The NYPD led protesters onto the Brooklyn Bridge roadway
by Hank Hoffman
Some 700 people were arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge yesterday, participants in a march related to the ongoing #Occupy Wall Street protest. Their mistake? Trusting the police.
The crowd did not break through police lines to get on the roadway--as opposed to the pedestrian walkway--of the bridge. Rather, they followed police personnel up the road. They probably assumed, naively, that the police had decided for whatever reason, to permit the large march to cross the bridge via that route. Instead, the police led them into a trap, kettling them front and back and then arresting hundreds.
This is my sequence of photographs documenting the fact that the police led the marchers onto the bridge. I have included the whole sequence even though one is out of focus and one has some information obscured by a protester's sign.
The large crowd had become bottlenecked at the entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge. Before I began walking up the pedestrian walkway with friends, I saw no evidence of the NYPD attempting to manage the crowd or keep us out of the road. This is in contrast to their behavior on the march from the park along Broadway and Vesey Street where they politely but insistently kept demonstrators on the sidewalk (with which demonstrators politely complied).
Plainclothes and uniformed police begin walking up the roadway, followed by the demonstrators.
Two officers walked backwards, behind the other police, videotaping the marchers following them.
Following the NYPD police officials, a line of the protest begins moving up the Brooklyn-bound road portion of the Brooklyn Bridge.
With the police leading the march on the road,protesters who were safely on the pedestrian walkway climb over the fence to join the marchers following the police.
Some 700 people were arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge yesterday, participants in a march related to the ongoing #Occupy Wall Street protest. Their mistake? Trusting the police.
The crowd did not break through police lines to get on the roadway--as opposed to the pedestrian walkway--of the bridge. Rather, they followed police personnel up the road. They probably assumed, naively, that the police had decided for whatever reason, to permit the large march to cross the bridge via that route. Instead, the police led them into a trap, kettling them front and back and then arresting hundreds.
This is my sequence of photographs documenting the fact that the police led the marchers onto the bridge. I have included the whole sequence even though one is out of focus and one has some information obscured by a protester's sign.
The large crowd had become bottlenecked at the entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge. Before I began walking up the pedestrian walkway with friends, I saw no evidence of the NYPD attempting to manage the crowd or keep us out of the road. This is in contrast to their behavior on the march from the park along Broadway and Vesey Street where they politely but insistently kept demonstrators on the sidewalk (with which demonstrators politely complied).
Plainclothes and uniformed police begin walking up the roadway, followed by the demonstrators.
Two officers walked backwards, behind the other police, videotaping the marchers following them.
Following the NYPD police officials, a line of the protest begins moving up the Brooklyn-bound road portion of the Brooklyn Bridge.
With the police leading the march on the road,protesters who were safely on the pedestrian walkway climb over the fence to join the marchers following the police.
Labels: #Occupy Wall Street, civil liberties, free speech, police entrapment, protest
posted by Hank Hoffman at
1:05 PM
1 Comments:
Telling like it is. Great photos. Given the long and sordid history of the NY police, this kind of set-up and deceptive behavior is none too surprising. In this case, I am sure that Michael "the multi-billionaire" Bloomberg is playing an active role in encouraging Kelly and his army to "get tough."
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