Occupy Wall Street Journalist Tim Pool Hit By Masked Man Last Night

[SunsetDreams]

Wow watch the video!

Reporter goes after the masked men

"Isn't Transparency a principle of Solidarity?....If you break that you should not be a part of this movement."

"Violence attacks on anybody are not welcome here."

Hundreds of people marched through Manhattan last night to protest the mass arrests in Oakland the day before. In some ways, the action was a lot like many Occupy Wall Street marches that have come before -- chanting, weaving through neighborhoods, occasionally sprinting to outflank the police, finally petering out.

But there were some new elements too: More of the protesters wore black and masked their faces, a protest tactic called Black Bloc that makes it harder for police to pick individuals out of the crowd. Snapple-bottles and soda cans were thrown at police. And a well-known video journalist was assaulted by a masked marcher.

Tim Pool was covering the march last night, livestreaming his video and commentary, when a masked protester ahead of him whirled and struck him, knocking the phone he uses as a camera out of his hands. (You can see Pool's video below.)

Luke Rudkowski, another Occupy Wall Street journalist who livestreams as We Are Change, was nearby. He pulled the attacker's mask down, and captured him on camera. This morning, Rudkowski tweeted stills showing the attacker's face.

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2012/01/occupy_wall_str_44.php


Thanks to pinboy3niner this is the correct video
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/20106207/highlight/237057

(the one linked with the article, doesn't show the attack on Tim Pool)

[pinboy3niner]

1. That's the wrong video

It's from mid-November, when Pool encountered vandals following the eviction of OWS from Zucotti Park.

I think the video you meant to post is this one:
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/20106207/highlight/237057

[dionysus]

3. it was provocateurs, man!

[SidDithers]

11. Damn, should have read the thread before replying...

Sid

[snooper2]

4. Both videos show a bunch of idiot tools...

[SunsetDreams]

7. Thank you I posted the one that is linked with the article

I'll add that one to the OP

[dionysus]

2. thats terrible, his coverage is riveting.

[SunsetDreams]

9. yes it is

[leveymg]

5. Here's the VillageVoice blog with a link to the story as told by the videographer.

The journo covers meetings where "direct actions" (presumably stuff that draws in the cops), and he says he was told he was going to be bounced The photog filmed some of those meetings. Here: http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2012/01/occupy_wall_str_44.php .

Seems to me, if you're looking for agents provocateur, that's where you might look first.

The attack looked preplanned, right down to someone shining a blinding LED light just before the cameraman was punched.

[Magoo48]

6. Keep moving forward. Keep learning. There will be bumps in the road.

[starroute]

8. If the choice is transparency vs. secrecy, I would always vote for transparency

Trying to maintain secrecy and keeping information under lockdown doesn't work for the IP industry. Why should it work for anyone else? Anything you keep secret is going to be known to the cops -- it's like waving a big sign saying, "I'm guilty of something!"

In addition, the kinds of operations that certain protesters might want to keep secret are exactly those that make trouble for the movement as a whole. And responding to police oppression with more secrecy and more destruction of property is only going to lead to a negative spiral.

I'm hoping there will be a showdown over this and that the livestreamers win decisively. Basically, I think the conflict is between the people who want to purify and transform the system and those who want to destroy the system in the expectation that something better will arise from the ashes. But as the saying goes, effects resemble their causes -- and violence and destruction never begets anything but more violence and more destruction.

[SidDithers]

10. Provocateurs...

gotta be.

Sid