A striking depiction of the crucifixion is painted on the back door of the House, just a half-block from Coach Fred’s home where he trains kids several times a week. On those evenings the space transforms itself into heat, sweat and muscle. It is a place into which the kids crowd and dream of glory, or, more to the point – to escape Cleveland’s impoverished realities and violent confrontations.

–Anthony Suau

Cleveland, Ohio 2011 Back entrance to the Manor House.

“What I saw in my neighborhood was a lot of drug sellers and a lot of drug users and they would sell right in front of my home. At the time, my kids were small, maybe two or three, I knew once you have drug trafficking, you have a lot of shootings, and it’s always the innocent bystander that gets shot – not the drug dealers. So they would make drug transactions right in front of my home and I got real upset, so being a former boxer I would run up and scare the customers away and I would grab the kids and I would want to kill them.

At that time I was the president of a street club, “The Brotherside Drug Free Zone” and we would brainstorm trying to figure out a way to take the streets back from the kids and we tried calling the police but it seemed like the police would warn the kids. One time I saw the kids sitting on a police car selling drugs, so I called the police. I said “hey, you know they are sitting on you car and they’re selling drugs” and I saw he came out of the mini-station down the street, and talked to the kids and pointed down the street and then he drove his car to me and said, “Yeah, I got rid of them, they’re not sitting on my car no more.” Then I saw the kids just give me a funny look and I said “Wow, maybe it’s deeper than what I thought.”

Cleveland, Ohio 2011 Working out before boxing.

One particular time, I grabbed this kid and said, “Don’t you EVER do that again.” I was gonna beat the living daylights out of him. And this kid said … he said, “Sir, I’m sorry.” I said “WHAT DID YOU SAY TO ME?” He said, “I’m sorry – I didn’t know” and right then I said, “there’s some hope in that kid. This was the only thing he knew and right then I said he just needs guidance and he just needs direction.” So I would take those kids, talk to them and at the time, I would bring them into my basement. I have a bag down there and I would teach them and then I would talk to them about life, about what they were doing out there and why they were doing it. I got to meet the kids that I hated so much, and I saw what was their motivation: they just didn’t know. They had nobody to tell them not to do it. They left school, and that was their education, that’s the only way they knew to make money. So I would talk to the kids, and, I grew not just to like the kids, I grew to love them.

Now what I do is deal with at-risk youth and I try to take them out of the element of street violence or selling drugs and give them a positive outlook on life.

Each kid is different, I try to give them more than just boxing. I get involved in their lives and that’s what every kid needs. A lot of kids, they don’t have fathers; they have a mother but she’s not really there. Many kids came through that life of violence and drugs; but I really don’t have all the resources to completely protect them and take them off the street, and a lot of it’s gotta be up to them. I can only plant a seed and show ‘em. I’ve got five kids myself so, I can’t take them in.

Early on, I was dealing with maybe 20 kids. I had a minivan and they all wouldn’t fit in my minivan, so I had the bigger ones run to the gym. It was maybe three miles, three miles from where we trained and I would have them run and I would trail them in the van. Then I would have them run back after practice.

They were running six miles a day. Rain, snow, wintertime they would run, summertime. Yeah, yeah. (laughing) They ran a lot.

In 2003 we went down to Kansas City for the national tournament. We had one title that year. The next year we came back and had at least three. So we were pretty much established, as a team, as a good team, but we still didn’t have good facilities but the people we box against, they don’t know that and they still don’t.

We were recently offered a space at the Y, it’s a blessing because the rate people are calling, they want to join. They all want to box and at the time when we had 50 kids, I said, we can’t, we couldn’t even fit 25, so I had to break them up into days. We still need a ring. We still need equipment. We got a makeshift ring that we use down there, but I feel like if you are doing the right thing, positive things are gonna happen.

I ended up turning kids away because I just didn’t have enough room. I know a lot of kids, I had to buy their license for them, my wife hates that, but a lot of kids, they don’t have the money and I don’t want them breaking in or stealing cars, or doing what they had to do to get the money, so I would try to do it.

Cleveland, Ohio 2011 Coach Fred Wilson and Deloren Grey at the “Y” to train.

Boxer Deloren Grey’s (Dee) got a lot of potential. He’s a kid that needs a lot of positive reinforcement as far as his boxing is concerned. He’s a great kid but every kid has the potential to do the wrong thing, but Dee is focused and he loves his family. When he came to me, he was boxing for another coach, the coach didn’t particularly have a lot of knowledge as far as boxing is concerned.

