Text by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi

Saturday, December 17th, 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.

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. Read more about this rally here.

The day before yesterday eight OWS protesters were found guilty of trespassing. Seven of them were sentenced to community service and one, Mark Adams, was sentenced to 45 days in jail and sent to Rikers Island. Unbelievable! I don’t know what he did, but to put him in Rikers Island isn’t fair and doesn’t make sense. The Lawyers Guild, which represented him and the others are going to appeal this verdict.