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October 16, 2011
BatteryPark.TV had a chance to speak with Hip-Hop mogul Russell Simmons at the OccupyWallStreet protests today. He has been down there quite often. After a lengthy interview with Fox Business and Geraldo Rivera, he surprisingly was quite accessible as he walked around the crowd.
Russell Simmons with Fox Business and Geraldo Rivera
We asked, “(We) have not been able to hear your message as you were speaking (to Fox). Have you been trying to focus this group on more tangible goals?”
Mr. Simmons replied, “We have a focused message. It’s to get rid of Wall Street and lobbyists from Washington.” He went on to elaborate that point for approximately a minute. Unfortunately, we did not have our camera with us.
Overall, the crowd is more organized now than last week. The group “Anonymous” and others are clearly providing the agenda and support. For example, when the city announced that they group would be removed for cleaning, some organization provided push brushes for a photo-op of the protestors cleaning the area.
Also, more focused goals of the protests are appearing on professionally made signs, such as this one that says “End the Fed”.
The Zuccotti Park dos not feel like a chaotic unsafe area. Protestors are quite peaceful, when we were there at least. There was no evidence of marijuana smoke, drugs, or “open sex”.
So far, the protestors and the NYPD are doing a good job. The dangerous riots seen in Italy and the rest of Europe are not brewing in Zuccotti park, yet.
An effort calledConcreteIdeas trying to focus the OccupyWallStreet efforts