The official May Day schedule can be found here, and lists the (supposedly) permitted march from Bryant Park at 8:00 in the morning, down to Union Square at 2:00, and then to Zuccotti Park at 5:30.
If you read that and thought to yourself, "official?" you’re not the only one. God, the NYPD, your mom and everyone else has noted the "Wildcat" strike that is meeting at 2nd and Houston at 1:00 p.m., as well as rumors of anywhere from one to one million bridges being shut down. Safe bet: the official march will be a controlled chaos of reasonably good vibes, and the periphery activities will threaten to get out of hand.
Things to note: May 2nd is the anniversary of bin Laden’s death. OWS doesn’t give a whit, but the city is going to be on a heightened terror alert anyway. And in the middle of a melee, who knows when a striking, hooded anarchist might look like a terrorist? On that note, six envelopes full of what turned out to be harmless white powder were delivered to Mayor Bloomberg's office and several banks around town, along with notes referencing May Day (though he did just threaten to shut down happy hour). Meanwhile, some activists got a visit from the authorities today.
More: the Wildcat march has instructed participants to wear hoodies. This is nothing special for Black Bloc movements, which use hoodies to a) look like badasses, and b) cover their faces. But the hoodie has since gained socio-political prominence after the Trayvon Martin shooting. OWS has a bad habit of becoming a Bring-Your-Own-Grievance umbrella protest, so expect the hoodie to take on as many meanings as it can fit.
Salon has a good rundown of the tangle of groups, messages, plans, and tactics that will be unfurled tomorrow. "Although pundits are looking at May Day as a referendum on Occupy’s relevance," Natasha Leonard writes, "it’s unclear what success in this case means or would look like." Remember that May Day started, and continues, as an immigrant and labor-led movement; the OWS part has been grafted on.
Buzzfeed has a leaked NYPD memo about it officers should expect. The memo's info is unexceptional—everything on it can be found on the first page of Google's search listings for "OWS May Day"—but its interpretations are heavy on the Black Bloc element:
Given that the NYC Hoodie March was announced after the Wildcat March and the emphasis of the Wildcat organizers on previous Black Bloc actions, it is possible that the march organizers have coordinated the times and locations of their marches in order to increase the number of hooded demonstrators–a hallmark of Black Bloc tactics–thereby expanding the operational space in which Black Bloc tactics can be used...Organizers of this action have advocated the use of so-called “Black-Bloc” tactics to confront the police, sometimes violently, like those experienced during the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh in 2009, in which barricades, rocks, and trash bins were used in clashes with law enforcement.
My favorite part of the memo:
There are fissures within OWS, but a "respect for diversity of tactics," which includes everything from peaceful protests to the kind of vandalism directed at Starbucks in April, when demonstrators tried to smash the windows at the Starbucks location at Astor Place, has been embraced by the movement.
Note the "tried to smash" jab. In other words, "Dear OWS, go to the gym, love, NYPD."
Also, while every other source I’ve read has called the main march "permitted," this NYPD memo, which was released on April 27, doesn’t consider the permitting a done deal. That may become a problem.
---
Related: Occupy Wall Street And The Problem Of The Police Chief
Join: PoliticOlogy
Follow: Evan Mcmurry @evanmcmurry | PoliticOlogy @OlogyPolitics
Comments (0)
Be the first to comment!