Occupy Wall Street

Hundreds of people have given up the safety and comfort of their homes to camp out on Wall Street. They are showing no signs of leaving. Well, it seems like they made their point. Now, there are many protests on the unequal distribution of wealth, not just on Wall Street, but now throughout major cities. It is a constant battle between the police and the protesters, and now things are starting to get physical. Some might even say that the police are abusing their power and authority. For example,  two police officers in the "Occupy Davis Protest" were suspended because they sprayed high concentrated amounts of pepper spray into the eyes of nonviolent protesters. Officials are apologizing for their actions, but the crowd still called for their resignation. The officers that sprayed the pepper spray are defending their actions, reportedly saying that they feared for their safety. Now this sounds weird to me. It seems like they didn't know that they were on video, because as it clearly shows, the victims were showing no signs of aggressiveness. In my opinion, the officers made the wrong move, because all they did was cause a bigger uproar.


In Oakland, California, things are going a little bit different. Protesters set up camp in a vacant city lot, and while the police watched, they did nothing to intervene. This seems to say that the government is becoming more cautious, because they know that the smallest push will set everyone off. In Washington, protesters hung a banner on the roof of the Franklin School building that said, "Public Property Under Community Control." They refused to leave the place until the building was used for community use. The school once served the homeless until it was shut down in 2008. The protesters do not want the city to sell it for private use. As we can see, there have not been a lot of violent incidences. At least, not as much as I expected. The police are obviously scared, and if the officials were not defiant or stubborn, it would stay relatively peaceful.


To us viewers, these protests may seem like a waste of time, which is completely understandable. But what we have to realize is that these protesters are not only fighting for their rights, they are fighting for ours too. These people are trying to balance the decisions the government, while also fighting against the police. These are very brave people. Maybe not the brightest, but definitely very brave. Of course, I don't think that they are dealing with things is ethical, because they are clearly provoking major fights with the police. But if we had their determination and some intelligence, we could change the world.