Occupy Wall Street: The Protesters Speak
Casey O'Neill had no regrets. He had travelled thousands of miles across the country – and gave up a well-paying job as a data manager in California – to sleep rough in a downtown Manhattan public square, enduring rain and increasingly chilly nights. Police keep a close eye on him every day.
Anti-capitalist protesters march through Lower Manhattan, New York. (Photograph: John Stuttle/guardian.co.uk)
But O'Neill was happy to be part of the "Occupy Wall Street" protests that have transformed New York's Zuccotti Park from a spot where Wall Streeters grab a lunchtime sandwich into an informal camp of revolutionaries, socialists, anarchists and quite a lot of the just-plain-annoyed.
"Regrets? No. God, no," said O'Neill, 34. "It is a little scary for sure. Somebody had to make a stand to do this. It is kind of amazing right now." O'Neill is even happy to sleep on the park's concrete benches. "It's OK, actually," he said.
O'Neill is part of an encampment in the square that looks ramshackle but in fact is highly organised, and looks rapidly on the way to becoming a fixture of downtown Manhattan life – if the police let the protesters stay there.
That looked unlikely on Tuesday when several protesters were forcibly arrested and taken away, including one woman who ended up in hospital. But for now the protest continues after beginning last weekend with a march on Wall Street.
Full coverage here: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/09/22-8
Anti-capitalist protesters march through Lower Manhattan, New York. (Photograph: John Stuttle/guardian.co.uk)But O'Neill was happy to be part of the "Occupy Wall Street" protests that have transformed New York's Zuccotti Park from a spot where Wall Streeters grab a lunchtime sandwich into an informal camp of revolutionaries, socialists, anarchists and quite a lot of the just-plain-annoyed.
"Regrets? No. God, no," said O'Neill, 34. "It is a little scary for sure. Somebody had to make a stand to do this. It is kind of amazing right now." O'Neill is even happy to sleep on the park's concrete benches. "It's OK, actually," he said.
O'Neill is part of an encampment in the square that looks ramshackle but in fact is highly organised, and looks rapidly on the way to becoming a fixture of downtown Manhattan life – if the police let the protesters stay there.
That looked unlikely on Tuesday when several protesters were forcibly arrested and taken away, including one woman who ended up in hospital. But for now the protest continues after beginning last weekend with a march on Wall Street.
Full coverage here: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/09/22-8
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