Blog #3: The 99%

    On September 17, 2011, a group of protesters set up camp in Zuccotti Park in New York City's financial district with the aim of peacefully protesting against the growing economic inequality in the United States accelerated by the 2008 financial crises as part of a movement coined "Occupy Wall Street." Beginning as an idea between the founder of Adbusters, Kalle Lasn, and an editor at the magazine, Micah White, the idea for "Occupy Wall Street" was quickly adopted by over 200 activists in New York City who aided in organizing the September 17th protest. To prepare for the event, the duo, in conjunction with the Adbusters team, named the protest, created posters, identified the date of the event, and determined the protest's key tactic. Furthermore, organizers generated the OccupyWallSt.org website to spread news about the upcoming protest while White created a twitter profile for the movement and sent the first tweet: #OCCUPYWALLSTREET. 

    Fueled by a September 3rd opinion article published in the New York Times claiming that the previous 30 years of productivity gains had gone primarily to the top fifth of earners, 1000 people attended the protest on the first day. Attempting to quell the protest, the New York Police Department tried to evict the protesters from the park, however, because Zuccotti was owned privately (via a joint ownership by Brookfield Properties and Goldman Sachs), officers were unable to do so without direct permission from Zuccotti's owners. Instead, NYPD inhibited protesters to erect tents, as per loitering laws. The protest only grew from there, gaining traction among dissatisfied workers and spreading to other cities around the country. 

    Until the Zuccotti protest ended in November of 2011, "Occupy Wall Street" protests continued to occur daily at Zuccotti Park and spread throughout the country. Though initially advertised and accepted as peaceful, the protests turned violent during clashes with police and between 2011 and 2014, over 7,755 arrests were made in 122 different cities (OccupyArrests.com). The protests were not solely detrimental to protesters, though. In fact, an incident involving a police officer's macing of female protesters in September led the online hacking group, Anonymous, to reveal the officer and his childrens' names in addition to their school, inviting public retribution. Thus, an accumulation of incidents of this nature led to the police's eventual clearing of the park in November of 2011 at 1 AM, a time chosen by then NYC Mayor Bloomberg so as to "reduce the risk of confrontation in the park, and to minimize disruption to the surrounding neighborhood" (businessinsider.com). The "Occupy Wall Street" movement, though seemingly quelled, continued to fester in the background for the next few years, and every so often (typically on the anniversary of the initial protest) small demonstrations would ignite attempting to rekindle the flame of the 99%.