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    Top 5 Moments Of Occupy Wall Street

    by Christopher Robbins
    Published December 28, 2011
    Modified December 28, 2011
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    Despite the somewhat shark-jumping designation of "The Protester" as Time Magazine's Person of the Year, it's difficult to imagine something that so thoroughly engulfed the public discourse at the end of 2011 as Occupy Wall Street. Click through to see our top five most salient moments of the movement.

    <p>Despite the somewhat shark-jumping <a href="http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2101745_2102132_2102373,00.html">designation of "The Protester"</a> as Time Magazine's Person of the Year, it's difficult to imagine something that so thoroughly engulfed the public discourse at the end of 2011 as <a href="http://www.gothamist.com/tags/occupywallstreet">Occupy Wall Street.</a> Click through to see our top five most salient moments of the movement.<br/><br/></p>

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    <p>Despite the somewhat shark-jumping <a href="http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2101745_2102132_2102373,00.html">designation of "The Protester"</a> as Time Magazine's Person of the Year, it's difficult to imagine something that so thoroughly engulfed the public discourse at the end of 2011 as <a href="http://www.gothamist.com/tags/occupywallstreet">Occupy Wall Street.</a> Click through to see our top five most salient moments of the movement.<br/><br/></p>
    Gothamist
    Despite the somewhat shark-jumping designation of "The Protester" as Time Magazine's Person of the Year, it's difficult to imagine something that so thoroughly engulfed the public discourse at the end of 2011 as Occupy Wall Street. Click through to see our top five most salient moments of the movement.
    #5 Just a week old, Occupy Wall Street had yet to gain any media traction or set down roots in Zuccotti Park. During a march across downtown Manhattan, Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna discharged pepper spray on a group of women who didn't appear to be breaking any laws. Like every other event in the movement, it was documented on film.A narrative was born: NYPD vs. the peaceful protesters. Though a similar story may have played out in 2004 during the protests of the GOP national convention, this was too perfect. The film clearly showed that the women didn't provoke the officers, and the nonchalance with which Bologna sprayed them was to be rivaled only by the officer at UC Davis two months later. And that name: Tony Bologna. It rolled off the tongues of those who claimed the NYPD was comprised of—indeed led by—public servants who had little respect for the public. People who would otherwise be indifferent to the actions of Occupy Wall Street were imbued with sympathy, and had a reason to check out what was going on in Lower Manhattan. We spoke with a man who was punched in the face by another NYPD commanding officer, and watched as a National Lawyer's Guild member was run over with a police scooter. Protesters would continue to be shoved and beaten. The narrative had legs. Bologna was later disciplined for his actions, and "exiled" to Staten Island, but his actions created a state of hyperawareness at every following event, with the protesters' sea of cameras forever trained on wary NYPD officers.
    #4 At the time, we called Radiohead's Zuccotti Park no-show "The Great Pumpkin Hipster Charlie Brown." But the affair was much more than a chance to poke fun at Apple-toting economic injustice crusaders, as one Times reporter framed it. If there was any doubt that Occupy Wall Street wasn't the puppet of some greater organization or the product of George Soros' guerrillas, this quashed it. No one is in charge.Sometimes, the lack of a leader proved useful: the movement itself couldn't be decapitated by a few arrests, and its critics couldn't peg the protesters in a certain political party or ideology. But it proved less useful in silencing unruly drummers, corralling scooter-kicking protesters, and vetting an email from Radiohead's "manager."Since the hoax, Zuccotti Park became one of the Stations of the Cross for liberal musicians and activists, from renowned philosopher Slavoj Žižek, to Jackson Browne, to ahem, yes, Russell Simmons and Kanye West.
    #3 Following a torrential rainstorm, thousands of soggy protesters packed into Zuccotti Park on the morning of October 14, waiting for the city's ultimatum to be enforced: evacuate the park for cleaning, or be arrested. Shortly before 6:30 a.m., when it was announced that the Mayor's office would postpone the cleaning, the park erupted in a sustained, euphoric cheer. Smelly teenagers embraced protesting grandmothers, hot chocolate and coffee were spilled, tears were shed, and everyone in that park felt they had won. In a movement without leaders or demands, this was a tangible achievement against a municipal government and its police force. Occupy Wall Street was a force to be reckoned with.
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    Terms
    #economic inequality
    #egypt
    #financial crisis
    #mayor bloomberg
    #nypd
    #obama
    #occupy
    #occupy wall street
    #Ray Kelly
    #rich people
    #tony bologna
    #wall street
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