Last Saturday, December 17th, around 2:15pm I went with my friend Martin Bisi to Duarte Square, at the corner of Canal Street and 6th Avenue, to celebrate the three month anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement. We expected Lou Reed there to give a music contribution around 2 pm but he didn’t show up, which wasn’t a big deal.

When we arrived there many people, about a couple of hundreds, had already gathered and were getting ready to occupy the park and the fenced-off parking lot next door belonging to the Trinity Episcopal Church which refused to let them use the land as a campsite. As usual music, chanting and art performances were an important part of the protest.

With my little Japanese digital camera I documented the occupation attempt, which unfortunately failed. 65 people were arrested according to police charged mainly with disorderly conduct. A group of clergy members were also taken into custody.

I was happy to meet among the protesters two Iranians who were excited about OWS. They expressed their hopes that something like this would happen in their own country soon. Enshallah!

The video below is a special one: a female protester rcognizes a detective and calls him by his name!!