I happened to stumble on the OWS rally today in Union Square (it’s very hard to miss), and took some pictures of the rally. It was an energetic, if not slightly boisterous crowd. Per New York standards, there were plenty of characters and attention-getters. Here’s some pictures so you can feel part of the action!:
So after I got over my fear of possibly getting arrested, I got down to bidness and took some pictures:
New York City Council member Jumaane D. Williams spoke before the crowd. I thought that this was the one that got arrested in October, but I was mistaken. He led the crowd in a chant of “Agitate! Agitate! Agitate!” which I thought was an excellent use of vocabulary, but I question a member of a legislative body encouraging a large crowd to break the law, even in an abstract “agitate.” Or giving him the benefit of the doubt, maybe he was just suggesting to be as annoying as possible until change happens.
And then sometimes there are people you just question whether they ate paint chips as a child:
The above gentleman was very proud of his (stolen?) barrier-fence. He walked through the crowd a bit with it hoisted above his head, and every time the crowd cheered he pumped it back into the air. Statement, made, sir! Except none of us know what it is.
Anyway, one of the best parts of the May Day rally was the presence of the local unions. There were probably a dozen or more unions there, which is pretty awesome when you think about the origins of May Day. I also heard talk that the UAW made a big presence today at another NYC rally:
You could get your own signs:
And then wave them in the air:
As I was leaving, I noticed these guys standing behind the stage. It was an entire mock baseball team, appropriately named the Tax Dodgers! They were all of course, 1%ers, and even had their very own cheerleader and fat cat Wall street type:
And as I was crossing the street, bikers came down 14th street en mass:
Of course, no coverage of Occupy Wall Street would be complete without the boys in blue. And christ on a motherfuckin’ cracker, the NYPD pulled out all the stops and were out in full force. Helicopters, police cars, unmarked police cars, police vans, unmarked police vans, those weird traffic-car things, police scooters, police in riot gear, police in community t-shirts, traffic police, and more police, police, police, everywhere you looked:
All images © Crasstalk
