Protests and Demonstrations

May Day Rallies, Though Diminished from Last Year, Show Alliance-Building for New York's Left

So much can change in a year. Last May Day, the amount of organizing energy and media hype surrounding plans for the annual holiday was staggering. For the first time in recent memory, unions and immigrant organizations, which had historically held separate May Day rallies, came together for a huge ... More >>

Federal Court Rules NYPD's Mass Arrests During 2004 Republican National Convention Unlawful

A U.S. District Court judge ruled yesterday that the NYPD unlawfully arrested and fingerprinted hundreds of protestors during the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York City.U.S. District Court Judge Richard Sullivan found that the NYPD acted unlawfully when it carried out mass arrests of d ... More >>

Questions Raised About NYPD's Claims Linking Occupy Wall Street To Murder

The story was so peculiar that you knew there had to be at least one more shoe poised to drop. Last night, the local NBC affiliate ran a story based on an unnamed source leaking the following information: There had been a break in the eight-years-cold investigation of the murder of Sarah Fox in Inw ... More >>

Stuart Varney Claims (Based On Literally Nothing) That OWS Is Recruiting Paid Protesters On Craigslist

Good news for the Occupy Wall Street folks: you can now be an OWS "bum" and get paid for it -- that's according to Fox News' Stuart Varney, anyway, who claims (based on literally nothing) that OWS is recruiting paid protesters via-Craigslist to "hang out" in Zuccotti Park today and tomorrow (spoiler ... More >>

The Music of May Day

Over at Sound of the City, a look at the soundtrack to today's protests. JD Samson of MEN talks to Nick Pinto about the band's concert for the protestors later tonight. Dan Deacon also talks about his afternoon performance and AWKward muses about the Occupy Wall Street movement in general. There's ... More >>

Q&A: Dan Deacon Talks Politics, Patriotism, And Occupy Wall Street

Dan Deacon is one of several big name musicians playing a free concert in Union Square tomorrow at 4 p.m. We spoke to him recently about why Occupy Wall Street resonates with him and why he considers himself a political artist. Village Voice: You're playing a free show in Union Square for May Day, ... More >>

Mayor Bloomberg Agrees with Christine Quinn: Parks Dept. Should Control Spaces Like Zuccotti

​Mike Bloomberg agrees with City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who hopes to replace him as mayor in 2013: Public spaces like Zuccotti Park should fall under the jurisdiction of the city's Parks Department and not private owners. Commenting on the ongoing debate around the rights of Occupy Wal ... More >>

Tibetan Hunger Strikers Enter Day 29 of Protest Outside The United Nations

Despite the hospitalization of one protester and police pressure, three Tibetans -- including one monk -- have entered the 29th day of a hunger strike outside the U.N., decrying China's harsh oppression of the Himalayan state. Dorjee Gyalpo, 59, was taken to the hospital on Monday, Tsewang Rigzin, ... More >>

Matt Taibbi Joins Occupy Wall Street for Anti-Corporate Protest

Occupy Wall Street protesters held their biggest march so far this year today as part of a nationwide "Shut Down the Corporations" day of action. Several hundred occupiers gathered in Bryant Park this morning before marching east on 42nd Street to the global headquarters of Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, ... More >>

Occupy Wall Street Journalist Tim Pool Hit By Masked Man Last Night

Luke RudkowskiThis guy hit a journalist last night.​Hundreds of people marched through Manhattan last night to protest the mass arrests in Oakland the day before. In some ways, the action was a lot like many Occupy Wall Street marches that have come before -- chanting, weaving through neighbor ... More >>

NYU to Offer an Occupy Wall Street Class Next Semester

nyu4ows.tumblr.com​Occupy Wall Street is now official enough to enter the halls of higher education. Next semester, NYU's department of Social and Cultural Analysis will offer a course called "Cultures and Economies: Why Occupy Wall Street?" The course description:

To the Barricades, Variously

A new wave of student activism hits New York City

Occupy Wall Street National Day of Action: Live Updates From Downtown Manhattan

Nick PintoThe NYSE, which protestors did not stop from opening today​Good afternoon, and welcome to the evening edition of the Village Voice liveblog of Occupy Wall Street's Day of Action. Today, November 17, marks the two month anniversary since Occupy Wall Street began in Zuccotti Park. Pro ... More >>

Andre Gregory, Actor, Screenwriter: OWS Not All That Different From Early Vietnam War Protests

Today, amid the roiling Occupy Wall Street protests, we bumped into Andre Gregory, who wrote and acted in the iconic 1981 film, "My Dinner With Andre." Standing on the sidewalk outside Trinity Church on Broadway, Gregory, now 77 and looking very fit, said he decided to attend the protest because he ... More >>

Sculpture of Sleeping Protester Occupies Zuccotti

​Artist Norman Kirby's sculpture, "Figure Sleeping on the Ground," depicts a body curled up beneath a blanket. It now lives in Zuccotti Park with the hundreds of flesh and blood Occupy Wall Street protesters, and Kirby says he was inspired to make it after spending one night in the park. "It w ... More >>

MTV's 'True Life: I'm Occupying Wall Street' Coming Very Soon

Bryan, a star of 'True Life: I'm Occupying Wall Street'​Last week we confirmed that MTV's Real World is looking for Occupy Wall Street protesters to be on season 27. But that's not all: MTV is also coming out with an episode of True Life starring Occupy Wall Street protesters, as New York Tim ... More >>

"Occupy Wall Street" Exploitation Examined By Olbermann and I

​On last night's Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Keith and I chewed over the weird way TV and movie cameras have been diving onto Occupy Wall Street, from the Real World casting notice looking for activists to the alleged Dark Knight Rises flirtation with marching extras.

