By Hunter Walker 3/19/12 3:19pm

#OccupyWallStreet

An Occupy Wall Street demonstrator wearing a Guy Fawkes mask in Zuccotti Park last year. (Getty)

Elected Officials Question NYPD After Saturday’s Occupy Arrests

Several Council members held a rally along with several members of the Occupy Wall Street movement to call attention to allegedly excessive force used by police who cleared crowds at the Occupy protest in Zuccotti Park Saturday night. Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez, who has been a staunch supporter of the Occupy movement and claims he was the victim of excessive police force when he was arrested during the eviction of the protest from Zuccotti Park last November, said there will be a massive “Day of Action” for Occupy next Saturday, that he is working on a bill to establish a “protester’s Bill of Rights” and that he plans to push Christine Quinn to hold a hearing reviewing the NYPD’s handling of the occupiers.

“I am here today because, on Saturday night, I saw the NYPD using brutal excessive force arresting peaceful people that had gathered in this park,” Mr. Rodriguez said. “More than 1,000 people came here to celebrate our sixth month anniversary in a peacful way, saying Occupy is here, Occupy is alive, Occupy will not leave.” Read More

By Hunter Walker 3/14/12 1:21pm

Mitt In Manhattan

Anti-Romney protesters carrying a mock coffin and "job cremator" outside the Waldorf Astoria. (Photo: Hunter Walker)

Occupy Wall Street Protests Mitt Romney at The Waldorf Astoria

Approximately 200 protesters affiliated with the Occupy Wall Street movement showed up to protest a Mitt Romney fundraiser at the Waldorf Astoria today. Aaron Black, an Occupy Wall Street organizer, said he wanted to demonstrate against the influence of money in politics.

“it was an auction happening in our city right under our noses–$2,500 a plate. Our government is not for sale,” Mr. Black told The Politicker. “This is the root of all evil corporations are not people.” Read More

By Hunter Walker 12/19/11 1:12pm

Field Trips

Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez at an Occupy Wall Street Protest December 17. (Photo: Osvaldo Ribeiro Filho)

The Brief Occupation of One New York Plaza

Seventh Avenue was occupied for about an hour this weekend. Holiday traffic stopped as several hundred Occupy Wall Street protesters ran through the streets on a spontaneous Saturday night march that saw them dodging cars and cops along a 2.6 mile route from the West Village to Times Square. It was just part of a busy day for the movement that included dozens of arrests, and culminated in the short, strange occupation of the porch of an office building in the Financial District and showed off all the strengths–and weaknesses of the Occupy movement. Read More