Borough Hall station part of Wall Street protests this afternoon

By on November 17, 2011 1:54 pm in Brooklyn Heights

As part of it’s “Day of Action”, the Occupy Wall Street movement has announced plans for an Occupy the Subways program, starting this afternoon at 3 PM. Their website states:

We will start by Occupying Our Blocks! Then throughout the five boroughs, we will gather at 16 central subway hubs and take our own stories to the trains, using the “People’s Mic”.

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Borough Hall station is listed as one of their target stations. Plan for possible service disruptions and enhanced police presence.

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  • Monty

    Whilst I support their intentions, their methods are either useless or counterproductive. I hate to see them fail, but stunts like this are just going to piss people off and not earn them any support. They are just seeking maximum attention and not advancing any agenda.

  • Josh G

    Ugh.

  • Master Of Middagh

    This isn’t a big deal. It’s just gonna be a bunch of people, off to the sides of the station, giving a bunch of speeches. You won’t even hardly hear ’em if you wear headphones if you don’t like speeches. Nobody’s gonna touch you or force you to take anything. These are just your fellow citizens, exercising their right to assemble and protest.

    So what? You might see them for a minute or so as you walk to or from your train? Hardly an inconvenience and a small price to pay for freedom.

  • Dan D

    Josh was right. Ugh.

  • White Collar

    I look forward to the show! Heading over there now, hope I don’t get maced….

  • Quinn Raymond

    As long as folks don’t mess with people’s commute I’m all for this.

  • harumph

    please – just off the train myself – loads of police everywhere and trains are slow – and schools are letting out right by all of this – a very bad mix. The 99% that use the subway are now being inconvenienced – way to make a stand Occupy Wall Street – tick off EVERYONE – really stupid.

  • Master Of Middagh

    @harumph- But in what way were you or anyone inconvenienced? The trains run slow on ordinary days as well. It sounds like, if anything, you were annoyed by the over-reaction of the police, not by the protesters themselves.

  • Reggie

    When there is a fire, FDNY sends as many pieces of apparatus as it thinks it might need. There might have been an “over-reaction” by NYPD, but I suspect there is an analogy here.

  • Master Of Middagh

    @Reggie- Understood; but remember that the police have a financial incentive to send more than needed in order to obtain overtime pay. And I’m not sure what so many people would be needed for. In these two months of protests we haven’t seen any violence or rioting from the demonstrators requiring such a heavy police presence.

  • chattenoire

    anyone have an update on Borough Hall station?

  • Livingston

    I was there around 4:30 returning from Manhattan — no sign of OWS, just BAU.

  • Knight

    Quinn: not everyone commutes at rush hour and some people (guaranteed not the elite 1%) use the trains during their workday. No matter when you disturb subway operations, you’re messing with someone’s livelihood.

  • Reggie

    MoM, individual officers have an incentive to gobble up as much overtime as they personally can stand, but One Police Plaza has a budget to be mindful of.

    Here’s the real issue, imo, regarding resources: Mayor Bloomberg is worried about the fall-out from an “ugly scene” (technical term from the patrol manual) and will continue to use as much manpower and equipment as necessary to prevent that.

  • stuart

    it’s hard to know what to make of this. If this were a true popular movement the city would be paralyzed. It is possible that It could turn into that any day. Perhaps this realization is the biggest threat of OWS. At any moment, it could morph from fringe group protests to major social unrest. One can sense that hundreds of thousands are right on the verge. We are very close to mass public disturbances on a par with the uprisings in places like Cairo. People are fed up.

  • EHinBH

    Go occupy a desk! I like that one…

  • Jorale-man

    @Stuart I think you’re right. And I hope they continue to inconvenience people. It’s the only way to get a distracted public to pay attention to the extreme inequities in our system. Let’s face it, holding a polite rally in a park where people can walk by and ignore it will never get your point across. You need to make people stop in their tracks and pay attention.

  • chattenoire

    EHinBH… you do?

    Feel fortunate that we live in a safe area and manage to make ends meet. Let’s realize that this is a tough time for MOST people.

    Have some empathy for crying out loud.

  • Willow St. Neighbor

    chattenoire,
    “go occupy a desk” was on a poster being carried by a man who just wanted to go to work. He wanted to get to his job.

  • JustANeighbor

    Jorale-man, I respectfully disagree. By tying up people’s commutes, rendering citizens unable to get to work, forcing parents who are working to cut their workdays short to get their children who are now home from school early, endangering the livelihoods of small business owners in the financial district who have been negatively impacted by this protest, I am afraid that they are actually alienating the very people they wish to have join their protest. People are getting so angry at all of this that they want no part.

    What’s most frustating in my mind is what a wasted opportunity this is in their not communicating a more clear message. Some want financial equality, some want the banks to be held accountable (which SHOULD be the core reason of this), some are frustrated they are unemployed…there’s no defined agenda and no end goal here. And why aren’t they protesting the corrupt politicians in DC, who are equally accountable for the banks’ crooked schemes? It seems that all they’re doing is venting and raging against the police. Not an effective way to communicate.

