Presidents and Populism: The Occupy Movement
In 2011, an international protest movement spread all over the world, bringing attention to the widening gap in income disparity. Known as the "Occupy Movement, its goal was to bring attention to how large corporations and the global financial system control the world in a way that disproportionately benefits a minority at the expense of the majority and undermines democracy.
The Occupy movement was inspired by the Arab Spring, a revolutionary series of violent and non-violent demonstrations, protests, riots, coups and civil wars in North Africa and the Middle East, beginning in Tunisia with the Tunisian Revolution in December of 2010. The Tunisian Revolution effect spread strongly to five other countries: Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Syria and Iraq, where either the regime was toppled or major uprisings and social violence occurred. The occupy movement commonly used the slogan "We are the 99%". It organized through websites such as Occupy Together.
The first major Occupy protest was the Occupy Wall Street demonstration, which began in New York City on September 17, 2011, when 1,000 protesters gathered in downtown Manhattan walking up and down Wall Street. About 100 to 200 people stayed overnight in Zucotti Park, two blocks north of Wall Street. The original location of choice by the protesters was 1 Chase Plaza, the site of the "Charging Bull" statue, but when police discovered the planned site, it was fenced off and nearby Zuccotti Park was chosen. Over the next two days, seven people had been arrested. At least 80 arrests were made on September 24th after protesters started marching uptown and forcing the closure of several streets. Most of these arrests were for blocking traffic, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. Police officers also used a technique called kettling which involves using orange nets to isolate protesters into smaller groups. To draw more attention to its cause, the Occupy group made and disseminated videos over social media showing several penned-in female demonstrators being hit with pepper spray by a police officer. The officer was later identified as Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna, and he was shown in other videos hitting a photographer with a burst of pepper spray.
Public attention to the pepper-sprayings resulted in a spike of news media coverage, a pattern that was to be repeated in the coming weeks following confrontations with police. Clyde Haberman, writing in The New York Times, said that the Occupy Wall Street protesters could thank Deputy Inspector Bologna for giving their cause its biggest boost.
On October 1, 2011, protesters set out to march across the Brooklyn Bridge. The New York Times reported that more than 700 arrests were made. Police had allowed the protesters onto the bridge, and even escorting them partway across, before arresting them. A spokesman for the New York Police Department, Paul Browne, said that protesters were given multiple warnings to stay on the sidewalk and not block the street, and were arrested when they refused. Three days later, on October 4th, a group of protesters who were arrested on the bridge filed a lawsuit against the city, alleging that officers had violated their constitutional rights by luring them into a trap and then arresting them. In June 2012, a federal judge ruled that the protesters had not received sufficient warning of arrest pending entrance onto the Brooklyn Bridge, even though video evidence showed the police warning protesters by bullhorn. Judge Jed S. Rakoff held for the plaintiffs, saying, "a reasonable officer in the noisy environment defendants occupied would have known that a single bull horn could not reasonably communicate a message to 700 demonstrators".
On October 5th, an estimated 15,000 marchers made up of union members, students, and the unemployed, continued the protest. Smaller protests continued in cities and on college campuses across the country. Thousands of union workers joined protesters marching through the Financial District. The march was peaceful during daylight hours, but after nightfall several scuffles erupted. About 200 protesters tried to storm barricades blocking them from Wall Street and the Stock Exchange. Police responded with pepper spray and penned the protesters in with orange netting.
The protest inspired similar protests and an occupation of the London Stock Exchange. By October 9, similar demonstrations were either ongoing or had been held in 70 major cities and over 600 communities across the United States. Protesters' slogan, "We are the 99%". The protests attracted national media coverage. Protest organizers said that many of those who clashed with police were not part of the Occupy movement. On November 2, protesters in Oakland, California shut down the Port of Oakland, the fifth busiest port in the nation. Police estimated that about 3,000 demonstrators were gathered at the port and 4,500 had marched across the city.
