I decided to take a drive through Manhattan to see what life was really like. Aa I thought, social media was wrong...again. Life is completely different than what people post on their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts.
The world keeps revolving whether they want it to or not. A lot of people are out having a really good time. Young people aren’t socially distancing or properly wearing masks, if at all. Sorry to disappoint the social media shamers, but yeah, it’s true.
I started at 218th and Broadway and made it all the way down to City Hall. I was determined to get to the bottom so I could see the latest non-socially distanced protest ad well as all of the people eating at restaurants and drinking at bars.
On the way around, I drove through Inwood, Washinton Heights, The Upper West Side, Times Square, Union Square, The Meatpacking District, Greenwich Village, SOHO, The Lower East Side and The East Village.
When I arrived at City Hall, I walked through New York's version of CHAZ/CHOP. It's CHAZ lite.
It's called Occupy City Hall. It is eerily reminiscent of that other thing NYC had a few years back - Occupy Wall Street.
According to Gothamist:
Since June 23rd, protests have occupied City Hall Park as a part of mass demonstrations in recent weeks, demanding the City Council defund the NYPD's $6 billion budget by at least $1 billion ahead of the budget negotiations June 30th.
Hours into the evening on Tuesday, hundreds sat cross-legged watching the budget vote play out—where city councilmembers approved the city's budget,which for the NYPD, will take school safety agents off the NYPD, cap overtime, and cancel two police academy classes. The finalized police budget was criticized as watered down—a "house of cards" as one councilmember put it.
I hear the organizers are largely black and queer. They have transformed this once beautiful plaza in front of City Hall into a supposed ‘no-cop zone.’ The organizers have built a library, they have a community garden and even have a hut for tea lovers - such a nice thing to have at a protest isn’t it? They’ve gathered donations of prepared meals, water, hand sanitizer, blankets, vitamins and cigarettes. They say they’ve formed elaborate teams for safety, sanitation and food distribution. Isn’t that what they did in CHAZ/CHOP?
What did I see in my brief time there? THIS:
Lots of college aged kids. College kids with no jobs, no school, nothing to do. Since they have no job, no responsibilities and no direction, why not camp out? It is probably a lot of fun for them. I have a funny feeling they’ll walk back over to Williamsburg, to their comfy apartment when the reality of being homeless and ‘camping out’ in the middle of New York City sets in. It’s all fun and games until people get hurt, robbed, raped or beaten.
I’ve read that some of the supporters of this new movement to defund, or abolish the police, are taking issue with the number of young, white people who are taking part. Others have misgivings over the atmosphere because it’s occasionally upbeat.
How upbeat is it? Lets go to the videotape, shall we?
There have been some skirmishes and intense moments for sure. It ain’t all fun and games. I’m just not trying to be down in this area for any of that nonsense. I think I spent just enough time there.
Something tells me either this protest movement will wind up like Occupy Wall Street and CHAZ/CHOP - totally dismantled. It will be a footnote in history. Hopefully in the end, no one will get killed like they did in Seattle.
Clayton Craddock is an independent thinker, father of two beautiful children in New York City. He is the drummer of the hit broadway musical Ain’t Too Proud. He earned a Bachelor of Business Administration from Howard University’s School of Business and is a 25 year veteran of the fast paced New York City music scene. He has played drums in a number of hit broadway and off-broadway musicals including “Tick, tick…BOOM!, Altar Boyz, Memphis The Musical and Lady Day At Emerson’s Bar and Grill. In addition, Clayton has worked on: Footloose, Motown, The Color Purple, Rent, Little Shop of Horrors, Evita, Cats, and Avenue Q.