Occupy Wall Street

Hey friends :)

    Despite the fact that things in Northern Virginia have been carrying on as normal, for the last fifteen days protesters have been camping out in Wall Street New York for a demonstartion they are calling "Occupy Wall Street."
     While there is no known individual founder/leader of the group, the main goal of the protest is to bring to light the fact that the government is catering to the rich at the expense of the poor. That being said, there are many protesters protesting more specific issues such as global warming, genetically altered food, gas prices, and even what they believe to be unbearable school loans.
     All in all this protest has been mostly calm, but there have been times where the police have stepped in and arrested protesters. Shown in the video below, a large group of protesters who were blocking the road were herded behind a mesh blockade and then maced and arrested. Those who sympathize with the protesters have been calling police brutality while those who are against the protest are saying that the police were right to use the mace. Either way, the media for the protest has been growing exponentially since the macing video was put up and I believe the coverage will continue to grow until the protest is over. 

    There was also a large arrest yesterday of about 700 people who were said to have been jaywalking as they crossed the Brooklyn bridge on areas other than the crosswalk. As with the macing incident, there are two sides of the story with the police saying that the protesters were stopping traffic and the protesters saying that there was no room to get through and that they had no choice but to walk on the non pedestrian part of the bridge. Either way, the media coverage is still steadily growing.
     Personally, I can see both sides of this story. The protesters are causing massive traffic problems and are probably pretty annoying, but at the same time I think that anyone has a right to say what they want to say. This protest has been mostly peaceful and I think that it's about time for the government to stop avoiding it and to start listening to what the protesters are saying. While I am not an elitist myself, I do believe that the protesters have some merit and they should at least be dignified with some response by the government other than police brutality and, I'm pretty sure that until they get that response they're not going to stop.
      It has been 15 days and they're still going strong. If nothing else, at least they're persistent.
                                                                            :)

Here are some articles about the protest that you guys might find interesting:
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/8351661/peaceful-women-maced-during-nyc-protest
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sheldon-filger/occupy-wall-street-and-ma_b_991325.html
http://abcnews.go.com/US/occupy-wall-street-protesters-americans/story?id=14652698
http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_19024775?asid=af2a7105