On November 15, at about 1:00 a.m., police cleared the Zuccotti Park encampment. Some members of the media complained that police had made a deliberate decision to keep journalists away from the park during the raid. A group of New York City journalists formed an organization called "The Coalition for the First Amendment" in response to what they perceived as the "alarming suppression, abuse and arrests of reporters". They said that it was their goal to "monitor police-press relations as a way of spotlighting police activities that threaten constitutional protections".
On December 6, Occupy Homes, an offshoot of Occupy Wall Street, embarked on a "national day of action" to protest the mistreatment of homeowners by big banks. The group said that the banks had made billions of dollars off the housing bubble by offering predatory loans and indulging in practices that allegedly took advantage of consumers. In more than two dozen cities across the nation the movement took on the housing crisis by re-occupying foreclosed homes, disrupting bank auctions and blocking evictions.
During an October 6 news conference, President Barack Obama said of the Occupy movement, "I think it expresses the frustrations the American people feel, that we had the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression, huge collateral damage all throughout the country and yet you're still seeing some of the same folks who acted irresponsibly trying to fight efforts to crack down on the abusive practices that got us into this in the first place." The President was asked by Jake Tapper, then with ABC News, to explain why his administration hadn't prosecuted any Wall Street executives who didn't play by the rules. Obama responded: "One of the biggest problems about the collapse of Lehman's and the subsequent financial crisis and the whole subprime lending fiasco is that a lot of that stuff wasn't necessarily illegal; it was just immoral or inappropriate or reckless." In an interview on ABC on October 18, Obama said of the Occupy Protesters "in some ways, they’re not that different from some of the protests that we saw coming from the Tea Party. Both on the left and the right, I think people feel separated from their government. They feel that their institutions aren’t looking out for them."
On November 22, President Barack Obama was giving a speech in New Hampshire, when group of Occupy Wall Street protesters attempted to interrupt his speech by chanting slogans. These protesters later delivered a paper message to the press, which read:
"Mr. President: Over 4,000 peaceful protesters have been arrested while bankers continue to destroy the economy. You must stop the assault on our First Amendment rights. Your silence sends a message that police brutality is acceptable. Banks got bailed out. We got sold out."
When Obama was first interrupted, his audience quickly drowned the protesters out with chants of “Obama!” The President then said "I appreciate you guys making your point. Let me go ahead and make mine." Later in the speech, Obama said, “Families like yours, young people like the ones here today - including the ones who were just chanting at me - you’re the reason that I ran for office in the first place."
Some prominent politicians publicly expressed their support for the Occupy movement. For example, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said that she was in support of the growing nationwide Occupy Wall Street movement. Pelosi said: "I support the message to the establishment, whether it's Wall Street or the political establishment and the rest, that change has to happen. We cannot continue in a way that is not relevant to their lives." But perhaps the politician who best connected with the Occupy protesters was Independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who said: "We desperately need a coming together of working people to stand up to Wall Street. We need to rebuild the middle-class in this country and you guys can't have it all."
Other politicians blamed the President for the anger. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said that President Obama's "failed policies" and his rhetoric "pitting Americans against Americans" was the cause of the discontent. 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said that it was a mistake to aim at one industry or region of America, and considered encouraging the Occupy Wall Street protests as "dangerous" and inciting "class warfare". But he also said that he coun understand the frustration that underlies the movement, saying, "I look at what's happening on Wall Street and my view is, boy, I understand how those people feel."
Former Governor of New Mexico and 2012 Libertarian Party presidential candidate Gary Johnson visited Occupy Wall Street in October 2011 and expressed support. He said "This country is not equal. We don't treat everyone equally. I would like to see us focus on the root cause, which is in my estimation politicians that are getting paid off. That's the corporatism and the outrage."
