Occupy Wall Street: police violence reveals a corrupt system

Better-off Occupy Wall Street protesters are learning something about the relationship between citizen and state

• • Laurie Penny
  • guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 15 November 2011 13.40 GMT

Solidarity with the police has turned to outrage. Photograph: Lucas Jackson/Reuters

At four in the morning in lower Manhattan, as what remains of the Occupy Wall Street encampment is loaded into trash compacters, some protesters have still not given up on the police. Kevin Sheneberger tries to engage one NYPD officer in a serious debate about the role of law enforcement in public protest. Then he sees them loading his friend’s tent into the back of a rubbish truck. Behind him, a teenage girl holds a hastily written sign saying: “NYPD, we trusted you – you were supposed to protect us!”

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