Occupy Wall Street Protest Day 12: Cornel West Gives Speech, Robert Stephens May Have Lied (VIDEOS)

Celebrities, public intellectuals and political figures are coming out of the woodworks to show support of the #OccupyWallStreet protesters, entering their twelfth day of demonstrations in Zucotti Park downtown.

Monday night, Michael Moore stopped by and addressed the crowd and Tuesday morning, Susan Sarandon told protesters they needed to make "their message clear."

Noam Chomsky wrote a letter of support and hip-hop star Lupe Fiasco, who's already visited protesters, donated tents and written them a poem, has been tweeting his support. Yesterday he wrote, "alright #NYPD it was a tough decision but were putting the free donuts and coffee on time out until you play nice!!! #WeAreThe99."

Brooklyn City Councilman Charles Barron of East New York showed up to Tuesday morning's General Assembly. He told The Christian Post, “We are up against a monster, we are up against a strong enemy and that is capitalism, greed, and prioritizing that greed over the need of the vulnerable people in this society.”

And finally, prominent Princeton professor Dr. Cornel West (who could be seen throughout the day carrying a sign that read "If only the war on poverty were a real war, then we would actually be putting money into it") spoke to protesters Tuesday night and told them "There is a sweet spirit in this place. I hope you can feel the love and inspiration."

(Note the "People's Microphone" tactic employed by protesters. Without a license to use megaphones, the crowd has adopted the effective, albeit grating, method of repeating every phrase uttered by speakers so that everyone can hear.)

Also Tuesdsay, #OccupyWallStreet wasn't the only protest downtown. According to the International Business Times, "more than 700 Continental and United Continental pilots took to Wall Street to protest slow contract negotiations and misinformation regarding merger integration." They marched quietly, in their uniforms.

Postal workers also demonstrated nearby to protest massive cuts to the USPS. Some Occupy Wall Street protesters tried to join the mailmen, but for most part the groups remained separate.

And meanwhile, there's a debate as to whether the claims made by protester Robert Stephens during a dramatic display of anger outside a downtown bank Saturday (which got him arrested) were valid.

Stephens can be seen in a viral video dropping to his knees in the middle of the street and pointing at a Chase Bank, while repeatedly screaming "That's the bank that took my family's home!"

Glenn Beck's website The Blaze claims to have contacted Stephen's mother who says their home was not being foreclosed. Rather, Stephens' parents were selling their house in a "short sale" due to a "reduction in income." Beck and others see Stephens' Wall Street theatrics as left-wing propoganda. Gothamist is more sympathetic, and notes "that a short sale can be an alternative to foreclosure, and that some large banks are taking illegal cash payments from short sales. Exactly the sort of behavior that would make you want to knee in the street in protest."

The protests, which started with lackluster media coverage, have been garnering all kinds of attention this week. Celebrity appearances helped for sure, as did dramatic YouTube videos, notably this one of the female protesters being penned and pepper-spryaed by an NYPD officer. Police commissioner Ray Kelly says internal affairs will investigate the pepper-spray incident.

But the protesters, for their part (however vague their demands may be) have been furiously tweeting, blogging, and spreading the latest from Zucotti Park. As The New York Observer's Adrienne Jeffries observed when he spent the night with protesters Monday, "the 'media tent', which on Saturday had consisted of a MacBook and an umbrella, now looked like an amateur version of the CNN newsroom."

 

 

Comments

[Terry L Walker]

06:28 PM on 10/30/2011

We are all complaining about the fact that Wall Street wrecked the economy three years ago, and nobody's been held responsible for that. Not a single person has been indicted or convicted, for destroying twenty percent of our national net worth, accumulated over two centuries. They're upset about the fact that Wall Street has iron control over the economic policies of this country, and that one party is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Wall Street, and the other party caters to them as well.

We should NOT have 24 million people in this country who can't find a full-time job; that we should NOT have 50 million people who can't see a doctor when they're sick; that we should NOT have 47 million people of this country who need government help to feed themselves; and that we should NOT have 15 million families who owe more on their mortgage than the value of home. Anger is appropriate!
(1) Wall Street has created and perpetuated a system of enormous inequality.
(2) That system caused The Crash, and no one has been punished for it.
(3) Wall Street perpetuates that system through iron control of our political process.
(4) The result is pervasive suffering: joblessness, homelessness, illness, poverty and even hunger.

