As tumultuous events were unfolding in New York City, UCO and the American Democracy Project brought in an already-planned panel on Tuesday to speak on Occupy Wall Street.
The panel, composed of experts and participants in the OKC occupation, also spoke about the “99 percent” movement spawned by Occupy Wall Street.
According to Dr. Elizabeth Overman, an associate professor of political science and one of the panelists, popular protests need deeply-rooted economic problems to grow and sustain themselves.
“There are a lot of people that are angry at different things all the time, so the energy for protest is out there,” she said. “In order to become a popular protest, it has to strike something that resonates, and then what resonates needs to be broad enough so people can bring different issues into that. I certainly think that we see that happening with (…) Occupation Wall Street.”
Occupier, panelist and sociology senior Kylee Holland agreed.
“This has become a country and a world that is owned and run by the top 1 percent of the population and the last time I checked, that wasn’t the definition of democracy,” she said.
Early on Tuesday morning, officers from the New York City Police Department forced all protestors out of the Occupy Wall Street encampment at Zuccotti Park. The officers did so acting on orders from the office of Mayor Michael Bloomberg citing “health and safety violations.”
It is estimated that 70 people, including New York Times reporter Jared Malsin and New York City Councilmember Ydanis Rodriguez, were arrested in the process of clearing the park. An additional 170 people were arrested over the course of Tuesday’s retaliatory protests.
“From the beginning I’ve said that the city has two principal goals,” Mayor Bloomberg said in a press conference on Tuesday. “Guaranteeing public health and safety, and guaranteeing the protesters’ First Amendment rights.”
Several allegations have arisen suggesting that First Amendment rights, including freedom of the press, were also violated in the course of the removal and subsequent protests.
Rosie Gray, a reporter for the Village Voice who attempted to enter Zuccotti Park during the removal, tweeted, “Me: ‘I’m press!’ Lady cop: ‘Not tonight.’”
The Wall Street Journal reported the arrest of a half-dozen reporters around Zuccotti Park during the day, including two Associated Press reporters and a writer from the New York Daily News in a church-owned park nearby.
“Last night, the Administration acted to end the occupation of Zuccotti Park by forcible eviction, and I am greatly troubled by reports of unnecessary force against protestors and members of the media, including the use of ‘chokeholds’ and pepper spray,” Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer said in a press release. “I am also troubled by reports of media being forcibly kept away at a distance from these events.”
Stringer said that journalists reporting from overseas dictatorships frequently did so under risk of injury or death, and “their NYC colleagues deserve the freedom to make the same choice.”
Gideon Oliver, an attorney working with the National Lawyers Guild, filed a restraining order against New York City on behalf of the Occupy Wall Street protesters, but a New York Supreme Court judge, Justice Michael Stallman, denied the request.
A major national march is planned for Nov. 17.