/ 3 October 2011

NYPD accused of heavy-handed tactics in Wall Street protests

Force criticised by protesters, who claim they were deliberately led on to road before being penned in and arrested

The New York police department has come under criticism for heavy-handed tactics during the Occupy Wall Street march over Brooklyn bridge, in which more than 700 protesters were arrested and held for several hours.

Activists involved in the march, as well as commentators who are following the protest against inequality and corporate excess, claim the response of the city’s police force to the peaceful event was vastly out of proportion.

The total number of people who have been arrested in the past two weeks stands at almost 1 000 – substantially more than the number of financiers who led the world into the 2008 economic meltdown.

As Salman Rushdie put it in a tweet: “The world’s economy has been wrecked by these rapacious traders. Yet it is the protesters who are jailed.”

The march began on Saturday afternoon in Zuccotti Park, the Manhattan space that has been the base of the core of 200 or so OWS demonstrators. By the time it reached Brooklyn bridge it had swollen to several thousand.

Accounts vary as to how about 500 protesters found themselves on one lane of the road across the bridge. Some protesters accused the police of having led them on to the road as a sort of trap, after which they penned them in using orange netting and arrested them all.

Video clips posted on YouTube appeared to support this view, showing a small body of police officers marching on to the road ahead of the mass of demonstrators.

But the NYPD rejected that rendition of events, saying that many warnings were given by police to protesters to stay on the pedestrian walkway that runs across the bridge at a level above the road. Paul Browne, the deputy commissioner, said protesters were clearly told that if they went on to the road they would be arrested.

“Some complied and took the walkway without being arrested. Others proceeded on the Brooklyn-bound vehicular roadway and were,” he said.

The police version of events was supported by some protesters.

Malcolm Harris, a blogger who took part in the march, tweeted that the police were wrong-footed. “The police didn’t lead us on to the bridge. They were backing the fuck up.”

Other participants suggested the confluence of so many on the road was an innocent misunderstanding. Robert Cammiso, 48, told Associated Press: “We were supposed to go up the pedestrian roadway. There was a huge funnel, a bottleneck, and we couldn’t fit. People jumped from the walkway on to the roadway. We thought the roadway was open to us.”

The NYPD was also accused of over-weening behaviour towards the protesters once they were “kettled” on the bridge. Video footage showed police grappling with protesters and strong-arming them away, despite no apparent signs of any violence.

The same footage also shows a young woman or girl wearing a cloth hat being arrested. The age of the individual is not clear – she could be as young as 13 or as old as 20 – but the crowd clearly thought she was a child and chanted: “Shame, shame, shame.”

Others chanted: “You can’t arrest an idea” and “Let us out, let us out.”

The “Battle of Brooklyn Bridge”, as some were dubbing it, came as the protest movement begun in Manhattan was spreading to cities across America.

There were smaller but substantial demonstrations over the weekend in Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston , Denver, Washington and several other cities.

In New York, most of those arrested were released early on Sunday with a citation for disorderly conduct. Brooklyn bridge was reopened by late evening, but the dramatic scenes that took place there and the prevailing feeling that the police action was excessive are only likely to fuel the demonstrations as they carry on this week. —