Bermudian in thick of NY protest

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18: A Bermudian artist has described being at the heart a police swoop this week to clear a park of Occupy Wall Street protestors in New York.

Tarah Caiside, 25, flew to New York from Bermuda last month to join the protest in the heart of the city’s financial district.

She had been living in Zuccotti Park — the tent city set up by protestors —  until it was cleared by police in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Ms Caiside said: “We were standing up and we saw a van come around the corner — as soon as we saw it, we knew they were going to clear it.

“Lights went on and we were surrounded. We were told to take our stuff and go. We didn’t get any eviction notice which we should have done.

“Instead, they came and blocked off all the surrounding streets. People outside the park weren’t allowed to get back in and get their stuff. I have one friend who lost everything, all her ID and even her house keys.

“The police took entire tents , put them in garbage trucks and crushed them. They dragged away grandmothers – it was absolute police brutality and total disrespect for humanity.”

“I’ve been manhandled myself and I have bruises on my arms from being pushed around – but some people have worse injuries than that.”

Ms Caiside said she was inspired to support the camp after seeing reports of the anti-capitalist protest movement. She added: “I really wanted to see what was happening here so I got on a plane and came straight to Wall Street.

The artist and designer, 25, added: “I really don’t know why I did it — I just felt a really strong desire to be here and offer my support.

“My mom’s American so I’m reaching out to a country I know well. I’m definitely the only Bermudian who occupied the park,  I know that for a fact.

“People here are inspired and pleased that somebody would come so far to be part of something like this. They’re proud it’s had such an effect.”

Ms Caiside added that the camp in Zuccotti Park in Manhattan had attracted people from all over the US and from as far away as North Africa.

She said: “It’s mind-boggling – it’s hard to put into words. It’s such a big thing and to be part of it is amazing. We’ve been called hippies and useless, but we’ve got people thinking about why we’re doing this and that means we’ve succeeded right there.

“The only demand we have is for the world to wake up and not accept injustice.”

Ms Caiside said she had visited Egypt just after the revolution earlier this year that ended the 30-year reign of president Hosni Mubarak.

She added: “It was a really difficult time to be there, but it was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen in my life – proof that ordinary people can make huge changes.”

Police in riot gear evicted hundreds of protestors from the park after a judge upheld a New York City Council application to clear the park and bar people from sleeping their overnight.

Around 200 were arrested in and around the park.

The park had been occupied for nearly two months in a protest over a financial system which demonstrators say favours the rich and corporations over ordinary people.

The Occupy Wall Street movement has sparked similar protests in other cities, including the British capital London and Toronto.

I can’t quite remember what I thought this place was going to be like before I came here. I can barely grasp what my perception of the world was before I came. All I know is that my existence down to its very core has been altered in this experience and how I perceive the world forever changed.

In this organized chaos of an empowered population, I have found the community I have always longed to be a part of.

I have witnessed absolute love and courage. We are in the midst of a complete shift in the consciousness of the general population. To be part of that is an indescribably beautiful thing.

I came here for a week but out of what feels like sheer necessity, it has now been over a month that I have occupying Liberty Square. ‘

Anyone just arriving would have been overcome by the apparent chaos but after a few questions and a walk around, it was easy to see that this is as organized as any grassroots movement can be, given the space and loosely defined rules of occupation according to police.

There was a library, kitchen, medic, free cigarettes and a comfort station providing everything one might need from clothes to dry blankets and chapstick. We took care of each other and provided entirely for ourselves, even creating our own energy.

That was all until Tuesday morning (November 15), when police invaded the park, giving absolutely no notice of eviction and presenting no form of legal documentation in regards to their actions. They blocked people from returning to the park, even going as far as shutting down subways to stop the backlash. They violently trashed personal property of individuals who were prevented from retrieving their belongings from blocks away. People deserved an eviction notice, even if it had just been 1 hour to vacate.

The backlash to this revolution has embarrassed systems of control and should put everything in question. The great lengths that our governments will go when clinging to power and control is becoming overwhelmingly clear to the average person. Or at least it should be.

People arrested meditating, 80-year-old grandmothers and veterans, demanding that billionaires pay up the same way they have, dragged, beaten and treated people as sub-human. We are all fighting for an egalitarian future.

Being here I have seen how judged we are, how the government and often the media twists and distorts the truth. My conclusions contradict all I have read about. Our reasons for being here have been questioned and the demand for our one goal expressed but even without answering that, this movement has succeeded. The goal of this movement is the awareness itself.

I believe we need to allow our politics and our economies to evolve just as humanity has. This is not the best we can be and even after we redesign every facet of how our society functions, we should still not consider it perfect and allow it to evolve to suit the current state of humanity, whatever that may be.

A future based on principles of egalitarianism and a greater understanding for one another.