NEW YORK–Whether people agree with it or not, the Occupy Wall Street movement has made a strong public presence. While people such as Susan Sarandon, civil lawyers, and musicians support it, there are others who oppose it. The Epoch Times asked New Yorkers what they think about OWS and how they think the police and the media have treated the Occupy Wall Street movement.
Andre Behrens, Astoria, New York Times, 32
They [the media] were slow getting on the ball. … My Twitter feed had covered a fair amount of depth before I started reading about it in the papers.
We have a lot of unemployed young people and that is pretty much what you can expect from unemployed young people. If it wasn’t this, then it would be something else. I think it is good that they chose to use a nonviolent means of dealing with their situation rather than a violent one.
Emory Brooks, Manhattan, CEO of CCM Community Counseling & Mediation, 80
It wasn’t so bad in New York. … It is a tough question because I support what they did, and I consider the police response pretty mild in New York. It might have been different in other places though.
Saman Khan, Brooklyn, grad student, 28
I don’t think that the police handled it all that well. They shouldn’t have been pepper spraying random people and rather maliciously, it seemed like.
I think the media—from what I saw—covered it well. They covered all aspects of it—at least I think they did—but now it’s kind of an old hat at this point. It seems like that is how they are portraying it.
It was great that they [OWS protesters] were doing it, but they needed a plan to implement. I guess they were angry and frustrated, but I think they needed to channel that energy.
Jeff Sroole, Brooklyn, chef, 28
The police where trying to be as tolerant as they could considering that there were a lot of people occupying a public space.
The media treated it fairly. They showed objectives and an interpretation of what was going on. The police tried to be patient with it, but I think they felt like it was turning into a mess.
It needed to be made public for people to understand what was going on and … to draw attention to it. I am for it. It was nonviolent. I am glad it happened and I was here to see it.
