Near the end of day 12 I encountered my first police officer harrasment. I was standing, by myself, near the big red cube sculpture waiting for a working group I joined on Sunday. Many had held meetings in this area because it was a quiet space and the noise in the park sometimes made it hard to hear others in your group. He approached me and said I couldn't be there. I tried to ask him a question about possibly staying there long enough to redirect people to another meeting spot and he just kept interupting me saying I needed to leave. The situation kept changing as people arrived for our meeting and at one point he said stay. Within 10 minutes of our group finally getting together, about 8 officers and 3 white shirts showed up. At this point I just walked away, confrontation tends to make me nauseous so I fled leaving the others to deal with them. I wish I had the guts (literally) to stay and defend the rights of the people to assemble but there was a lawyer there so I think it was handled.
I believe that this is just another example of how "they" are trying to discourage the movement. For the last 2 nights in a row, a construction crew has been using a jack hammer during our GA. It feels like it is very calculated. We have to stay strong and stand tall in these times until EVERYONE wakes up.
It was terrific meeting you at #OWS today, keep up the great work! (Theresa, borrowing Prudie's acct.)
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