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Community Corner

Occupy Princeton Makes Noise on Bikes

A look at the occupy movement on Witherspoon Street.

 

A young boy holding his mother's hand in Princeton on Sunday pointed to a poster with pictures of uniformed police officers attacking members of the Occupy protests, which have been sweeping the U.S.

"Is this here to stop the protests?" the school-aged boy asked his mother as they walked by the display.

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A white-haired man with an English accent, a member of "Occupy the Streets: Princeton" explained to the boy, "Those men are the police. They are trying to use violence to arrest the protestors. We think it is our right to protest and it is wrong for the police to be so violent."

The boy's mother nodded, but said her son may be too young to understand. 

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No police were at the Princeton event on Sunday.

The scene at "Occupy the Streets: Princeton" was at Hinds Plaza on Sunday as they have been each Sunday over the last month. Half a dozen residents gather in front of the in solidarity with the Occupy movement that began on Wall Street and has been spreading to cities and towns across the country.

The group includes teachers, retirees and one high school student. The Princeton occupiers bring signs, posters and articles from the New York Times that depict the series of events that have unfolded since Occupy Wall Street began on September 17.

The group also brings bicycles.

Unlike other Occupy movements, "Occupy the Streets: Princeton" takes a mobile approach to protesting economic inequality and corporate greed. On Sunday, the group decorate their bikes with signs like “We are the 99%,” and rode around Nassau, Witherspoon and Palmer Square with noisemakers and chants, blocking traffic and turning heads.

All of the members of "Occupy the Streets: Princeton" whom Patch spoke with on Sunday declined to give their names. 

The "Occupy the Streets: Princeton" movement has drawn in older members of the community, including one woman who remembers riding her bike with the Critical Mass movement 10 years ago.

"People are afraid to ride their bikes in the town," the woman said, adding that her motivation to participate in Sunday's event was both to support the Occupy movement and to promote biking as a sustainable alternative.

While the Occupy the Streets turnout was small, the movement is working with a much larger group of Princeton University students who began assembling on campus last Thursday on the two-month anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

The student from Princeton High School said her classmates are mostly apathetic. 

"We talk about it in class sometimes, but most people think it's stupid," she said. "I think they absorb the parental views and biases of their family."

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