Photo Credit: Madam Toussaint

So to be clear I did not actually go to Occupy Wall Street Zuccotti/Liberty Park in Manhattan. I did got to Out of the Park and into the Streets, 99% Day of Action in November. I can tell you what I saw at Out of the Park, what I wanted to see at Occupy Wall Street and I can also tell I finally saw what I wanted to see at Occupy Wall Street at Occupy Oakland. Finally seeing what I wanted to see is what prompted me to write this. More on that later. First up was what I wanted to see at Occupy Wall Street which you can read here.

What I Saw At Out of the Park and into the Streets, 99% Day of Action

On November 17 Occupy Wall Street was planning to Occupy The Subways as part of their 99% Day of Action, and I guess finally pack light and move like a cheetah to the other 4 boroughs outside of Manhattan. They intended to gather at 7 central subway hubs and I intended to attend one of those, listen to what they had to say and take lots of pictures. I can tell you any Black person I talked to did not encourage me going to occupy anything. Anyway, my best laid plans went awry (of course!) and I ended up going to Manhattan, then going to one of the occupied train stations in Queens, NY after 3:00pm when the LUNCH ACTION was already in progress. At BREAKFAST ACTION they disrupted the opening of the New York Stock Exchange in Manhattan.

Photo Credit: Madam Toussaint

In the train stations things seemed fairly normal and part of me was disappointed. As I left the train station though I saw more than half a dozen cops by the escalator and more scattered near a small crowd. In this prominently Black neighborhood I saw a young white man handing out “We Are The 99%” flyers and another very tall, bald white man being his own human microphone trying to start chants like “We Are All Sean Bell”. That’s a reference to 2006 African American New York City police brutality/murder victim Sean Bell who was killed in a barrage of 50 bullets in Queens, NY. I was in Queens and that chant should have hit home with the people there more than it did but it was almost 4pm and the major train station was flooded with high school children who were probably in elementary school at the time of the shooting.

Sending one main young white man to represent the movement in far flung and sectioned off from the rest of the city Queens seemed like bad outreach. Many seemed to not even know the Occupy movement was planning anything there, though every news outlet in the city new and was present.

It was cold and I was inadequately dressed for the weather. I had a terrible day so far and took very few pictures at the apparent non-event.