NYC Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez Detained in Zuccotti Raid, Urges Mass Involvement in OWS

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/11/18/nyc_council_member_ydanis_rodriguez_detained

November 18, 2011

One of the factors that fueled Thursday’s huge march on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City was the dramatic surprise police raid on Zuccotti Park earlier in the week. Among those arrested in the raid was New York City Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez. He was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest and then held in a police van alone for two hours. Rodriguez’s arrest came just a week after he helped organized an 11-mile march from the his district in the Manhattan neighborhood of Washington Heights, a largely immigrant community, to Occupy Wall Street. He describes his ordeal in police custody and why the experience has only emboldened him to continue his involvement with the Occupy movement. "We wanted to bring more black and Latino participants to that movement, because we believe that this movement is not only for the college students, this movement is not only for the unemployed, it’s for the working class, it’s for the middle class," Rodriguez says. "A block before I was arrested, there was a large number of demonstrators, and I saw a potential conflict that could happen. And what I did, I moved to the east side of Broadway, where there was not any demonstrations going on, any rally. It was when I walked to the next block, two blocks before the park—I believe it was two blocks... That’s where I was stopped. I said, ’I’m Councilman Rodriguez. I’d like to keep going, walking to the park.’ I was pushed back, and I was thrown on the floor. A police officer came from the middle of the street. He jumped on top of me."

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