[Austin V]

08:35 PM on 10/01/2011

Awesome! I could break out in song.

[David Durham]

12:34 PM on 10/01/2011

There's been lot's of smelly-hippy-jokes flying around regarding the Occupy Wall Street protests. Tea Party people have been dissing them for not articulating a set of demands as if the various Tea Parties were good at articulation. Look, hippies may not be great at telling you what's exactly what in detail, but they know a bad deal when they see one. And while everyone else was arguing over the proper expressions that should be used to describe the crappy deal the hippies acted. No manifesto, no lists, no precise definitions, they're leaving that up to the rest of us. But while we debate they're movin' in on Wall Street. What they're doing ahead of the curve they can't tell you clearly, but there they are. It's up to us to catch up.

[scoobanchi]

01:31 PM on 09/30/2011

The people have been lied to and given long difficult explanations with confusing terms and phrases about what happened in the financial collapse. So many people know they were wronged but can not, for the life of them, tell whom to focus their anger on. No arrests have been made while some people even consider the criminals to be the victims. This was/is the biggest heist in history and some aren't even sure who the perpetrators are. I feel that mans anger and frustration, it's misdirected, but it's there. I wish I could be there to support the protesters.

[nappyman]

11:27 AM on 09/30/2011

Get inspector Bologna out there stat. He knows what do. Wall street needs to get their honor guard (tea party) out to counter protest.

[The Patriot]

10:23 AM on 09/30/2011

no one seems to know what to actually “want” out of OWS.

Here ya go: TOBIN TAX

Everyone who doesn’t want to play, get out of the pool and make way for businesses and individuals willing to pay a little back to Mother America.

[BLACKMANVISION]

09:38 AM on 09/30/2011

here they go bringing the water to cool things down, drown the real conversation out, what can cornel west say that anyone will understand.

[comhunt]

07:14 AM on 09/30/2011

I love the sign that says-- "WAKE UP NEW YORK". Typical COMMIE trick. They don't want to tell us what they want, because if they did, we would all be greatly disgusted. And so, they prefer to make us believe that they are protesting crooks, but in reality they want to take the crooks loot and go SHOPPING.

[bdazz]

07:08 AM on 09/30/2011

Keep hope alive..because right now hope is in short supply. I wish the mainstream media would focus more on this than on the MJ trial. Right now..this is urgent and I believe just the beginning of more protests across the country.

[Brent Rossen]

06:17 AM on 09/30/2011

Good lord give us hope!

[sheoples]

06:30 PM on 10/02/2011

there is no god.

we are the answer we seek.

people power!

[VoteLibertarian]

01:55 AM on 09/30/2011

pretty white crowds

[Mabila]

01:53 AM on 09/30/2011

I wonder when the Tea Party is joining the real Party??

[RVU]

12:10 AM on 09/30/2011

Why dont these clowns protest the REAL individual culprits of American joblessness such as the head of the EPA or George Szoras campaigns to drive business from America.

[nappyman]

11:31 AM on 09/30/2011

Yeah. The EPA and soros caused the recession and the out sourcing of American jobs over the past several decades. Step away from the idiot juice. You know what I'm talking about. I said turn it off.

[XCitizenX]

12:31 PM on 09/30/2011

Probably because this statement contains not one iota of truth. Thanks for playing though.

[Jerry Villano]

11:36 PM on 09/29/2011

Go too Syria, Yemen and see how protesters are treated...pepper spray is hardly excessive force!! what good are the protesters going to do! its all BS!!

[WorkhelpWorkhelp]

11:50 PM on 09/29/2011

Jerry:
#1 - OUR country has a constitution that guarantees our right to peacefully protest.
#2 - If you think this is BS why don't you donate some blood?

[Jerry Villano]

11:55 PM on 09/29/2011

Peaceful is one thing...asking to dispurse and then giving the police a reason to react is another. By the way I already gave my blood!

[sevnwolves]

01:45 AM on 09/30/2011

#1 - Blocking the flow of traffic, or throughways for pedestrians is not guaranteed anywhere.
#2 - well....pretty much all of what these clowns are spouting is #2.

[Ameriprov]

10:37 PM on 09/29/2011

I'm inspired.