Best Right in the Middle of the Action

Have you heard of the #occupywallstreet protestors?  The leaderless mass of protestors who encamped on Broadway last week to protest the personhood of corporations . . . and every other cause that comes to mind?  Saturday they took their cause on the road and marched up to Union Square, where I happened to be.

Everything was so calm at first . . .



Then, with the sound of beating drums, the #occupywallstreeters began to arrive via University Place, clearly a ship without a rudder, unsure if it was going to stop at Union Square or what it was going to do when it got there.

Perhaps it did, but someone taught you to draw fists well.

Certain Union Square'rs remained unphased by the whole thing.

And certain Union Square figures just assumed it was a party.

So the protestors formed a central mass for a while, shouted things for a while, and danced the Hokey Pokey.  (I am serious)

Chalk was quickly deployed in a very anti-establishment manner.

This guy actually kept a pretty good beat.

After a bit the marchers were ready to go somewhere else.  They headed for Broadway at first, where there was a street fair at the time, which would have clearly resulted in a stampede/total disaster/complete cluster bomb (so, you know, a little worse than a normal NYC street fair) but the cops cut them off and saved everyones lives . . . and tackled their first few protestors who couldn't believe their right to assemble would be impeded in such a way as to protect other people or their property.

Not mannequins, spectators.

So the marchers headed back down University or something and everything got back to normal in Union Square.  Nice and normal.





Later on I ran into a large procession of another sort on my way home.  I liked this one better.