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Video: Occupy Wall Street Returns To Zuccotti With March, Gay Wedding, More Drumming

Ben Yakas

Published Nov 20, 2011

Modified Nov 20, 2011

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Ben Yakas

Published Nov 20, 2011

Modified Nov 20, 2011

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Five days after NYPD officers cleared out Zuccotti Park and disposed of the makeshift tent city that had sprung up, a few hundred Occupy Wall Street protesters returned there yesterday for a busy day filled with a gay wedding, more drumming, and a march to Wall Street. You can see video of that march below (taken by Joey Boots), which included some subdued confrontations with police.

It wasn't all marching and chanting though: yesterday afternoon, activists Jonathan Lopez, 19, and Ivan Cabrera, 18, exchanged rings and ate cake at their wedding ceremony—it was the first gay marriage at Zuccotti Park. Cabrera told the Daily News he was still angry that OWS had been kicked out of the park. “They say we have freedom of speech, but we don’t. We’re nonviolent, and we got kicked out and hit. We’re trying to make this cause for the whole world," he said.

While workers hung holiday lights onto the trees in the park in the morning, police and Brookfield Properties security kept protesters from erecting tents or bringing in comforters. Sonya Zink told the News she even got into a tussle with a cop while trying to bring a blanket into the park. But there was one thing officers couldn't stop them from doing: drumming. “There are no signs outside the park saying no drums! This is freedom of expression!” one drummer yelled at NYPD Community Affairs officers as he started a drum circle with two others.

Protesters will bring those drums to Bloomberg's mansion on East 79th Street this afternoon for a 24-hour protest that is bound to infuriate Hizzoner (if he's there). Someone else who has been upset by everything going on? Zuccotti Park's namesake, John Zuccotti, the 74-year-old co-chair of Brookfield Properties. Former Mayor Ed Koch told the News that Zuccotti is worried his legacy is forever intertwined, if not over-shadowed, by the protest now:

“He was very worried about it. He said, 'Everybody knows my name, Zuccotti, not because of what I’ve done as an individual, but because of the park.’ It’s been a difficult time for him," Koch said

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drumming

gay marriage

occupy wall street

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protest

wedding

Zuccotti Park

Ben Yakas

Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

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