There are more stories and still the origins are unclear to those who cover the protests:
More than 700 protesters demonstrating against corporate greed, global warming and social inequality, among other grievances, were arrested Saturday after they swarmed the Brooklyn Bridge and shut down a lane of traffic for several hours in a tense confrontation with police.
The group Occupy Wall Street has been camped out in a plaza in Manhattan's Financial District for nearly two weeks staging various marches, and had orchestrated an impromptu trek to Brooklyn on Saturday afternoon. They walked in thick rows on the sidewalk up to the bridge, where some demonstrators spilled onto the roadway after being told to stay on the pedestrian pathway, police said.
This picture from the story pictures might be a clue:
A massive Red Star tattoo on his back? Well, there is an alternative explanation:
Unless he's simply a huge Dora the Explorer fan, who thinks he found Swiper the Fox on Wall Street, I'd say he just might be a communist. His clenched fist salute should be a clue. And he's standing in front of the crowd, apparently providing direction for the "leaderless" movement they claim has just sort of happened in reaction to Wall Street.
Oh, the signs and dress code of the protesters mostly scream "communists and anarchists." While they seem to be going to greater lengths to hide their organizations than they did during the Iraq War protests they tried to use to expand their influence by attracting other people, some clues are there. Like the sign that mentioned the Party for Socialism and Liberation. Oops. Bloody giveaway. Some party discipline might be in order to erase that faux pas.
I wonder if our press corps will actually report on this apparent motivation for the protests. The grubby cul-de-sac communists with their consumer electronics that we breed may be a pathetic lot as far as revolutionaries go, with their dreams of Utopia seemingly disproven by actual practice by actual communists, but they are determined. But if the Iraq War "protest movement" history is any guide, these protests will continue to be portrayed by our professionally trained press corps as just ordinary people (Bonus points for getting senior citizens "who have never been to a protest before!" into a story).
What a bunch of losers.
UPDATE: "Don't say it, bro!"
Start at about 54 seconds in and endure the idiocy for about 20 seconds to hear the young man with the red star on his cap (Mao--not Macy's--I'd guess). And then the quote above from a comrade worried that cap boy would break party discipline and say "socialism" or "communism" in reply. (UPDATE: The video was removed. Here's a shorter version of the exchange that I found. Turn up your sound.)
Ah, the vanguard of the doltetariat.
UPDATE: Hat Boy finishes his reply:
We surely do have some lovely filth here.
UPDATE: Once you start Monty Python, it is tough to stop. Seven hundred of the protesters were prevented from crossing the Brooklyn Bridge. Apparently, they all said that "red" was their favorite color:
I'm sorry, but if it is a choice between Wall Street bankers who screwed up in a system that provided us with unprecedented prosperity as a nation versus Commie idiots who have wrecked every country they've touched, I'm with the bankers.
