OWS in Times Square
Eviction night at Zuccotti Park.
The next night a lot of the occupiers spent the night at McDonalds and a local church
Brandon Watts lies injured on the ground while Occupy Wall Street protesters clash with police in Zuccotti Park on November 17, 2011 in New York City. Hundreds of protesters attempted to shut down the New York Stock Exchange, blocking roads and tying up traffic in Lower Manhattan.
Right after I took this photo Brandon grabbed onto my leg, took me down and wouldn't let me go, screaming over and over "help me". It took the police about two minutes to drag him off me. I was really shaken up and upset that I wasn't able to help him. All of a sudden as I was wandering around the park a big scuffle broke out with the protesters and NYPD. I ran over and saw a handful of terrified looking cops who were completely surrounded by protesters. It seems the occupiers and police were physically fighting with each other and Brandon was on the ground getting trampled... A few days later I read this explanation in the Daily News:
"Brandon Watts, 20 — who remains charged with felony grand larceny for swiping the hat off a cop’s head during a spat with police at 1 Liberty Plaza — was freed Wednesday after Occupied Wall Street posted $2,750 in bail.
Watts appeared in Manhattan Criminal Court to learn that the case, which also involves misdemeanor charges for hurling a pen and an AAA battery at police, has not yet been presented to a grand jury. He also went to face charges on two other protest arrests that include escaping from the back of a police van and resisting arrest after stealing orange netting from cops."
The eviction night and 'day of action' were really crazy. A lot of journalists and photographers were arrested and our press passes didn't mean anything to the police. They even barred all the press from the park on eviction night, keeping us in a pen across the street. The whole movement seems to have really died down and Zuccotti is eerily empty nowadays. I'm interested in what the coming months will bring for the movement.
