The day after the largest climate march in history flooded
the streets of New York City, a group of 3,000 impassioned citizens flooded
Broadway outside the entrance of Wall Street, and a little over 100 of them
were arrested after a long day of occupation. Five of the people arrested were my
fellow Climate Marchers.
Here are Marchers Sean Glenn and Mack McDonald, two of the five arrested
Marcher Kelsey Juliana carrying Simon, 6, on her shoulders during Flood Wall Street
During Flood Wall Street and directly after, I was
absolutely psyched about the event. During the People’s Climate March on Sept.
21 a few of us had overheard police officers calling it a “big parade.” Flood
Wall Street seemed like a more tangible action — people weren’t just waving signs around for
a few hours and going home. Way more people than expected showed up, the place
was crawling with media, the police ended up pepper-spraying protesters and
eventually there were arrests. There was momentum and the feeling of
accomplishment.
I’ve had a lot of time to reflect on what happened since
then and talk to my fellow Marchers, and as the excitement from Flood Wall
Street died down, I saw that day much differently. I now see how tightly the
police controlled us, and, subsequently, how watered-down our first amendment
right to peaceably assemble was.
Watching from the sky
Heavy police presence
Even before the demonstration got mildly violent after a
small group of the protesters decided to hit the hands of police officers while
playing tug-of-war with the barriers, the police had a very tight leash on us.
Because I am not familiar with New York City, I didn’t know
until a couple hours into the sit-in that we weren’t actually on Wall Street.
One of the people next to me informed me that the street we were blocking was
Broadway and the police had barricaded all entrances to Wall Street. The only
people allowed through were workers with I.D.
When we first arrived on Broadway from Battery Park, the
police blocked us after we passed the bull statue and we sat down where we
were. Because I wasn’t at the front of the march, I didn’t see the blockade and
I assumed when everyone sat down that we had arrived on Wall Street.
The sit-in on Broadway around the Bull
Later on, when the procession decided to move forward and
actually occupy the intersection of Broadway and Wall Street, it was only
because the police moved the barricades up and allowed us to. Even then, we still
couldn’t access Wall Street. If we tried, pepper spray, batons and police
horses awaited us.
Me perched over the scene at the intersection of Broadway and Wall Street
On a normal day, anyone is allowed to walk down Wall Street.
But because we weren’t complacent tourists, because we had a goal to disrupt,
we weren’t even given the opportunity to try. If we have the right to peaceably
assemble, the police shouldn’t be allowed to block us pre-emptively. They
should only be allowed to come in after the disruption has happened, after we’ve started the sit-in.
After Wall Street, I was forced to look back at my first
time risking arrest two summers ago — which at the time had been one of the
proudest moments of my life — with great sadness. The first time I ever
participated in a sit-in I was not arrested because the police got to the
building first and blocked the entrance. The entrance was still rendered
useless, which was silly, but this way they didn’t have to bother themselves
with processing us.
I have always looked up to Mohandas Gandhi as a role model
for resistance and civil disobedience. However, I’m beginning to think the
principle of informing police and authorities ahead of time just won’t work for
our current environmental resistance. Warning the authorities beforehand has
only resulting in thwarted attempts to disrupt a system that is slowly killing
all of us. Frankly, we don’t have the time to continue doing cutesy sit-ins
that attract a lot of media but accomplish nothing. We don’t have time to be
thwarted; the wheels of climate change are already turning.
At Flood Wall Street, we pointed at the big buildings and shouted
at the line of stone-faced cops, “We’re not the ones you want! The criminals
are in there!”
How can corporations and the 1% can commit crimes against
the environment and humanity in the name of profit and get away with it, but as
soon as we the people stand up to them we are pepper-sprayed or hand-cuffed?
The longer I am on this March the more I realize our government and leaders are
no longer looking out for us. They no longer represent and protect the people.
Safeguarding our First Amendment rights is no longer as important as quelling
rebellion and preserving business as usual.
So I guess it’s up to us to do it. What are you willing to
do to take back our rights? To protect our only planet?
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