© OccupyWallSt.orgA poster for Saturday's planned Occupy Wall Street rally.
After a series of evictions at their encampments around the country, Occupy Wall Street protesters want the next phase of their movement to begin in a vacant lot on Canal Street and Sixth Avenue that's owned by Trinity Church, but the church won't let them use the space. On Saturday, the demonstrators plan to mark the three month anniversary of Occupy Wall Street with a rally. According to a press release sent out by the Occupy Wall Street media team, Saturday's event is designed as "part of a call to re-occupy in the wake of the coordinated attacks and subsequent evictions of occupations" and an effort to "urge Trinity Church to do the right thing."
Occupy Wall Street has struggled to evolve since NYPD officers
evicted the protesters from their original home in Zuccotti Park on November 15. Two days later, the occupiers protested the raid with a
massive march across the Brooklyn Bridge, but since then, the movement has seemingly lost steam in New York as the number of large scale protest actions here dwindled and Occupy encampments in other cities were raided including
Boston,
Los Angeles and
Portland.
Protesters have had their eyes on Trinity's lot ever since their eviction from Zuccotti Park. Occupiers asked Trinity to let them use the space the morning after the police raid and, earlier this month, attempted to convince the church to let them use the space with a hunger strike. Trinity Wall Street has allowed the protesters to use another space they own near Ground Zero for meeting space, wi fi and power outlets, but the church has opposed allowing the occupiers in the Canal Street lot. When the hunger strike began, Trinity Wall Street sent a
statement to the
Observer affirming their support for "the vigorous engagement of the issues which Occupy Wall Street has raised" and explaining their objections to letting protesters Occupy the lot.
Comment: Apparently the TSA have gone beyond transit security checks and road checkpoints and are now bringing the Gestapo checkpoints to a Wal-Mart in the middle of nowhere in Illinois. We hope that you don't shop at Wal-Mart, but if you do.. don't be surprised if you see the
TSAGestapo there wanting to search you for bombs.