They didn’t take the stock exchange.
Instead they took over nearly the whole financial district. I arrived at Zuccotti Park yesterday morning at 7 a.m., as the Occupy Wall Street protesters were preparing to march down to the New York Stock Exchange with the hopes of keeping it closed.
Hours later, the protesters hadn’t physically shut it down — a rumor that the opening bell was delayed proved to be false. But that doesn’t mean they failed to get their message across: they lost Zuccotti Park, but they weren’t going away.
By forming a blockade around various entrances to the NYSE, the protesters made it very difficult for people to get to work. Angry office workers and businessmen tried to push through the dense crowds; eventually, the police had to let workers pass on the streets, while protesters stood on the sidewalks and heckled them.
The march also shone a spotlight on the NYPD. As the march continued and protesters moved through the streets around the NYSE, there were a number of altercations between the police and protesters — I saw cops in riot gear shoving a bunch of dancers in the street onto the sidewalk. Later, on the corner of Wall Street and Hanover, I got caught in a crowd being pushed backward against a street scaffolding; we had nowhere to disperse. I watched as cops began hitting people in the front of the crowd with their batons.
And then of course there was the young man with blood covering his face, whose picture made the rounds on the Internet yesterday.
What I took away from yesterday morning is that despite having lost their home in Zuccotti Park, the OWS protesters are not going away. At least not immediately. If you take away their platform, which Zuccotti Park was, they’re going to find another way to protest and make their voices heard.
They’ll do it by blocking roads, by occupying buildings, by refusing to stop when the police threaten them with arrests. Liberty Square is gone, but the protesters are still here. And they’re taking to the streets.