Former Speaker of the House of Representatives and 2012 Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, speaking at the 2012 Bloomberg/Washington Post Debate, said, "Let me draw a distinction. Virtually every American has a reason to be angry. I think virtually every American has a reason to be worried. I think the people who are protesting in Wall Street break into two groups: one is left-wing agitators who would be happy to show up next week on any other topic, and the other is sincere middle-class people who frankly are very close to the Tea Party people who care. And actually, you can tell which are which. The people who are decent, responsible citizens pick up after themselves. The people who are just out there as activists trash the place and walk off and are proud of having trashed it, so let’s draw that distinction." But on November 21, Gingrich was quoted as saying to the protesters that they should "Go get a job right after you take a bath." Similarly, former 2012 Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain accused the movement of being "anti-capitalist" and argued "Don't blame Wall Street, don't blame the big banks, if you don't have a job and you're not rich, blame yourself!" In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Cain said that be believed that the Occupy Wall Street was "planned and orchestrated to distract from the failed policies of the Obama administration".
2012 Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul said of the protesters, "If they were demonstrating peacefully, and making a point, and arguing our case, and drawing attention to the Fed, I would say, 'good!'" Later, in a GOP debate, mentioning the ongoing “Occupy Wall Street” protesters, he told his audience that crony capitalists are those “that benefit from contract from government, benefit from the Federal Reserve, benefit from all the bailouts. They don’t deserve compassion. They deserve taxation or they deserve to have all their benefits removed."
Jill Stein, the Green Party presidential candidate in 2012 and 2016, has strongly and consistently voiced support for the Occupy Wall Street movement. On October 9, she visited occupied Dewey Square in Boston, where she thanked the protesters for what she called "breaking through the sound barrier established by the conglomerate media" which had silenced those who have tried to speak out against injustice.
Today, on its website, Occupy Wall Street concedes that the election of Donald Trump in 2016 was part and parcel of its own defeat. The website states:
The astonishing triumph of Donald Trump can be traced to the bitter defeat of Occupy Wall Street, a pro-democracy movement that transcended left and right, sparking unrest in hundreds of cities and rural towns in 2011. Occupy’s consensus-based encampments demanded that President Obama get money out of politics. Instead, we got mercilessly smashed by his progressive administration. Now the dark irony of history is bashing back.
The Occupy movement was inspired by the Arab Spring, a revolutionary series of violent and non-violent demonstrations, protests, riots, coups and civil wars in North Africa and the Middle East, beginning in Tunisia with the Tunisian Revolution in December of 2010. The Tunisian Revolution effect spread strongly to five other countries: Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Syria and Iraq, where either the regime was toppled or major uprisings and social violence occurred. The occupy movement commonly used the slogan "We are the 99%". It organized through websites such as Occupy Together.
The first major Occupy protest was the Occupy Wall Street demonstration, which began in New York City on September 17, 2011, when 1,000 protesters gathered in downtown Manhattan walking up and down Wall Street. About 100 to 200 people stayed overnight in Zucotti Park, two blocks north of Wall Street. The original location of choice by the protesters was 1 Chase Plaza, the site of the "Charging Bull" statue, but when police discovered the planned site, it was fenced off and nearby Zuccotti Park was chosen. Over the next two days, seven people had been arrested. At least 80 arrests were made on September 24th after protesters started marching uptown and forcing the closure of several streets. Most of these arrests were for blocking traffic, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. Police officers also used a technique called kettling which involves using orange nets to isolate protesters into smaller groups. To draw more attention to its cause, the Occupy group made and disseminated videos over social media showing several penned-in female demonstrators being hit with pepper spray by a police officer. The officer was later identified as Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna, and he was shown in other videos hitting a photographer with a burst of pepper spray.
Public attention to the pepper-sprayings resulted in a spike of news media coverage, a pattern that was to be repeated in the coming weeks following confrontations with police. Clyde Haberman, writing in The New York Times, said that the Occupy Wall Street protesters could thank Deputy Inspector Bologna for giving their cause its biggest boost.
