I managed to get to a computer for a minute, my phone is dead and my charger missing, for a couple updates. Just for clarification, we haven't really settled on a new name for the park. We use Liberty Plaza, Liberty Park, and Liberty Square pretty much interchangeably at this point. I'm sure we'll settle on one soon enough.
First off, the protester that was attacked and arrested by the NYPD not only lost a tooth, but also had an asthma attack during the arrest. The police denied a medic access to him to administer medicine. He thankfully was given medicine when another medic ignored the police orders and crawled over to give medicine. A number of other people were injured in the illegal police attack. At least one of the other protesters arrested has been released.
In good news, we are now represented by a civil rights law firm. They are currently working on paperwork for a federal injunction that will allow us to put up tents and other structures of a limited size. To say that spirits are high would be an understatement.
Also, a member of one of the IBEW affiliates that went on strike against Verizon came by earlier to express his support for our action. One of our group is currently getting signatures from workers at the World Trade Center site, which is catty corner to Liberty Park, in support of our movement. These workers are facing the threat of a 20% wage cut in the near future because of cost over runs on the project. There is talk of a solidarity march in support of them by us.
The amount of support we are seeing from new yorkers is nothing short of amazing. We have seen thousands of people stop by on their way to or from work and tell us how glad they are we are doing this. And the NYC activist network, which apparently had no clue this was happening, is just getting into gear. We are doing outreach to unions, social organization and schools. I expect this weekend to have a turnout in the thousands, if not tens of thousands.
Don't let the media fool you, we are strong.
If you want to help with food donations the list of restaurants you can order from is here. It would be wonderful if you could order something other than pizza. Pizza was great the first day, but it is not good for our long term health, in addition to being out in the rain and being tired.