busted on the brooklyn bridge

(this piece was originally written on sunday, october 2nd, night time. the events below took place on saturday, october 1st going into sunday, october 2nd.)

yesterday i partook in a protest march with the occupy wall street movement. it was a very energetic march with several hundred (maybe even over a thousand... don't know the exact number) participants chanting, hooting, hollering, raising signs, singing, playing drums, blowing horns, pumping peace signs and fists into the air. it was a hell of a time walking through the streets of NYC. drivers were honking to show support. tourists atop double decker buses were flashing pictures, raising peace signs, and chanting along with us. there was a ton of great energy around the whole event.

when i got into the march, i had no idea where it was going. i was just gonna follow along. the march eventually lead to the brooklyn bridge. my brother and i started off on the pedestrian walkway of the bridge. we noticed to the right though that marchers had taken it to the actual road on the bridge. people started jumping over the gate of the pedestrian walkway in droves. and just like that, so did we.

at this point i just assumed that we were allowed to be on the roadway. i didn't know that eventually this is what would lead to trouble. the police would later say that they clearly told people not to walk on the bridge. no one told us that. i know this doesn't exactly excuse our actions. however, it just seemed like the march was organized to go that way. i figured the organizers had gotten permission beforehand to go there. so with no authority figure to say otherwise, boom, there we were.

and that went on for 10 minutes or so. it was a totally empowering feeling to take it to the brooklyn bridge! chants of, "WHO'S BRIDGE? OUR BRIDGE!" started. and everything was right and good with the march.

and then people stopped walking. wasn't sure why at first. looked up ahead of us though and way in front of the crowd in front of us was a police barricade. marchers could walk no further. confusion started hitting the crowd. then we looked behind us and noticed a little down the road that cops had set up another barricade behind us. the nypd had trapped about 700 of us on the bridge.

shit got a little hectic. the distance between the pedestrian walkway and the road had grown quite a bit and the fence you'd have to climb to get there was probably a good 20 ft climb. but people started climbing. me and my brother stood our ground and tried to chill out. at that moment we figured there was no way they were gonna arrest every single person that was in that crowd.

and then fellow marchers started making announcements from the walkway above us. at first they were telling us they were only arresting people who got out of hand. then they announced that they were letting people go at the back end. and then they started telling us that they were starting to arrest people in full force on both ends. there were a few humble attempts to try and start a sit down revolt of sorts... and a good chunk of people sat down, but that didn't last long.

different rumors were swirling through the crowd. every so often you'd overhear someone say, "they're letting us go now." however, that wasn't the case. reality was beginning to set in. we were waiting around to inevitably be arrested. we watched as the crowd dwindled down bit by bit from both ends. hordes of protesters were being escorted away in paddy wagons and buses.

the whole process on the bridge took a couple of hours. eventually they got to us and we were cuffed and lined up to wait for our bus which took its sweet ass time to get there as it started to rain.

(before i go much further, i wanna get it out there that cops for the most part were really cool to us. for example, as the rain started to fall on the bridge, i'd see cops help the handcuffed by assisting with putting their hoodies over their heads. a lot of them joked around with us. a couple even admitted that they agreed with a lot of the 'fuck greedy rich people and greedy corporations' sentiment.)

we stood in the rain for a while as we waited on a fresh batch of buses to line up and eventually take us away. once we got on the bus, the mood was very positive. we all sat uncomfortably joking around about our situation. i eventually learned that one of the women on our bus was turning 30 at midnight and that this was her first time in NYC. what a way to end your 20's / start your 30's.

they brought us to a precinct in the bedford stuyvesant section of brooklyn (also known and rapped about as 'bed-sty!'). as we exited the buses we were told, "don't talk on your iphones when you get out of here tonight. they'll rob you around here. you're not in kansas anymore."

they had split me and my brother up which was kinda a bummer. but i made the best of it (as i'm sure he did) and continued to socialize with those around me.

once we got inside the precinct, it was a whole lot of, "WAIT AND BE QUIET!" we stood around in cuffs waiting for them to id everyone in the crowd (they had brought us in at about 50 at a time it seemed and this was just one of many precincts that would fill up for the night because of the mass arrest).

as i was waiting around, i had my encounter with the only d-bag cop of the night. while the woman to the right of me was being searched, i stepped to my left to make it easier for the cop searching her to maneuver around her. as i moved to the left there was another cop leaning against the wall who tapped my shoulder and told me to be careful, that i shouldn't make sudden moves around him like that cuz he doesn't know what i might try to do to him. total tough guy routine... like i was gonna do anything standing there handcuffed in a precinct full of cops with guns. but i did my best to shrug it off and keep waiting quietly.

as i was getting id'd, a cop was emptying my pockets. i had a hat on and i wasn't allowed to wear it and another cop behind a desk told the cop who was dealing with me to take my hat off 3 times. the cop kept forgetting. right before we were lead into the holding cell, i was like, 'hey officer. think you forgot something. my hat's still on.' he was like, 'oh yea.' took my hat off and along we went.

then they put us in a holding cell. there were already about 6 people in there and they were putting 6 more of us in there. my brother was in there so that was pretty cool. they kept cramming people in the cell (it would peak at 21, which was crowded to say the least). and eventually they took some people out and put them elsewhere (including my brother, pretty un-cool).