On October 1, 2011, protesters set out to march across the Brooklyn Bridge. The New York Times reported that more than 700 arrests were made. Police had allowed the protesters onto the bridge, and even escorting them partway across, before arresting them. A spokesman for the New York Police Department, Paul Browne, said that protesters were given multiple warnings to stay on the sidewalk and not block the street, and were arrested when they refused. Three days later, on October 4th, a group of protesters who were arrested on the bridge filed a lawsuit against the city, alleging that officers had violated their constitutional rights by luring them into a trap and then arresting them. In June 2012, a federal judge ruled that the protesters had not received sufficient warning of arrest pending entrance onto the Brooklyn Bridge, even though video evidence showed the police warning protesters by bullhorn. Judge Jed S. Rakoff held for the plaintiffs, saying, "a reasonable officer in the noisy environment defendants occupied would have known that a single bull horn could not reasonably communicate a message to 700 demonstrators".
On October 5th, an estimated 15,000 marchers made up of union members, students, and the unemployed, continued the protest. Smaller protests continued in cities and on college campuses across the country. Thousands of union workers joined protesters marching through the Financial District. The march was peaceful during daylight hours, but after nightfall several scuffles erupted. About 200 protesters tried to storm barricades blocking them from Wall Street and the Stock Exchange. Police responded with pepper spray and penned the protesters in with orange netting.
The protest inspired similar protests and an occupation of the London Stock Exchange. By October 9, similar demonstrations were either ongoing or had been held in 70 major cities and over 600 communities across the United States. Protesters' slogan, "We are the 99%". The protests attracted national media coverage. Protest organizers said that many of those who clashed with police were not part of the Occupy movement. On November 2, protesters in Oakland, California shut down the Port of Oakland, the fifth busiest port in the nation. Police estimated that about 3,000 demonstrators were gathered at the port and 4,500 had marched across the city.
On November 15, at about 1:00 a.m., police cleared the Zuccotti Park encampment. Some members of the media complained that police had made a deliberate decision to keep journalists away from the park during the raid. A group of New York City journalists formed an organization called "The Coalition for the First Amendment" in response to what they perceived as the "alarming suppression, abuse and arrests of reporters". They said that it was their goal to "monitor police-press relations as a way of spotlighting police activities that threaten constitutional protections".
On December 6, Occupy Homes, an offshoot of Occupy Wall Street, embarked on a "national day of action" to protest the mistreatment of homeowners by big banks. The group said that the banks had made billions of dollars off the housing bubble by offering predatory loans and indulging in practices that allegedly took advantage of consumers. In more than two dozen cities across the nation the movement took on the housing crisis by re-occupying foreclosed homes, disrupting bank auctions and blocking evictions.
During an October 6 news conference, President Barack Obama said of the Occupy movement, "I think it expresses the frustrations the American people feel, that we had the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression, huge collateral damage all throughout the country and yet you're still seeing some of the same folks who acted irresponsibly trying to fight efforts to crack down on the abusive practices that got us into this in the first place." The President was asked by Jake Tapper, then with ABC News, to explain why his administration hadn't prosecuted any Wall Street executives who didn't play by the rules. Obama responded: "One of the biggest problems about the collapse of Lehman's and the subsequent financial crisis and the whole subprime lending fiasco is that a lot of that stuff wasn't necessarily illegal; it was just immoral or inappropriate or reckless." In an interview on ABC on October 18, Obama said of the Occupy Protesters "in some ways, they’re not that different from some of the protests that we saw coming from the Tea Party. Both on the left and the right, I think people feel separated from their government. They feel that their institutions aren’t looking out for them."
On November 22, President Barack Obama was giving a speech in New Hampshire, when group of Occupy Wall Street protesters attempted to interrupt his speech by chanting slogans. These protesters later delivered a paper message to the press, which read:
"Mr. President: Over 4,000 peaceful protesters have been arrested while bankers continue to destroy the economy. You must stop the assault on our First Amendment rights. Your silence sends a message that police brutality is acceptable. Banks got bailed out. We got sold out."
