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7 More Rough Arrest Videos From The Rowdy May Day Marches
By
John Del Signore
Published May 3, 2012
Modified May 3, 2012
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By
John Del Signore
Published May 3, 2012
Modified May 3, 2012
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The Occupy Wall Street protests have been some of the most well-documented political demonstrations in history—with the ubiquity of cell phone cameras, almost every protester is also a photographer, and the NYPD has a special unit equipped with video cameras too. So there's no shortage of footage from Tuesday's May Day actions—for the armchair activist, here are some more videos that offer a visceral view of violent arrests and alleged vandalism. The first and longest shows a big scuffle between police and anarchists at the start the Wildcat march:
Here's a shorter clip from the same march, showing a woman being violently thrown to the ground by plainclothes officers. She may have been tampering with the undercarriage of a bus (we have a photo of the arrest here) or may just have been next to the bus—another photographer who saw the arrest from a different angle tells us she was seemingly arrested for no reason.
According to the witness who shot this video, this arrest occurred after a protester who "blatantly scrawled 'shame' on the wall next to him. The NYPD was right there. I don't know what he was thinking."
A young man was injured during this clash with police on Pearl Street. In the first video, you can see him leaning against the wall around the 1 minute mark—it's unclear what caused the injury, but in the second video his friends carry him away, also at the one minute mark.
And this one starts with a witness accusing a police officer of punching a protester in the face, and continues with a protester being arrested for wearing a handkerchief obscuring his face.
And finally tonight, an intense showdown between cops on scooters and protesters in the streets near the Wall Street bull. Toro!:
Attorney Gideon Orion Oliver, president of the National Lawyer's Guild—New York City Chapter, tells us there were 97 May Day-related arrests on Tuesday.
Tagged
May Day
occupy wall street
protests
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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