Countdown StaffOctober 3, 2011 at 9:01 pm
Ryan Devereaux, reporter from “Democracy Now,” gives his first-person account of Occupy Wall Street’s ongoing protests and “The Battle of the Brooklyn Bridge.”
KEITH OLBERMANN: In Albuquerque, New Mexico, Saturday — where more than 500 protesters marched in solidarity with Occupation Wall Street — and in Denver, where protesters gathered at the state capitol to shout their opposition to bank bailouts and, more importantly, to corporate greed.
But the biggest of the weekend’s demonstrations took place Saturday in New York, where protesters looking to march across the Brooklyn Bridge were met by a phalanx of police. What happened shortly after is a matter of dispute. And of some urgency. Some of the demonstrators surged across the pedestrian walkway in the center of the bridge. Many more tried to cross on the roadway to Brooklyn. The NYPD says it warned the protesters they would be arrested if they crossed on that road. And in fact, the police department released videos on YouTube showing a supervisor saying just that.
(Excerpt from video clip) POLICE OFFICER: I am ordering you to leave this — this roadway now. If you do so voluntarily, no charges will be placed against you. If you refuse to leave, you will be placed under arrest and charged with disorderly conduct.
OLBERMANN: But — in a video shot and released by the protesters themselves — the supervisor’s instructions can’t be heard over the protesters chanting.
(Excerpt from video clip) CROWD: Take our bridge! Take our bridge! Take our bridge! Take our bridge! Take our bridge! Take our bridge! Take our bridge!
OLBERMANN: When the police then turned and walked up the roadway, hundreds of protesters followed. Some thought they were being escorted across. Instead, some 700 protestors were arrested. Many said they thought they had been tricked into following the police. Let’s start the coverage with some conversation about the battle of Brooklyn Bridge. And I am joined by Ryan Devereaux, reporter with the radio and TV news program “Democracy Now.” Thank you for coming in.
RYAN DEVEREAUX: Thank you for having me on, Keith.
OLBERMANN: Okay, so you were there and you saw what happened to the demonstrators. It essentially also happened to you, at least for part of the time. Do you know — did the protesters always intend to cross the bridge on the roadway as well as in the walkway? What was the intent — any idea?
DEVEREAUX: Well, Keith, I was at the front of the protest — at the front of the march, I should say — as I approached the entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge on the Manhattan side. And there was disagreement among protesters as to whether to take to the pedestrian walkway down the middle of the bridge, or occupy the space that’s usually relegated for cars. This disagreement led to a buildup at the base of the bridge — and you are talking about a march with thousands of people — built up quickly.
There was a chant of “Off the sidewalk, into the streets.” That chant got louder and louder. I did see the police take the megaphone, but that chant was deafening and there were thousands of people there. And it was clear the police couldn’t keep those numbers back. They stepped aside, and the marchers moved through onto the walkway — I’m sorry, onto the road.
OLBERMANN: Do you sense that the protesters thought they were entrapped by the police, or was it just — is this genuinely the result of confusion, of people not being able to hear each other?
DEVEREAUX: I’ve certainly interviewed a number of protesters who feel — and have explicitly said — that they felt they were entrapped. I can imagine if you were even just a little bit further back than I was, you would see the police walking right next to you, seeming to escort the crowd the same way they had escorted the crowd through the preceding blocks.
OLBERMANN: And when we say 700 people were arrested, was it — as the video we’re showing now suggests — one at a time, people taken down to the pavement and cuffed or plastic cuffed? How did it — were people penned in? How did it happen?
DEVEREAUX: Well, as the protest moved its way across the bridge, we got about maybe a third of the way there — to the first archway — and that’s when we realized that there were policemen lined up in front of us and police vehicles in front of us and the policemen who were on the side of us were moving up to the front.
The first arrests were heavy-handed, to say the least, and they seemed to be random. They were plucking people out of the crowd, but they weren’t doing it quickly. It was one by one, slowly. It didn’t make sense as to how they were choosing the people they arrested.
I should say one of the first people I saw arrested was a member of the National Lawyers’ Guild, he was wearing a green hat which signifies that they’re a member of the Lawyers’ Guild. They’re there to be legal witnesses to what happens. He seemed to approach the police officers and was then cuffed and arrested.
And then — to my understanding — I was released because I had a press pass which — my understanding, the arrests that followed were more orderly and slow.
OLBERMANN: Obviously, you left this, sort of, in progress because — as you suggested — they corralled you as well as everybody else. Was there only — in the aftermath of that yester — or Saturday, and then what happened, it was yesterday and today — was there only anger by the protesters about police treatment or was there some gratitude that once again — as with the pepper spraying last week — the police certainly unintentionally put the whole thing back on the front page?
DEVEREAUX: Well, you know, talking to protesters after the crackdown, you know, people were stunned at the numbers. That’s for sure. Seven hundred people. When I saw it when I got home and looked at the numbers, I couldn’t believe it. But people seem energized by this. The same way that they were the weekend before, when 80 people were arrested. It drew more attention and, you know, when people get arrested, when they spend time in jail together, when they stand up for something together, it creates a formidable bond.
OLBERMANN: Yeah. When suddenly you have the sense that you’re going to be arrested for walking on what, theoretically, are publicaly-owned streets. Yeah, exactly. Ryan Devereaux, reporter for the radio and TV news show Democracy Now, again, thanks for coming in.
DEVEREAUX: Thank you.
