What the rest of the country has been seeing in 2 dimensions on television or reading about from an extremely snarky print media can’t possibly transmit the level of intelligence, energy, commitment and humanity being produced by this assembly. This is an amazingly diverse crowd, I had a long talk with an economist from Bakersfield California, a blogger from Philadelphia, a teacher from Albany, as well as a collection of old school radicals who’ve been waiting almost 40 years for something like this to reappear.

The nature of the occupation’s organization hinges upon the belief that electoral politics have failed to address gross injustices. It rests upon the idea that no piece of legislation will provide the solution to systemic problems in society. It stems from the notion that petitions, calling your representative, going to conferences and holding permitted rallies and marches have been ineffective. Corporate and special interests control the agencies, bureaucracies, institutions and politicians, which participate in the electoral and political process, so much that citizens have virtually no power to influence how dire problems are addressed.

Interesting to see the establishment media begin to cope with protests outside the political process they control. The venerable New York Times has an opinion piece up today, poking at the nascent movement. The writer reminds me of one of Kubrick’s monkeys, working his courage up to touch the monolith in 2001 A Space Odyssey.

Last night I was arrested for the first time. Why? Because I took part in Occupy Wall Street by showing up to document this historic event. I’m only one of over 700 that were arrested. I can’t speak for everyone there, but I can speak for myself. What follows is my account of what happened yesterday afternoon along with photos that I took during the march. But first let me preface this by saying that while supportive of the Occupy Wall Street event, and inspired by the actions of ordinary people standing up to demand an end to corporate greed and corruption, as a busy student I was not “mobilized” into action. Yesterday’s actions by the NYPD, however, have turned me into one pissed off and mobilized person, as I’m sure it has many.

So much for the idea that there isn’t a specific policy message coming out of the Occupy Wall Street protests. This video, from the Institute for Policy Studies, which has been widely linked on the We Are the 99% Tumblr page, shows how easy it is to convert the frustrations of a generation of poor and disenfranchised people into action.

With nowhere near the numbers of Occupy Wall Street over the past week or so, and no notoriety yet, D.C. launched its occupation yesterday at McPherson Square, attracting about 125 people throughout the day, and facilitators held two general assembly meetings, one this morning and another in the late afternoon. I was at the late afternoon meeting with 75 other people on the edge of McPherson Square at the corner of Vermont Avenue and 15^th Street NW.

It looks like police entrapped the protesters on the bridge. The NYPD could have just kept going on the bridge and then led the protesters to a side road on the other side and asked them to disperse. The participants would have made their way back to Zuccotti Park, where the occupation has been taking place in lower Manhattan near Wall Street. But, the police led hundreds to unknowingly commit one of the most powerful acts of civil disobedience in recent American history.

Los Angeles knows how to throw a demonstration: Prop 8′s demos were great, Chanology was epic, and May Day 2007 made world news and changed the LAPD riot repsonse. So I was expecting some goodness re: OccupyLA, even though–form their Facebook page, things seemed a little disorganized–like camping at City Hall despite sprinklers going off at 8pm, no porta-potties, fear mongering that we’d all get pepper-sprayed, questions about access for the disabled and worries about what to wear (sunblock goes with everything!).

Well, kudos to the General Assembly to pulling it off.

UPDATE: Police confront protesters on the Brooklyn Bridge.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, in his weekly appearance on “The John Gambling Show” on AM WOR710, addressed the persistence of those participating Occupy Wall Street in Zuccotti Park. It was an example of a member of the power elite voicing his or her contempt for protest. It was also clear that Gambling has scorn for the protest, too, as the discussion begins with the question, “How do you end that thing?”