  • Bornhere

    Remember the old days (pre Twitter, Facebook, Internet) of tens of thousands of people showing up in DC or Washington Square Park or wherever, listening to thoughtful and focused spokespersons enumerate concerns, illuminate darkness, and urge an end to war/nuclear testing/societal racism, and then leave, only to regroup at a later date? Of course there would be fringe elements that would taunt the police or cause mayhem, but everyone knew what the protest was about, when to give it voice, and when to go home.
    I support an end to: greed, theft by banks, corporate ownership of citizens’ representatives, and the circus that health insurance has become; but what sparring with tense cops (who can really hurt you) or fighting to camp in a park and inconvenience others for weeks has to do with Big Pharma, for instance, is beyond me. When the “them” of “us against them” becomes so generic that some of the “us” are accused of being “them,” things become chaotic and some voices of support are silenced. And that’s a loss to (almost) all of “us.”

  • Livingston

    Actually, Born Here, that’s exactly what the Tea Party folks did. Congregated in D.C. (the true seat of power in this country), vented over a weekend, cleaned up after themselves, went home, and then proceeded to elect like-minded individuals to Congress.

    Regardless of where you stand politically, that’s a lot more effective than the Zucatti circus. It doesn’t matter how long these miscreants beat their drums or shout their slogans, nothing is going to change. The logic of OWS’ strategy completely escapes me. Why expend a lot energy for zero results? The only thing they’ve managed to do is p*ss off 99% of society (quite literally in terms of those living & working in the area). Not much of an accomplishment by most standards.

  • Jorale-man

    @Livingston – if you look at polls, the majority of New Yorkers support OWS. I saw one on NY1 tonight 63% were behind today’s actions.

    Bottom line, I’m not saying that their methods are perfect (or nuanced), but they are doing far more than most of us to try and raise awareness for the severe problems around our economic system. Will they get laws passed or influence elections? It’s too early to tell. But they are putting the issue on the public’s radar in a simple, blunt way that the average person out there can get.

  • WillowtownCop

    I spent 12 hours today at Zucotti park. There was one cop stabbed who needed 20 stitches, 4 cops who had some sort of acid thrown in their faces, and three others who went to the hospital. They were throwing rocks, bottles, and metal barricades at us. If you think these are non-violent protesters who are not even so much as inconveniencing anyone else you obviously weren’t there because you were too busy being an expert about it on the internet.

  • Livingston

    @ Joraleman:
    Awareness for what exactly? They seem to have a potpourri of grievances. And perhaps their issues are not on the public’s radar because the public simply holds different opinions? That is allowed, you know. And a distinct possiblity.

    BTW, is “raising awareness” analogous to this generation’s custom of everyone getting an award for breathing or something? I guess this counts as success if your goal is primarily to produce fuzzy feel-good slogans that aren’t worth the pizza carton they’re written on.

  • Livingston

    I’m sorry to hear about your experiences today, Willowtown, and the attacks on your fellow NYPD officers. I think you guys have the most difficult job in town, even when not dealing w/ anarchist-wannabes. Thank you for your efforts.

  • chattenoire

    I apologize EHinBH… I misunderstood.

    “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

    *sigh* Where to begin?

  • Master Of Middagh

    @Reggie- Actually, it looks like Bloomberg is trying to cause the “ugly scene” you mentioned by having too many police.

    And I find it telling that, while watching a report on ‘injuries’ NYPD officers suffered last night, the only news footage shown is of officers throwing citizens to the ground and smashing their faces to the pavement.

    My point is there isn’t a whole lot of footage of officers being attacked because this is largely a non-violent movement. I’ll give you that people can get unruly. But I simply don’t believe that, with the countless reports, photos, and videos of excessive police force, there isn’t some significant truth there, and the humor is that, while trying to elicit sympathy for an injured officers, they were actually showcasing some pretty significantly vivid police violence.

  • WillowtownCop

    There isn’t a lot of video of officers being attacked because the people posting the videos show the reaction but not what caused the reaction. On of my co-workers came in today with a black eye because one of these “peaceful protesters” threw a rock at his face. I don’t think anyone wants to live in a city where the criminals know the police won’t react if you throw rocks at them.

  • BH’er

    @WillowtownCop – you’re starting to sound like one of the infiltrators spreading false rumors; unless the NYPD is getting soft…

    a cop was hit in the hand with thrown broken glass – to require 20 stitches, it would have had to cause a gash from his wrist to his elbow

    as for the “acid”… it was water, cops were treated and released after an “unknown” liquid was ‘thrown’ at them, which could mean dripped from a scaffold or squirted from a sports bottle accidentally

    Cops aren’t being attacked anywhere there’s not provocation. No one in this crowd is unruly or violent by any means but they do get upset when others illegally interfere with their rights

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