The November Hosni Bloomberg Scorched Earth attack on Occupy Wall Street proved that "YOU CAN'T EVICT AN IDEA" While Mayor Bloomberg & Lady Gaga smootch at the Times Square BALL DROP, & Justin Beiber excites pedophiles, and the Central Park Fireworks show constitute the Mid Town & Uptown New Years Experience, Veteran Occupyers begin our own traditions and rituals, Down Town, to pump up #OWS Espirit de Corps.
In the NO FENCES, NO BORDERS tradition of FREE PEOPLE, OWS Free Spirits returned to Z Park starting around 7pm. The plan was to do a typical NYC General Assembly, up on the East (Broadway) side of the park. A gentle woman, with 2 adorable little girls sauntered into the middle of Z Park, and set up a tiny tent, which the 2 little girls immediately crawled into, and began playing. Once the NYPD realized that they had been distracted, they demanded that the Mommy fold up the tent. The huge number of cameras & Vid equiptment put the cops at a distinct disadvantage, and Mommy struck a deal that IF the cops opened up the barriers, on Trinity Place (the "bottom" of Z Park... the NW corner) to additional OWS peeps, she would give up the tent.
Eventually,around 10:30 pm, OWS Vets, AND Military Vets kicked off the remake of the hilarious KEYSTONE KOPS movies. The entire Park had a double ring of steel barriers to pretty much keep the Occupyers contained. Occupy Vets & Military Vets surreptitiously unhooked the Cedar Street and the Broadway barriers, and picked them up, and ran like hell into the center of Z Park, leaving gaping holes in the perimeter fences, and provided great comedy.
Photo by Bill Perry
You see, there were whole platoons of cops down the street, in case of a Wall Street attack, and scores of foot cops, on the East side of Broadway, who really couldn't see anything, b/c of traffic,and about 60 Motor Cycle & Scooter cops, North of Liberty Ave, drinking coffee. This left a mere 40 or so cops responsible for the perimeter fences, and they would try to catch the Freedom Fighters, as they grabbed the fences, and ran to the center of the park.
A couple of the cops were able to grab the fences, but the Freedom Fighters were running DOWN HILL, w/ the fences, and the cops lost EVERY tug of war.
The cops initially tried to return some of them to the perimeter, but there was zero wind, and their pepper spray was lingering, and prevented them from trying to reverse our Freedom Fighters "NO WALLS, NO BARRIERS" impromptu policy
photo by Bill Perry
The 1st reaction of the cops, when they re-grouped, was to charge in, spray pepper spray on our peeps, then recover the 2 mountains of fences, but that didn't work, b/c there was no wind, and the cops couldn't handle their own Pepper Spray. HIGH COMEDY ensued, and the cops finally retreated, and took down the secondary fences to repair the missing primary perimeter fencing.
Who needs MidTown's 42nd Street entertainment, when we have the People's Arkestra JAMMIN', at #OWS's Zuccotti Park? Imagine, Lady Gaga kissed Mayor Bloomberg, and thousands of pedophiles were lusting for Justin Bieber, in TIMES SQUARE. f*ck that sh*t
photo by Bill Perry
These little victories are great for morale, & got everybody pumped. While Mid Town has their BALL DROP, and Key West has their Drag Queen "Red Shoe Drop", and Atlanta has their "PEACH DROP", and certain coastal towns have their "Conch Shell Drop", we now have our "Steel Barrier Mountain Drops" as another OCCUPY Traditional ritual.
Some of the traditional chants, like "Whose Streets? Our Streets" went beyond "Whose Park, OUR Park", to "Whose Year? OUR Year", and the OWS winner of the night, "All week, ALL year, we'll still be here!", and my personal OWS New Years song, (no residuals for the symbol) "I'm gonna party like Minimum wage is 19.99"
The OWS BAT SIGNAL was out, on buildings, police structures & vehicles, etc., for limited times, b/c there are people dying to break that apparatus.
photo by Bill Perry
Around 1:30 am, about 500 folks followed BLACK FLAG leadership, and rolled west, on Liberty, then North, on Trinity, and some folks were arrested up around Bleeker, 6th, & B-Way, then they decided they wanted to go to Tomkins Square, & there were some arrests around 13th & 2nd Av. By 3am, Z Park only had about 150 peeps left, and about 300 cops, so that was the end of that.
photo by Bill Perry
Long story short, it is VERY empowering to find so many kindred souls, ready to do it, all over, again.
NOTE: about 40 some of the REALLY ACTIVE 80 OWS Working Groups are still meeting, at least weekly. There have been over 130 Working Groups, since September 17th
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