COMMENTARY
I have spent several days talking with people in Zuccotti Park, some of the police and some of the people workling in local businesses. What I have learned from direct contact is much more positive than most of what has been said in the mainstream media, and especially the right wing mainstream media like Fox News.

Clearly the idea of 1% and 99% is something of a simplification, but it works well as a starting point for analysis and pressure for change. My own version of the 1% and 99% is not so much the issue of earnings and wealth, but more about the issue of evil versus good. I have worked in more than 50 different countries, and almost everywhere I have been, I have worked with good people, and at the same time I have been painfully aware that an evil 1% or less were the core reason why there was so much poverty and systemic dysfunction.

Evil people are able to do a lot of damage to society and the economy ... and not all of them are rich. In fact, only a very few are in the rich 1%. but they command and control others who are evil and greedy but really quite poor.

The banking meltdown would not have been possible if quite ordinary greedy business people in the housing industry, in small town banking and law, and similar had not been evil and greedy and very happy to cut corners and make the bubble possible. Eceryone was getting their fees, but nobody was doing their job!
Peter Burgess

Wall Street shutdown fails as Occupy protesters clash with police

IMAGE Mike Segar/REUTERS An Occupy Wall Street demonstrator is arrested by New York City Police during what protest organizers called a 'Day of Action' in New York November 17, 2011. Hundreds of Occupy Wall Street protesters marched through New York's financial district toward the stock exchange on Thursday to protest economic inequality at the heart of American capitalism.

NEW YORK — Hundreds of people protesting against economic inequality marched in New York’s financial district on Thursday and there were minor skirmishes with police, but authorities thwarted their bid to shut down Wall Street.

Police barricaded the narrow streets around the New York Stock Exchange and used batons to push protesters onto the sidewalk as they marched through the area during the morning rush hour to prevent financial workers getting to their desks.

Protesters banged drums and yelled “We are the 99%” — referring to their contention that the U.S. political system benefits only the richest 1%. Some chanted at police: “You’re sexy, you’re blue, now take off that riot suit.”

“I feel like this is a beautiful moment to take back our streets,” said Rachel Falcone, 27, from Brooklyn. “We need to prove we can exist anywhere. It’s gone beyond a single neighborhood, it’s really an idea.”

About 75 people were arrested, police said, but by 11 a.m. protesters had returned to nearby Zuccotti Park, which had been the two-month-old Occupy Wall Street movement’s camp headquarters before police evicted them from the space on Tuesday.

The New York Stock Exchange opened on time and was operating normally.

IMAGE DON EMMERT/AFP/Getty Images A businessman tries to break through a line of Occupy Wall Street protesters who had locked arms and blocked access to the New York Stock Exchange area

The turnout for the march on Wall Street, which kicked off a day of action in New York and elsewhere in the United States, fell short of expectations by a spokesman for the protesters and city officials for tens of thousands of people.

“We certainly want to see more people mobilize and show up,” said Occupy Wall Street spokesman Jeff Smith. “It was a fantastic turnout, we occupied corners and intersections all over downtown.”

Protesters are also planning to take their protest to 16 subway hubs later on Thursday, then return to City Hall for a rally before marching across the Brooklyn Bridge. Last month, more than 700 people were arrested during a similar march across the bridge after some protesters blocked traffic.

The support of labor unions and liberal group Moveon.org could boost numbers at the New York City Hall rally.

In Los Angeles, hundreds of protesters and union members marched through the city’s financial district chanting “Whose streets? Our streets” in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street, while in Dallas more than a dozen people were arrested when police shut down their six-week-old camp near City Hall.

‘GET A JOB’

New York taxi driver Mike Tupea, a Romanian immigrant, said his car was stuck amid the protesters for 40 minutes. “I have to make a living. I pay $100 for 12 hours for this cab. I am losing money every minute,” he said. “I have all my sympathies for this movement but let me do my living, let working people make a living.”

IMAGE Photo by Allison Joyce/Getty Images Occupy Wall Street protesters remove police barricades in Zuccotti Park

The Occupy Wall Street movement was born on September 17, when protesters set up camp in Zuccotti Park, and sparked solidarity rallies and occupations of public spaces across the United States. It has also re-energized similar movements elsewhere in the world.

Peter Cohen, 47, an anthropologist from New York, wore a suit for the protest in a bid to improve the movement’s image.

“I have a job and [the suit] on because I’m tired of the way this movement has been characterized as a fringe movement,” said Cohen. “I’m not looking for money, I’m not looking for a job, I’m not a professional activist, just a normal citizen.”

Protesters say they are upset that billions of dollars in bailouts given to banks during the recession allowed a return to huge profits while average Americans have had no relief from high unemployment and a struggling economy.

They also say the richest 1% of Americans do not pay their fair share of taxes.

As he tried to get to his financial district office, Paul Layton, a trial lawyer, said he hoped “that through [the protesters] efforts they can convince government to regulate the financial industry.”

Derek Tabacco was not happy as he tried to get to the offices of his financial technology company and was carrying a sign with a message for the protesters that read “Get a job.”

The clearing of the Occupy camp in New York followed evictions in Atlanta, Portland and Salt Lake City. Unlike action in Oakland, California, where police used tear gas and stun grenades, most protesters left voluntarily.

Before dawn on Thursday, police cleared away a protest camp from a plaza at the University of California, Berkeley, where 5,000 people had gathered on Tuesday night.

Megyn Norbut, from Brooklyn, said she holds down three jobs and that she joined the protest on Thursday “because we got kicked out of Zuccotti and we need to show that this is a mental and spiritual movement, not a physical movement.”

“It’s not about the park,” said Norbut, 23.

© Thomson Reuters 2011