Lessons For Black Protesters: 7 Things That Will Blow Your Mind About How the Occupy Wall Street Movement Was Crushed

253301-occupy-wall-street-march-protests-in-new-yorkLate-Night Ambush

In a move that caught protesters completely by surprise, New York City police in riot gear raided Zuccotti Park around 1 a.m. on Nov. 15, 2011, using bullhorns to announce that any protesters who did not leave faced arrest. Dozens of people were arrested, and dozens more were arrested when they tried to reoccupy their former camps in later months. The movement was founded on the idea of physical occupation representing a piece of land. And once the camps were broken up, they were unable to rebuild momentum, even though some tried and were arrested.

Chase-Police-State
Even the U.S. Military Was Involved

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), which assisted with the transport of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, kept its eyes on Occupy Wall Street and reported on OWS and organized labor for the port actions. This is the same NCIS that describes itself as “an elite worldwide federal law enforcement organization” whose “mission is to investigate and defeat criminal, terrorist and foreign intelligence threats to the United States Navy and Marine Corps ashore, afloat and in cyberspace.”

Still independent.

We hope this story was worth your time. For over 14 years, Atlanta Black Star has stayed Black-owned and independently run. We didn't get here by waiting on ad budgets that were never built to prioritize us. Our readers did that.

Corporate support for Black media has always been thin. Outlets like ours get roughly 1% of the $170 billion spent on U.S. advertising each year, and that margin is shrinking further as advertisers walk back the DEI-linked commitments they made in 2020. That's the backdrop. It's not why we're asking.

The wider picture isn't any steadier. Newspaper ad revenue has fallen more than 80% since 2005, and local newsrooms are closing at a rate of roughly two a week nationwide. When outlets go under, it's rarely the ones built to center a Black perspective from the ground up that get to stick around.

We know a request for support isn't why you came here. But without readers choosing to fund this work directly, the depth of reporting we can do at home and abroad shrinks along with everyone else's. If you're not in a position to give, that doesn't change how much we value you as a reader.

If you are able to, a recurring contribution does more for us than a single one-time gift, because it lets us plan the next investigation instead of just the next invoice. It takes about 30 seconds, no long form, no account. Thank you for continuing to support independent journalism and freedom of the press.

Back to top