Occupy Wall Street – the story of the Brooklyn Bridge ‘trap’

More than 700 people were arrested in an Occupy Wall Street march across Brooklyn Bridge in New York on Saturday. Here, those who were arrested tell their story To the hundreds of Occupy Wall Street protesters hemmed in on Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday, it felt like a trap. Hundreds of people had streamed onto the bridge without impediment, only to find their path blocked, and their retreat prohibited. The NYPD, however, claims it gave “numerous warnings” to protesters not to take the road lanes and only arrested those who failed to heed the exhortations to stay off the road. So who’s right? On Sunday, we asked people who had been arrested on Brooklyn Bridge to get in touch . So far, we have received about 25 first-hand accounts from people who were arrested. They tell a similar story: of confusion at the division between the pedestrian walkway and the traffic lanes on the Manhattan side of the Brooklyn Bridge, of apparent police acquiescence to the march proceeding into the traffic lanes, of shock when it became clear the police intended to arrest everyone on the bridge, and then of hours of confusion in police precincts across the city as overworked police officers struggled to process a huge volume of arrests. I’m going to post extracts from these accounts today, starting with testimony from the point at which the marchers reached the Manhattan side of the Brooklyn Bridge. But first some context: protesters say this video shows police led them onto the traffic lanes of the Brooklyn Bridge. It shows a number of police officers apparently headed by one, wearing a long, orange-lined coat, leading protesters into the Brooklyn-bound traffic lane. On Sunday, the NYPD published video to YouTube which they say shows protesters were warned they would be arrested. The New York Police Department says it warned protesters not to go onto the bridge. Paul Browne, the NYPD chief spokesman, said: “Multiple warnings by police were given to protesters to stay on the pedestrian walkway and that if they took the roadway they would be arrested.” What’s clear from the first-hand accounts is that a small number of protesters, at the intersection of the road lanes and the pedestrian walkway, decided to “take the bridge”. As seen in the video, police warned they would be arrested, but then appeared to let the group though, and even led them onto the bridge. One protester, who asked not to be named, said: “A small group decided spontaneously to ‘take the bridge’ and invited other people to join. The police pretended to give warnings but didn’t act physically in order to stop the protesters.” Some have suggested these breakaway leaders may have been “agents provocateurs” . What is clear is that the march had now divided, and the hundreds of protesters bringing up the rear had no indication that walking onto the bridge would lead them to be arrested. Kate Shiebler, school teacher, Boston The original plan was to head over the Brooklyn Bridge via the pedestrian walkway. Some people decided to take the road instead, including us. We knew there was a risk, since we were near the front of the march. We were probably a few rows back from the front, and we heard a march organizer say that we should stick to the pedestrian walkway, but we never heard or saw any NYPD say this. Hundreds behind us didn’t hear anyone make any announcement, and assumed they were following the permitted march route. NYPD waving people forward and leading the march over the bridge furthered this assumption. MLE Davis, teacher, Harlem, New York When I got to the walkway/roadway split, I heard one of the organizers say that the walkway would be “safer”, so I headed up and looked over. When I saw a group of police officers seeming to lead protesters down the roadway, I figured that we had their consent, blessings, and protection, and climbed down to join those walking on the road. I never heard anyone say one word about it being against the wishes of the NYPD – honestly, I thought they were escorting us across. Jarrett Dougherty, Philadelphia Once we got to the bridge the march was entering the bridge from what appeared to be an entrance open to the march. We followed. There were blue shirt police around but not nearly in the same amounts as there were earlier in the march. Absolutely none of the officers leading up to the entrance informed us that we were actually entering the roadway! About 100 feet onto the roadway another protester up ahead turned around and fired back a message that everyone needed to turn around and get on the walking path to the left. If it was not for this individual we would have completely unknowingly, and without the least hinderance, walked onto the roadway of the Brooklyn Bridge. David Scorca, New York The march moved along smoothly until we reached the mouth of the Brooklyn Bridge. Everything just suddenly jammed up and the march expanded out into a massive crowd. Everyone was chanting “Whose streets? Our streets” as a police officer with a megaphone read something inaudibly off of a piece of paper. Then he and the 8 other officers behind him turned and started walking up onto the bridge. The crowd followed as the police led the way and while some of them even walked beside us. And so the pressure from the jam was released onto the street portion of the bridge. As we continued, people began climbing the fence and jumping from what I then realized was the pedestrian path onto the street with the rest of the march. Carly Smith, PhD student, New York When we got to the Brooklyn Bridge, a line of police appeared and divided the crowd. Some went to the upper level pedestrian path, and others on the other side of the police line were funneled onto the lower roadway, in the left hand lane. We were part of the latter group. There was no clear way of going back once we were on the roadway, and at no time did any police make an announcement that we should not continue – the police walked next to us, and things remained peaceful. I assumed they were going to let us continue, as we would have moved along and crossed the bridge within the next 15 to 20 minutes. My wife Rebecca and I and one male friend found ourselves at the back of the march. Suddenly, towards the middle of the bridge, a huge number of police appeared behind us with cars and vans. Again, no announcements were made. Apparently the same thing happened on the other side, at the front of the crowd. We were quickly penned in with orange netting on all sides. No one was ever given a chance to turn around or to get out of the situation. I’ll update this post later, with details of the confusion at police precincts around New York City. Occupy Wall Street United States Matt Wells guardian.co.uk

Posted by on October 3, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.