Stop Bitching. Start a Revolution.

I honestly don't know what today's movement was/is called. Occupy May Day? General Strike? Occupy this, not that? (Ok, that last name is what I've decided to call it.) I also don't understand what the hell was trying to be accomplished today but let's save that for another day.

Anyway, my Tuesday evening started out fairly pleasant.

Yes, I noticed the abundance of cops and barricades in Lower Manhattan. But to me, it's nothing out of the ordinary. There's always something going on outside of City Hall. And when I saw that there were cops and barricades in SoHo, I still didn't think too much of it. Although, I will admit, my curiosity was a bit piqued.  One minute the bustling streets in SoHo during rush hour were exactly that - bustling. Five minutes later I emerge from a store and it looks like this:

Broadway is free of traffic. People are literally stopping in the middle of the street and looking dumbfounded and snapping pictures of the rarity (and of themselves). I too am astonished. But I know better. Something is up. I make my way a little further north and "park" myself at an intersection and on the west side of Broadway. (You can never be too safe!! I am not getting stuck in chaos. And I know some sort of chaos is on it's way.) Sure enough text messages and cops confirm that the Occupy moment is taking place. *Lightbulb moment!* How could I have forgotten?! I briefly heard about it on the news and perhaps, I pushed it out of my mind because I doubted the turnout. Afterall, I work mere blocks from the OWS origin and I haven't seen any sort of occupation taking place there in many many weeks. But alas, the quiet, eerie , rare moment of silence quickly comes to an end. And we get this:

The start of the Occupy movement march.

NYC's Finest with their plastic cuffs.

(And at times like this, I actually prefer not to be near cops. God knows what kinds of chaos might ensue.)

One of many groups of protesters.

The 99%. Who incidentally gave up protesting.

He stood on the "sidelines" for the 30+ minutes I watched the march.

An arrest of what I imagine would turn into media sensationalism.

No, I did not see this guy get arrested or what even led to the arrest.

What I did see, was the cop simply walking him to the police car. Literally, no fuss going on from either party.

And then 1.1 seconds later, tens of photographers and "journalists" swarm him and take pictures. Hence, I call it sensationalism.

I saw nothing out of the ordinary other than the arresting cop had on a helmet.
His helmet makes things look extreme but as far as I know, there was no violence going on the block I stood on for 30+ minutes.

The march was interesting, to say the least. Again, from what I saw, a primarily peaceful protest. Yet a protest with a thousand messages...

• "Police wall street, not my pregnancy."
• "Money for education, not war."
• "Workers rights are human rights."
• "Students and woman united."
• "Capitalism kills fun."

And my absolute fave:

• "Stop bitching. Start a revolution."

And on that thought-provoking note, I leave you with this final picture from the march.

Kid  n Play anyone? I think he's starting his own type of revolution.