OWS March on DC Day 1 – Jersey City Landing!
OWS crosses Hudson and arrives in Jersey City, NJ (11/9/11)
[Update 11/10/11: Star Ledger writes a good story, with excellent video – read and watch then join the March!
The Occupy Wall Street March on Washington DC began today, with a successful land invasion of Jersey City.
The protestors were welcomed warmly and professionally by the Jersey City police.
Police were helpful in providing route advice and gave the approximately 30 marchers a safe police escort out of town along some congested and potentially dangerous urban roads.
police help provide local knowledge to the Google Maps
Marchers are headed to Elizabeth for the night, then on to New Brunswick (Thursday) and Trenton (Friday) (see route and schedule).
I’ll make just one brief observation before posting photos:
The main stream media (MSM) and many of the “Very Serious People” in media and government circles have criticized OWS for failure to focus on issues and governing institutions, and to articulate a set of credible policy demands.
I will note that the focus of this March is not only DC, but that it was timed to coincide with the release of the Obama created deficit “SuperCommittee” Report (AKA “The Catfood Commission”).
The march is being organized by a few of us here at OWS. We will be in DC by Nov 23 for the Congressional Super Committee meeting. This committee has the power to keep the Bush tax cuts (that only beneï¬t the top 1%) or let them expire. We want to be there to ï¬ght for the 99%! We will also be connecting with Occupy Philly and Occupy Baltimore along the route, and, of course, Occupy DC!
So, will the MSM now report on OWS’s views on the outrageously unfair issues in the Catfood Commission Report? Like tax burdens for the 1% and slashing social security and medicare/medicaid for the 99%?
Nothing good can come out of that Commission (Krugman called it Obama’s “self inflicted wound”) so I took time to thank the OWS protestors for conducting this historic march on DC.
I pledged to provide logistical support for the March while its in NJ – it will likely grow as people join along the way. I urge you to get out and walk with them in support!
Maybe this march can serve as a version of the civil rights marches and the Poor People’s Campaign and the planned “Poor People’s March on Washington” that Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr was planning at the time he was assassinated.
Now, that would be a massive accomplishment!
protesters march up Grand Street, with police escort
Hey Bill, you’re like an old-time reporter; filing the story, and good pics, right as it happens. Better than the NY Times coverage.
@Bill Neil
Thanks Bill – I saw lots of photographers there, but I didn’t see any print press (or I would have fought for the soundbite!).
One thing I surprised by and left out of this post but will share now was the total lack of knowledge by the Jersey City police. They were nice, but clueless.
Based on the OWS itinerary I had read (it was posted on line), I arrived at noon at a different ferry location about 1/2 mile away. After a few empty ferries rolled in, I figured I was in the wrong place and walked to the correct ferry location.
Along the way, I came across a Jersey City Police Captain in a car parked along the waterfront. He was dressed in suit, so I figured he was intelligence.
I asked him where the marchers were arriving and learned that JC police knew nothing about the event.
He wasn’t bluffing. After he called his office to inquire and they knew nothing too, I walked him and his detectives through the internet process of finding the OWS website, accessing the page, and finding the logistics!
I felt I was spilling any beans, as this was public info posted on a website!
All that taxpayer money spent on police surveillance, security, repression and agents provocateurs, and the cops can’t figure any of that out? And they got no heads up from the NYC cops?
The marchers need escorts along lots of the roadways they selected – that means all sorts of police coordination that apparently is not happening.