Occupy Philly Photos Finally Up!

OCCUPY PHILLY PHOTOS


Several of the photographs I took at the Occupy Philadelpia encampment at the deadline, 11/27/11, are posted right here:

http://kingwenclas.blogspot.com/p/occupy-philly-deadline-photos.html

Occupy Philly Deadline

Things were hectic and tense at the Occupy Philadelphia encampment yesterday evening as the 5 pm deadline approached. Ministers led a prayer service. Watching cops chewing gum seemed very nervous. At the south end of the plaza at 4 pm, great oratory from a crowd of young activists. At 4:30, at the north end, the Tea Party showed up! The timing wasn't good. They were confronted by actual Occupiers, the hard-core, a bit older, in their 30's and 40's, quite vocal homeless guys black and white standing on a wall speaking passionately at the police-encased few Tea Partiers below.

At the deadline, a massed crowd in the center of the plaza, 80 or so of them sitting down and linking arms, waiting to be arrested. Much top police brass was there, including Deputy Commissioner Ross; including several tough-looking characters, one a captain who I observed stoically enduring a few insults. He looked like someone not to mess with; a dangerous animal barely restraining itself.

The police never moved against the protestors.

I hope to have a series of photos about these events up here soon, or at least this week.

"Reasonable Solutions"

It looks like Occupy Philly will be ended on Sunday, the "Reasonable Solutions" moderates bought out with a possible-but-not-certain free office in the city bureaucracy someplace. A neat trick. At any point, the city can close the useless office, citing budgetary reasons.

My experience with activism is that "reasonable solutions" for the activist side always boils down to one thing: We lose and they win.

At Occupy Philly

At Occupy Philly last night I saw the worn out underclass faces of those who remain. Police and news media like vultures encircled the site. I felt the waiting sense of panic and stress-- the thought of: what happens next? Many of their number had just been arrested two blocks away, at a bank.

Don't kid yourself. Many of the holdouts are feeling the brunt of the recession. Homeless; chronically unemployed; working class students with enormous loan debt they'll never be able to pay back, They have a reason to be scared and angry. As, in a different way, so do many in the Tea Party, those small business persons who've put their lives into fledgling endeavors and are barely hanging on, close to losing everything. They may scorn the homeless in the Occupy encampments, but their biggest fear is joining them.

Right now when I speak about Occupiers I'm not talking about Harvard grads or n+1 staffers. I mean the real 99%-- not the Haves but the Have Nots. Not the paid professional activists on the Left, but neither am I speaking about the paid professional pundits on the Right. Nor the "Reasonable Solutions" people. Nor the Senators in Washington on both sides of the aisle deciding the nation's fate. They're not hurting. None of their kind are hurting. They're only good with their mass media lapdogs at manipulating the anger on all sides out there and keeping the hurting people divided, so they can maintain their station. It's why I strongly suspect partisanship and ideology. I see scoundrels on both sides.

Will the house-of-cards balloon society kept going with hot air collapse? The Overdogs don't yet know what that feels like. When I was something of an activist, with the ULA (Underground Literary Alliance) my Overdog opponents couldn't comprehend my anger. But, you see, I lived through the economic devastation of Detroit. I know what it's like when your world ideals included collapses on top of you.

Just blowing off steam. . . .

Waiting for Mayor Nutter

MEDIA DEATHWATCH AT PHILADELPHIA CITY HALL

The television trucks are parked and waiting, cameras pointed on tripods at the Occupy Philadelphia encampment. A helicopter buzzes continuously in the sky overhead. Strangely, there are less police visible than last night. Why? Are they gathering? This is the sense in the air, anyway, which could mean nothing.

Occupy Philly Protest Saturday

Who better to cover the Occupy Philadelphia actions than America's most radical-- at least most contentious-- writer?

Here's a shot of the protestors right before the start of the march to Independence Mall. I have other photos of the day's events. I have a few of them up on a separate page linked to the left. See "Photo Gallery." Stay posted for more reports. We may be living in interesting times.