By Matthew Russell Lee
MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, November 30 -- When Occupy Wall Street protesters gathered on Seventh Avenue and 53rd Street across from a Barack Obama fundraiser Wednesday night, they did not know they would be penned in by police and detained. But it happened. Photos are on www.twitter.com/innercitypress
Inner City Press arrived across from the Sheraton Hotel fundraiser at 8:30 pm. Soon thereafter, police rushed and installed metal barricades behind the protest, penning it in. There were drums and signs, for example that "Obama is Controlled by Wall Street."
After a time, a long convoy of black vehicles passed, twice. After the second time, regular traffic resumed on Seventh Avenue and Broadway. But the protesters were not allowed to leave.
"The area is frozen," an NYPD Community Affairs officer told the Press, even as pedestrians on Broadway were visible behind him. It seemed clear that those who protested were being penalized. A cry went up about medical conditions. There was no response.
While under "sidewalk arrest" on the last day of November 2011, a comparison occurred to two other Obama fundraisers, before OWS began on September 17. Uptown at the Red Rooster, people strained for a view of Obama. In midtown, people tried to take pictures. And now, there are protests.
Some Obama supporters, including in the United Nations orbit, say that Occupy Wall Street helps Obama, because "the debate has shifted from the deficit to jobs."
It's said that SEIU intends to bus Occupiers to Washington for a staged "Occupy the Capitol" about the jobs bills.
But when the critique is, as it should be, on the big banks and their bailouts, Obama doesn't look so good. What's next? Watch this site.
