Occupy Wall Street

I have to say that I never really paid much attention to the Occupy movement, other than when I saw people in Burlington walking around with their “We are the 99%” signs. And to be honest when I saw them camping out in their nice, big, REI tents I thought it seemed pretty hypocritical. I, like Matt Taibbi at first, did not think that these corporate banks would take the protesters very seriously. Especially since these people didn’t seem to know what they wanted, but that they just wanted to see a balance in the world. However, after reading this article I can see that the movement doesn’t need to have to be specific about what it wants to see change at this moment. They just needed to grow and eventually be heard. But also, it is not these people’s jobs to fix the problem. They are highlighting what’s wrong with the system, but our government was the one that allowed this to flourish and they government must be the ones to stop it.

About halfway through the piece I kind of saw the author do what we did in our last essay. He stated what each side of the political spectrum was saying about OWS and why it was flawed. Both sides missed that the protesters “don't care what we think they're about, or should be about. They just want something different.” Then he goes on to explain why people feel that they need a change and why modern America has become such a dreary place for people’s freedoms and futures.

I also found it interesting what Matt was saying about the police involvement in Occupy Wall Street. People want to feel protected by law enforcement and feel that they will right the wrongs. However, I don’t think many people of the Occupy movement felt this way. When these peaceful protesters are being surveyed and even assaulted by police what kind of message does that send out? They get punished for speaking their minds in a law abiding way while “in the skyscrapers above the protests, anything goes.” It just seems wrong that hundreds of arrests have been made on innocent civilians when these Wall Street bankers are stealing billions of dollars from people.