Cooper Square Committee Protests Cooper Union Over St. Mark's Bookshop Rent

Jocelyn Silver​Cooper Union held an inauguration ceremony today at noon for new president Jamshed Bharucha. In keeping with the revolutionary trend sweeping NYC, the Cooper Square Community Development Committee and Businessmen's Association staged a rather low-key protest for the struggling S ... More >>

Felix Rivera-Pitre, Protester Sought for Arrest After Being Punched by Cop, Inspires March to D.A.'s Office

C.S. Muncy​One of the more recent instances of alleged police brutality against Occupy Wall Street protesters involves Felix Rivera-Pitre, who was allegedly punched by a police officer identified as Deputy Inspector Johnny Cardona last week after the movement won the right to stay in Zuccotti ... More >>

Citibank Releases Statement Regarding Arrests

Yesterday, we reported that 24 people were arrested after protesting at a Citibank near Washington Square Park. The above video shows the demonstrators locked inside the branch and police arriving on the scene. Some protesters say they were merely trying to close their accounts, while the police ch ... More >>

Does Anyone Really Believe the Postponed "Cleaning" of Zuccotti Park was Brookfield's Decision? [UPDATED]

​Our Harry Siegel, who has been in Zuccotti Park since 9:00 PM last night, just phoned in to pose this question: "Does anyone really think this was Brookfield's decision?"

Right-Wing Sites Succumb To Silly Occupy Wall Street Conspiracies

A wave of reports "exposing" the secret liberal money behind the Wall Street occupation has been cresting over the right-wing blogosphere, which has been at a loss to explain how a movement of dumb dirty hippies has managed to build up attention and support rather than explode or fade away. The answ ... More >>

Times Square Could Get Occupy Wall Street Billboards

EpicStep, a kickstarter-esque website that crowdsources funds for billboards, has pledged to pay for an Occupy Wall Street billboard if 20,000 people vote for it on their website. People can vote on the design and city where it will be built, and if enough people vote, EpicStep will fund it. If 200, ... More >>

Occupy the Hood Aims to Bring More Minorities Into the Occupy Wall Street Fold

Occupy Wall Street wants to represent the "99 percent." But if you've been down to observe the goings-on at Zuccotti Park, you'll have noticed that the majority of participants are white, which -- at the risk of sounding obvious! -- does not represent 99 percent of the U.S. population. Now, labor un ... More >>

Why Did the New York Times Change Their Brooklyn Bridge Arrests Story?

​The above photo of juxtaposed screenshots from the New York Times website has been making the rounds on Facebook, and it shows two very different takes for the same story on yesterday's Brooklyn Bridge arrests. The screenshot on the left, from 6:59 p.m., appears to reflect what many protester ... More >>

'Occupy Wall Street Journal' Surpasses Kickstarter Goal

Occupy Wall Street is starting to look less like an extended camping trip (kind of): It now has a mailing address, an info line, and it will soon have its own newspaper. The Occupy Wall Street Journal has surpassed its $12,000 fundraising goal on Kickstarter and looks like it might actually be a rea ... More >>

Occupy Wall Street, Day Three: Inefficiency Starts to Cripple Protest

This is what democracy looks like.​The Occupy Wall Street protest drew thousands of demonstrators to the Financial District this weekend, when the markets were closed and the neighborhood was largely a ghost town. This morning, as the inexplicably-timed protest entered its third day, demonstr ... More >>

Groups Plan Counter Protests to NOM and Westboro Church on Same-Sex Sunday

MENY will use this to keep Westboro Church from raining on their parade​Same-sex marriage is now less than two days away! Both NOM (the National Organization for Marriage) and Westboro Baptist Church are coming to town on Sunday to protest the happy occasion. We've just gotten word how two ci ... More >>

The G20 Summit is Blowing Up Toronto

​Dress in all black, blow up a car, run. That's the general idea of attending the Group of 20 Summit this weekend in Toronto, if you're not invited to the shirt-and-tie party. As usual, the facist-hating environmental activists are causing a ruckus at the meetings where the world's most import ... More >>

Tea Party Upstaged by Thai Party, Which Serves Actual Blood

​The Tea Party protesters -- who believe themselves the true heirs of Patrick Henry and other martyrs for freedom -- are preparing for a day of anti-health-care protests in D.C. They call the event "The People's Surge Against Obamacare 2.0" and say they will "storm Capitol Hill" this morning. ... More >>

Clip Job: Mailer Wouldn't Duck and Cover

Protestors, Former Queens Beep Exchange Taunts Over Willets Park

The Sean Bell Protests in the Papers: Peaceful and Orderly

Grandmothers of Invention

Older is bitter—when it comes to the war in Iraq. A peek inside the granny-power movement.

17 War Protesters Arrested

Frustration, mourning on the third anniversary of the Iraq invasion

Cops Turn Pepper Spray on Anarchists

Draft Kerry!

Guantanamo on the Hudson

Judge orders immediate release of 470 protesters

Cuisine de Clink

Planning to protest the RNC? Fine dining awaits you at the city's swankiest prisons

It's Confirmed: Protesters Are Terrorists

Arousing the Protesters

Special Cuffing Prevents Hanky-Panky

CityState

Activists Push Back at NYPD

Rescuing Protest Before Bush '04

Dying to Dissent

Antiwar Protesters Draw Ire From Counterdemonstrators in New York

Arrest Watch: NY Jails Called Unprepared

Seven Activists Freed

Checking in for Waldorf Hysteria

Free Traders and Fair Traders in Stalemate as CEOs Converge on New York

Death in Genoa

Flash Point: Los Angeles

Arrests Climb as Police Practice Politics of Kevlar

Demonstrate This

Faced With a Powder Keg, Philly Cops Struck the Match

Dragged Naked Through Water Trough

Prisoners Say Brutality Continues in Philly Jail