so there i was in a cell with 20 other dudes. and across the room was another cell holding 23 women. as soon as we got settled in, there was a lot of joking around, some banter back and forth between the boys' and girls' cells, and even some singing (the highlight being a rendition of both cells singing, 'lean on me,' together). they started letting us go to the bathroom one at a time. and once everyone had went, we waited.

and waited, and waited, and waited. we weren't given much information. all i knew was it was about 8pm when we entered the holding cell. we figured we'd be getting some sorta court appearance summons at the end of the night. we weren't told specifically what the charge would be. the only concrete information we were told was that it was going to take a long time because there were so many of us.

in fact, i had heard a few cops complain about our numbers. a couple cops grumbled when we first walked in that this was a total waste of their resources (i agree, let us go and arrest real criminals). the officers that were in the holding area with us (this room had 2 holding cells, a bathroom, a finger print machine, and a desk in between the cells that a cop was stationed at all night) complained a few times about how understaffed they were for this type of situation and what a mess it was (once again, i agree. let us go and go arrest real criminals). we were also told as we were going into the cell how lucky we were that they hadn't caught any real criminals yet otherwise we might've been stuck in a cell with them.

so the waiting went on and on. the women's cell started complaining that we'd been given no water and how do they expect us to stay in these cells, as crammed as we were, with no water. they kept going and going and to their credit, it eventually lead to results. our officer (i won't drop his real name, let's pretend his last name was smith) got a poland spring jug, filled it up with water, and gave that and a stack of little cups to the women's cell. the women poured drinks and in one of the more touching moments of the night, had a cheers and started to sing happy birthday for the birthday girl. they finished their water and officer smith went and filled it up again for the dudes. after we drank our water, we dubbed officer smith, smith the compassionate (which he didn't seem to like. a few times he made it clear that this was a pretty annoying situation for him. he doesn't usually have to accommodate requests. guess he'd rather just be a hard ass towards real criminals).

a couple more hours passed by and a couple new officers we hadn't seen before came in and offered us food. they said they had some sandwiches and began to distribute them to us between the bars. we circulated the sandwiches around and inside the sealed plastic was maybe the most bland sandwich i've ever had. one piece of cheese laid there in between two stale pieces of rye bread. there was nothing appealing about them but that didn't stop me from eating two of them.

sandwich time ended and we went back to the waiting game. we bantered back and forth. it was starting to get to a point where people were either getting really tired or delirious. people started to laugh maniacally. there was even a little contention between cellmates here and there. but for the most part, things remained calm and peaceful.

we'd joke with the cops about this and that. they'd update us on the score of the yankee game (i didn't care about the score of the yankee game but it was cool to have that interaction going on so i paid attention). like i said before, for the most part, the cops were cool with us.

at one point officer smith said he wanted to ask everyone in both cells a question. he wanted to know how many of us would never protest again after this experience. the manner he asked the question in made it seem like he was expecting to find a room full of reformed protesters. but not one person said they would stop. some people even said they were going back to wall street tomorrow. i was with the crowd. i'll definitely continue to participate in protests i believe in.

one of the more interesting factors of the night was the finger print machine. we got to meet a collection of criminals. not only did they have to do their fingerprint thing their, but it was also the room where people were given their one phone call. the most interesting of phone calls was a dude who was apparently arrested for some sort of domestic abuse against his wife. he used his one phone call to call his wife. i can't remember the exact words he used, but here's a quick paraphrase:

"damn bitch. why'd you call the cops on me? why'd you have me fucking arrested? that's fucked up. you're a bitch.."

somewhere in the middle of his little tirade, one of the cops hung the phone up on him and said, "you can't talk to her like that in front of cops. what are you, crazy?" then they dragged him away to another holding area.

somewhere around 2 am paperwork started flowing through to the officer at the desk of the holding area. it looked like they were gonna start releasing people. they started to let us go at about 5 at a time. we applauded as people left the cells and were escorted back to the outside world.

eventually my number was called and i was released. it was about 3am. i got my stuff back and talked to a representative of a legal group that will represent us in court for free. they took down my info. i put my laces back in my shoes (they make you take your laces out of your shoes. you also have to take your belt off. they don't want you committing suicide on their clock) and waited for my brother.

he got out. we went outside and there were more people with the legal group and they had brought everyone pizza. we ate cold pizza outside (the fuck did i care if it was cold pizza, it was the most delicious thing i ate in approximately 13 hours). we stood around and answered hours old text messages and made connection with the outside world (facebook and twitter). a group of released protesters gathered and we all walked to the subway together.

and that was it. we subway'd it to midtown manhattan. there we caught a bus to jersey. it was 4am(ish) at this point and we were definitely on the drunk bus. all these people had gone to bars, clubs, and parties and had a great night. there we were, coming from an exclusive party of our own that no one on that bus would probably understand. i didn't care. i was actually a fan of observing the wild atmosphere of the bus as we rode back to jersey. i almost always love coming back home to north bergen, but this night i loved it a little more than usual.

then i slept and woke up to pancakes. the sleep and the pancakes were absolutely amazing! just what i needed.

to close:

i myself will definitely protest again. i'll hopefully be on wall street next saturday. and if i make it in time for another march, i'll march again. if i could have the moment back, the only thing i would change is i wouldn't walk on the roadway of the bridge. i'd keep it on the pedestrian walkway. but in hindsight, walking on the bridge was a fucking awesome experience. of all the places to be part of a mass arrest for something you believe in, why not on the brooklyn bridge? it's just so fucking epic.