Occupy Building 7 March Impacts Manhattan: Police, OWS Protesters Informed About Explosive 9/11 Evidence |
Written by Wayne Coste | ||||||||||||
Thursday, 22 December 2011 01:52 | ||||||||||||
With assistance provided by Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth, the Remember Building 7 campaign and NYC CAN organized Occupy Building 7, a two-day protest designed to raise awareness about the destruction of Building 7, the third World Trade Center skyscraper to fall on 9/11. On November 19 and 20, the marches and vigils were held from Zuccotti Park in the Wall Street District of Manhattan along the sidewalks for several blocks to the site of the rebuilt WTC Building 7.
Zuccotti Park, which is the heart of the Occupy Wall Street movement, lies in the figurative shadow of the Twin Towers and in the literal shadow of their replacement tower that is currently under construction and now reaches over 20 stories into the air.
Each day of our Occupy Building 7 demonstration started with an assembly in front of Zuccotti Park along Broadway, where we held the Occupy Building 7 and AE911Truth banners. When we arrived at the park, there were about two dozen occupiers inside the fenced-in area that now defines the park’s perimeter.
During the next hour, the crowds grew and pedestrians clogged the sidewalks on Church and Broadway. From there, Occupy Building 7 volunteers handed out the 9/11 Investigator newspaper and other materials to the pedestrians and other onlookers. The approach that seemed to draw the most attention was, “Did you know? Did you know that over 1600 architects and engineers are calling for a new investigation into the destruction of World Trade Center Building Seven? Here! Take a copy of our newspaper!" We were able to pass out copies to about a third of the groups that walked by.
On Sunday, with fewer people and no drums, we expected it to be an unremarkable march. Fortunately, before the start of the march, one of our supporters came up with a chant that more than made up for the absent drums:
This worked great, and we got lots of attention and were really noticed by the sightseers. Once we arrived at the park outside of Building 7, we found that it had been closed and there were barricades set up to contain the marchers. Our website and Facebook announcements were obviously noticed by law enforcement, as there were about 25-30 New York City and Port Authority police officers waiting for us. They acknowledged our right to march on the sidewalk, but noted that the park in front of Building 7 was officially closed.
I approached the police leadership and chatted with them about what the Occupy Building 7 march was all about and what our plans were. They said they had all lost comrades in the Twin Towers on 9/11. Then I gave them my four reasons for being involved with AE911Truth, which are included in the speech that is partially documented below. Following this positive interaction with the police, some of us gave short speeches. Sander Hicks, the author of “Slingshot to the Juggernaut”, was very supportive of our message. He commented about how he has traveled across the country to different Occupy sites and found a strong 9/11 presence among occupiers everywhere. “9/11 was the catalyst for the destruction of civil liberties,” he said. “No questions were asked when giving away money and power to the military industrial complex, and it is clear to me that the voice of everyday people was drowned out.”
As we began walking around the new Building 7, one of the things that stood out was how cooperative and helpful the police were to us. They escorted us as we walked around the building once, returned to Zuccotti Park and then went back to Building 7 for a second loop. While their official role was as observers and chaperones, I felt their presence as a solidarity accompaniment. I was told afterward that some of the marchers were quietly asked for information about the 9/11 evidence by the police. It appears that the message was getting through to some of the police, who now saw us as courageous educators instead of just persistent protesters. First: I am a witness to a mass murder in which the people who pushed the buttons and brought the towers down are still “at-large.” I then closed it with my strongest outreach statement: When I talk to firefighters, sometimes I hear that 9/11 is so far in the past. “Can't we let it drop?” people ask. To which I reply: Imagine you are a firefighter at the scene of an arson, and a sniper takes down one of your teammates. When are you going to stop looking for the shooter? Probably never. Somebody killed at least 411 firefighters, first responders and policemen with a push of a button…and that person is still out there today. We know this to be true.
Others addressed the police, stating our common concern with them about their connection to the ill and dying first responders.
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