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Videos: Did Occupy Wall Street Protesters Harass Kids Yesterday?
By
Ben Yakas
Published Nov 18, 2011
Modified Nov 18, 2011
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Nov 18, 2011
Modified Nov 18, 2011
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As the dust settles on Occupy Wall Street's "day of action" on Thursday, allegations have emerged that some protesters harassed young kids as they walked to school with their parents near Wall Street in the morning. CBS reports that they saw one protester follow a father and his little daughter down one block, while others chanted "follow those kids!" One mother told CBS, "For them it’s horrible. They’re afraid of all the crowds. We’re not even able to get through. They’re just, he’s … very afraid now.” Watch their report below:
While you can definitely see the one protester following the father and daughter in the report, we haven't seen any other instances, or heard any other accusations, of protesters harassing kids—even the Post didn't mention anything about it today. So did CBS overhype one isolated incident?
Our reporter Chris Robbins also encountered a gaggle of children near the march on Beaver Street; one boy said "this is funny" about the circumstances going on around him. And while the barricades certainly could have come off as scary to some kids, others told CBS they thought it was for a parade.
Joey Boots—whose video of a Brookfield Properties security guard calling him "faggot" led to the guard being fired—captured video of one father and child making their way through the crowd. He shouts, "Hey kid. This is what Democracy is, kid," then notes, "He just got a history lesson." Watch below:
Up until now, OWS has been quite kid-friendly, especially when it was nestled in Zuccotti Park: they had a children's activities corner there, there were sleepovers for families, and schooltrips for classes studying the American civil rights movement. The spirit of those events continued yesterday at around 5:30 p.m., when there was a Student Walk-Out event in Foley Square—Josephine Ferorelli told us that some middle schoolers were invited to join in on the people's mic. "They were marching because funding had been cut from art, music, and science labs...It was really awesome," she told us. Below, check out two videos of the adorable kids leading the chant:
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Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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