When Obama was first interrupted, his audience quickly drowned the protesters out with chants of “Obama!” The President then said "I appreciate you guys making your point. Let me go ahead and make mine." Later in the speech, Obama said, “Families like yours, young people like the ones here today - including the ones who were just chanting at me - you’re the reason that I ran for office in the first place."
Some prominent politicians publicly expressed their support for the Occupy movement. For example, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said that she was in support of the growing nationwide Occupy Wall Street movement. Pelosi said: "I support the message to the establishment, whether it's Wall Street or the political establishment and the rest, that change has to happen. We cannot continue in a way that is not relevant to their lives." But perhaps the politician who best connected with the Occupy protesters was Independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who said: "We desperately need a coming together of working people to stand up to Wall Street. We need to rebuild the middle-class in this country and you guys can't have it all."
Other politicians blamed the President for the anger. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said that President Obama's "failed policies" and his rhetoric "pitting Americans against Americans" was the cause of the discontent. 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said that it was a mistake to aim at one industry or region of America, and considered encouraging the Occupy Wall Street protests as "dangerous" and inciting "class warfare". But he also said that he coun understand the frustration that underlies the movement, saying, "I look at what's happening on Wall Street and my view is, boy, I understand how those people feel."
Former Governor of New Mexico and 2012 Libertarian Party presidential candidate Gary Johnson visited Occupy Wall Street in October 2011 and expressed support. He said "This country is not equal. We don't treat everyone equally. I would like to see us focus on the root cause, which is in my estimation politicians that are getting paid off. That's the corporatism and the outrage."
Former Speaker of the House of Representatives and 2012 Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, speaking at the 2012 Bloomberg/Washington Post Debate, said, "Let me draw a distinction. Virtually every American has a reason to be angry. I think virtually every American has a reason to be worried. I think the people who are protesting in Wall Street break into two groups: one is left-wing agitators who would be happy to show up next week on any other topic, and the other is sincere middle-class people who frankly are very close to the Tea Party people who care. And actually, you can tell which are which. The people who are decent, responsible citizens pick up after themselves. The people who are just out there as activists trash the place and walk off and are proud of having trashed it, so let’s draw that distinction." But on November 21, Gingrich was quoted as saying to the protesters that they should "Go get a job right after you take a bath." Similarly, former 2012 Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain accused the movement of being "anti-capitalist" and argued "Don't blame Wall Street, don't blame the big banks, if you don't have a job and you're not rich, blame yourself!" In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Cain said that be believed that the Occupy Wall Street was "planned and orchestrated to distract from the failed policies of the Obama administration".
2012 Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul said of the protesters, "If they were demonstrating peacefully, and making a point, and arguing our case, and drawing attention to the Fed, I would say, 'good!'" Later, in a GOP debate, mentioning the ongoing “Occupy Wall Street” protesters, he told his audience that crony capitalists are those “that benefit from contract from government, benefit from the Federal Reserve, benefit from all the bailouts. They don’t deserve compassion. They deserve taxation or they deserve to have all their benefits removed."
Jill Stein, the Green Party presidential candidate in 2012 and 2016, has strongly and consistently voiced support for the Occupy Wall Street movement. On October 9, she visited occupied Dewey Square in Boston, where she thanked the protesters for what she called "breaking through the sound barrier established by the conglomerate media" which had silenced those who have tried to speak out against injustice.
Today, on its website, Occupy Wall Street concedes that the election of Donald Trump in 2016 was part and parcel of its own defeat. The website states:
The astonishing triumph of Donald Trump can be traced to the bitter defeat of Occupy Wall Street, a pro-democracy movement that transcended left and right, sparking unrest in hundreds of cities and rural towns in 2011. Occupy’s consensus-based encampments demanded that President Obama get money out of politics. Instead, we got mercilessly smashed by his progressive administration. Now the dark irony of history is bashing back.