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Thursday, May 24, 2012
April 6, 2009

Walled Street Protest

NBWallStreet.jpg

BNN contributer Nina Berman offers us this view of the Wall Street protest this weekend. (If you missed it, we ran Mario Tama’s take-away on Sunday.)

Noting the relative lack of emotion, enthusiasm, anger, Nina writes:

Most demonstrations are this way now in the US, because of the security barriers in place, and the restrictions on permits. Demonstrating on Wall Street on a day when no one is working, definitely robs the action of any confrontational energy.

The irony here is overwhelming, including the stillness of “the canyon,” the solitary policeman married to the unnecessary double- and even triple-barriers, and the hand-held banners juxtaposed with the fluttering Wall Street health club sign.

(image: ©Nina Berman. New York. April 1, 2009)

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  • Peter Calvin

    The word “context” comes to mind, standing back and putting the event in context. Wonderful image.

  • http://profile.typepad.com/6p01053714e4e4970b Karen H.

    I’ve always wondered why US protests are so tame compared to other countries. Even the antiwar protests in 2003 were relatively calm. I wonder if the UK protesters got permits prior to last week’s events.
    The boxed in quality of the photo, redundant and powerful parallel lines starting with the barriers and enforced by the architecture really makes it seem like there is nowhere for the protesters to go.

  • http://profile.typepad.com/wisewebwoman wisewebwoman

    This clearly shows the muzzling of all protests, how frustrating it is to be hidden by so many barriers, how alienated they all are. Powerful photo.

  • DanM

    Ugh, those barriers.
    The Bush administration and, by extension, the paranoid authoritarianism that comes with ’safety protocol’, took the opportunity to cow us all and New York City in particular after September, 2001 — who ever heard of roping off half of Manhattan for the benefit of the RNC, or of “free speech” zones, before?
    Now here are the protesters, as the economy before them, parading like cows…led…

  • JayDenver

    DanM: I agree. Cattle down a chute.

  • Patriot for Truth

    “You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred. You cannot build character and courage by taking away people’s initiative and independence. You cannot help people permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves.”
    -Abraham Lincoln-

  • Harold Pomeroy

    October 29, 1979, same corner: I was part of a blockade of the stock exchange over investing in nuclear power. I sat in a spot about three feet behind that banner. The scene was wild, a thousand protesters getting hauled away, Men in Ties jumping over anti capitalist demonstrators, Bread and Puppet theater giant puppets on stilts jousting with cops on horses, professional NYPD cops taking it all in stride. Quite a contrast.
    Harold

  • Raph Levien

    Not Abraham Lincoln, but William J. H. Boetcker, 1916. But what does that (mis-)quote have to do with the price of tea in China anyway?

  • http://profile.typepad.com/johntanton jtfromBC

    A bleak, dark and depressing scene, it has an Ingmar Bergman feel about it.

  • yg

    the ways the streets and sidewalks are deserted. and the furtive positioning of the camera, hiding in the shadows, suggests the march is quasi-illegal or highly frowned upon. and that this is a dangerous activity and the prudent thing to do is to stay home and not to get involved.
    it isn’t, of course. but that’s what the visuals suggest. i even imagined the sounds to be muted. spooky.

  • yg

    show me an economist who thinks the prudent thing to do in a recession is to cut spending.

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