedom Tower, Liberty Park, new york city, nikon d300, nyc, NYPD, Occupy, Occupy Wall Street, October 15th 2011, police, policeman, protest, protest march, protesting, revolution, Wall Street, Washington Square Park, World Trade Center, WTC, Zuccotti Park