A Tale of Two Rallies
Spearheaded by the Granny Peace Brigade, 2,000 protestors marched from Liberty Plaza to join an anti-police brutality demonstration called in response to New York Police Department (NYPD) Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna’s world famous pepper spray rampage against peaceful Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protestors the Saturday prior.
The character of the two protests could not be more different.
Liberty Plaza was stuffed with people like a rush hour subway car. I did a couple counts from different vantage points and came up with about 2,000 people both times, well above the normal the 200-300 who march near the stock exchange for the opening and closing bells every day or the 100-200 occupants who have made it their business to stay in the park until something in this country change. People were packed tightly on all four edges of the park, and quite a few protestors were on the sidewalks adjacent to the park, unsure of whether the NYPD would keep us bottled up there or begin arresting us.
Before the Granny Peace Brigade stepped up Broadway toward 1 Police Plaza, the crowd at OWS