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?”

Thousands poured into St. Andrews Plaza, Foley Square, the Municipal Building Arcade and 1 Broadway on Chambers Street. (They may have been in City Hall Park.) The police made a line at the top of the staircase that connects St. Andrews Plaza with Police Plaza. [h/t Cynthia Kouril]

in front of the headquarters. They all sat down. Speakers stood up before the crowd and told the crowd about why they were in the plaza. But, there was one problem: the crowd was too big. That is a good problem but with no microphone or megaphone permitted they had to use “people’s mic” (which has been what the organizers use during their General Assemblies). The speaker could only say three or four words. The crowd immediately in front of the speaker would repeat what was said so everyone could hear. Then, a tier of people behind would repeat and then another tier of people behind that group would repeat what was said. Needless to say most of the speeches were brief.

The occupation has rapidly picked up union support in the past few days. The latest indication that big unions are willing to encourage their members to participate in Occupy Wall Street comes from AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, who The Nation‘s John Nichols reports has said it is “a valid tactic to call attention to a problem. Wall Street is out of control.”

The nearly two week occupation of a New York park near Wall Street known as Occupy Wall Street, initially undertaken by a few, has grown into a significant mobilization of people. The action should not have to be anything more than what it is at face value. The presence of hundreds if not thousands of Americans confronting a beast, whose greed, recklessness and illegal acts resulted in the collapse of the US economy, should not be something Americans show cynicism toward.

The executive board of the New York City’s Local 100 Transit Workers’ Union has endorsed Occupy Wall Street. The decision means they will be holding a “coordinating meeting,” according to Lisa Sabater of The Daily Gotham, with community and labor organization to decide how to “come together and better support the Occupy Wall Street campaign.” This is very significant news. It gives the action further credibility and adds to the support New York postal workers and the PSC union of City University of New York have shown to the occupation.