Thanks to the ubiquity of Youtube, Twitter, livestream and smartphones with enough power to shoot a feature film, the Occupy movement has been one of the most citizen-documented in history. In fact, almost all of its iconic images so far have been captured by citizen/activist/independent journalists.
Here, in roughly chronological order, are 16 videos that I think best tell the story of Occupy's first two months. They are rather New York-centric, as that's where I live. I'm sure you have your own list--why don't you share it?
1. Tony Baloney's 9/24 pepper spray rampage. The video of NYPD officer Anthony Bologna pepper-spraying trapped and clearly non-threatening protesters one week after Occupy Wall Street began stoked outrage and built instant sympathy for the movement.
2. October 1 on the Brooklyn Bridge. Whether it was an intentional police trap or not, it produced a New York Post headline for the ages: "S#!t Hits the Span."
3. October 5 Labor Solidarity Rally. The multiracial, union-backed 20,000-person crowd announced Occupy as a mass movement.
4. October 14 defense of Zuccotti Park. After not one but two emails from the AFL-CIO essentially urging civil disobedience, thousands of people poured into the park in the early morning hours to prevent a scheduled "cleaning." Shortly before the deadline for eviction, the park's owners announced that they were "satisfied with the condition of the park." The sentiment of the moment was somewhere along the lines of "Holy shit. We actually won something!"
5. Occupy Times Square/October 15 Global Day of Action. The massive turnout for a rally that never even had a printed flyer smashed everyone's expectations.
6. Occupy the DOE shuts down the Panel on Educational Policy. Perhaps I am a bit biased toward my teacher comrades, but as far as I can tell this is the first use of the mic check as a tool of disruption.
7. Riot police attack Occupy Oakland. The October 25 assault critically injured Iraq War veteran Scott Olsen and reminded many of us of shit we've only seen in Palestine. It marked the opening shot in a wave of escalated repression aimed at shutting down Occupy encampments. But the story wasn't over...
8. Occupy Oakland calls a general strike. One day after the brutal police attack that cleared the encampment, thousands of Occupy Oakland supporters marched back to the newly-renamed Oscar Grant Plaza. In a 1,500-person general assembly, they voted overwhelmingly to call a general strike for November 2.
9. November 2: Occupy shuts down the Port of Oakland.
10. Scott Walker gets mic checked. They didn't have a port to shut down. Their former-Obama-apparatchik mayor won't even let them lie down on the sidewalk. But Occupy Chicago made their mark by helping the mic check go viral. And it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.
11. Berkeley students stand their ground against police brutality. What's remarkable about this video is not the riot cops who seem intent on causing some organ damage, but the fact that students held their ground and eventually forced the cops to back down.
12. Defense of Occupy Portland. Thousands showed up and defended the encampment from riot cops all through the night. The cops waited until the crowd thinned in the morning and then attacked, clearing the encampment, but not before the world saw this show of mass defiance.
13. Clearing of Zuccotti Park. Of all the video shot of the NYPD's paramilitary operation in the pre-dawn hours of November 15, this one wins for its soundtrack.
the raid on zuccotti park from Casey Neistat on Vimeo.
14. Pepper spraying of UC Davis students. The cold-blooded attack on students who were sitting in on their own quad led to a call for a UC-wide student strike on November 28.
15. President Obama gets mic checked. Although the pre-screened crowd eventually drowns out the mic check with chants of "O-ba-ma!," this should serve as an early warning to all presidential candidates, including the incumbent.
16. November 17 Occupy Wall Street "bat signal" on the Brooklyn Bridge. As 35,000 people marched over the Brooklyn Bridge, guerrilla video artists working from the apartment of a single mom in the Brooklyn projects projected a message of hope onto the Verizon building to celebrate Occupy's two-month birthday.
Here, in roughly chronological order, are 16 videos that I think best tell the story of Occupy's first two months. They are rather New York-centric, as that's where I live. I'm sure you have your own list--why don't you share it?
1. Tony Baloney's 9/24 pepper spray rampage. The video of NYPD officer Anthony Bologna pepper-spraying trapped and clearly non-threatening protesters one week after Occupy Wall Street began stoked outrage and built instant sympathy for the movement.
2. October 1 on the Brooklyn Bridge. Whether it was an intentional police trap or not, it produced a New York Post headline for the ages: "S#!t Hits the Span."
3. October 5 Labor Solidarity Rally. The multiracial, union-backed 20,000-person crowd announced Occupy as a mass movement.
4. October 14 defense of Zuccotti Park. After not one but two emails from the AFL-CIO essentially urging civil disobedience, thousands of people poured into the park in the early morning hours to prevent a scheduled "cleaning." Shortly before the deadline for eviction, the park's owners announced that they were "satisfied with the condition of the park." The sentiment of the moment was somewhere along the lines of "Holy shit. We actually won something!"
5. Occupy Times Square/October 15 Global Day of Action. The massive turnout for a rally that never even had a printed flyer smashed everyone's expectations.
6. Occupy the DOE shuts down the Panel on Educational Policy. Perhaps I am a bit biased toward my teacher comrades, but as far as I can tell this is the first use of the mic check as a tool of disruption.
7. Riot police attack Occupy Oakland. The October 25 assault critically injured Iraq War veteran Scott Olsen and reminded many of us of shit we've only seen in Palestine. It marked the opening shot in a wave of escalated repression aimed at shutting down Occupy encampments. But the story wasn't over...
8. Occupy Oakland calls a general strike. One day after the brutal police attack that cleared the encampment, thousands of Occupy Oakland supporters marched back to the newly-renamed Oscar Grant Plaza. In a 1,500-person general assembly, they voted overwhelmingly to call a general strike for November 2.
9. November 2: Occupy shuts down the Port of Oakland.
10. Scott Walker gets mic checked. They didn't have a port to shut down. Their former-Obama-apparatchik mayor won't even let them lie down on the sidewalk. But Occupy Chicago made their mark by helping the mic check go viral. And it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.
11. Berkeley students stand their ground against police brutality. What's remarkable about this video is not the riot cops who seem intent on causing some organ damage, but the fact that students held their ground and eventually forced the cops to back down.
12. Defense of Occupy Portland. Thousands showed up and defended the encampment from riot cops all through the night. The cops waited until the crowd thinned in the morning and then attacked, clearing the encampment, but not before the world saw this show of mass defiance.
13. Clearing of Zuccotti Park. Of all the video shot of the NYPD's paramilitary operation in the pre-dawn hours of November 15, this one wins for its soundtrack.
the raid on zuccotti park from Casey Neistat on Vimeo.
14. Pepper spraying of UC Davis students. The cold-blooded attack on students who were sitting in on their own quad led to a call for a UC-wide student strike on November 28.
15. President Obama gets mic checked. Although the pre-screened crowd eventually drowns out the mic check with chants of "O-ba-ma!," this should serve as an early warning to all presidential candidates, including the incumbent.
16. November 17 Occupy Wall Street "bat signal" on the Brooklyn Bridge. As 35,000 people marched over the Brooklyn Bridge, guerrilla video artists working from the apartment of a single mom in the Brooklyn projects projected a message of hope onto the Verizon building to celebrate Occupy's two-month birthday.
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