Dee picked up on it early because when we went over to his old gym to spar, he saw the way my kids respond, he saw the way that they move their hands, they move their feet. He would come to me for pointers and hey, I’m going to give it to you. I’m gonna give you the truth, if you’re a good kid – I will help you. He’s been doing great. I’ve been showing him how to bring his power from twisting because he’s a very strong kid. By him being compact, his body attack can be vicious and I’m showing him how to use his body attack. He sees it now, he knows how to rotate his hips to generate power. He’s just a little bottle of TNT and if he hits you, he can hurt you bad.

Columbus, Ohio 2011 Moments before the fight Deloren kneels in the corner and says a prayer and dedicates
the fight to his father who was buried in Los Angeles on that same day.

I try to relate boxing to life because life will knock you down. But you can’t just lay down, you’ve got to get back up and especially where we live, you’ve got to get back up and you’ve got to keep going. Sometimes, you’ve got to get picked up and that’s what I do, I pick them up. If they have any issue outside of boxing, we’ll sit here all night and we’ll talk about it, because I’m a mentor, I’m a father, they’re my kids. They’re not just my boxers.

When I lose a kid to the streets, or I lose a kid to violence, especially violence, you know that bothers me, ‘cuz like I said, they’re my kids. My sons and my daughters. It took me a while to realize I’m not going to save them all. I’m lucky if I can save one. My wife – she tried to help me to realize that too. I just can’t explain: it hurts real bad, and to lose a kid to violence, that’s oh my God, that’s the worst, that’s the worst feeling ever. So, I hope to never feel that again.

Columbus, Ohio 2011 To celebrate Delorian’s victory the team share a pizza in their hotel room.

I wanna see all the kids make it and that’s crazy to say but I think it can be done. I think there’s grant money out there that I haven’t tapped into that would help this gym and if I could get the kids where they’re not worried about money. If I got a government grant coming in every year, I could build the type of facility that I need, that has dormitories that can house some of the kids. We could really focus on the task at hand, which is boxing, and to help, get some pros out there.

Cleveland is very competitive when it comes to boxing but Philly’s a tough town too. I like to say Detroit is sorta like Cleveland, you got hungry boxers, but I kinda love Philly boxers. A lot of them put the sweet sides together, like the way I would teach it. They got a particular style…a lot of punches, a lot of movement. Philly’s a tough town to go against. I’m glad we don’t have to go too much against Philly.

That’s what I say in the Golden Gloves … it is hard to make it out of Cleveland because to me the best competition is here in Cleveland. I don’t want to say it’s a cakewalk, but it’s a little easier.”

–Coach Fred Wilson

PHOTOGRAPHS and Interview by ANTHONY SUAU

With support from Leica Camera

Occupy Wall Street activists staged a May Day Rally calling for a general strike in memory of the history of May 1st as a day dedicated to workers’ rights. Photograph by Andrew Lichtenstein / facingchange.org

Oakland, California

There were many different agendas coalescing together for the May Day protests in Oakland: Immigrants’ rights activists, labor marking the historic holiday, and the Occupy movement seeking to rejuvenate itself.

A large peaceful crowd marched through most of Oakland, but small groups of anarchists engaged in petty vandalism, spraying paint on bank windows and confronting the police, who responded with tear gas. Media attention focused on these incidents, detracting from the real issues.

The longshoremen shut down the port for a day. The nurses are on strike. Those facts were overshadowed by tear gas and street theater.

–Andrew Lichtenstein

About 75 Occupy Chicago protesters held sit-ins outside at two Bank of America branches. Photographs by Carlos Javier Ortiz / facingchange.org

Chicago, Illinois

On a rainy, sweater-wearing day, about a thousand people gathered in Union Park and the two miles to downtown. It was a holiday atmosphere, culminating in a sit-in of activists at Bank Of America branches.

Immigrant rights advocates chanted in Spanish: “Hey Obama! Escucha estamos en la lucha!” (Hey Obama! Listen, we’re in the fight! – “we” meaning the Latino immigrant community and its significant votes.)

Chicago is hosting a NATO summit later this month, and more protests are expected with President Obama and world leaders present.

–Carlos Javier Ortiz

Occupy DC protesters at Malcolm X Park (Officially known as Meridian Hill Park) for a day of music, games, and speeches. Photograph by Lucian Perkins / facingchange.org

Washington D.C.

A small group of several hundred demonstrators met at Malcolm X Park, two and a half miles from the White House, and festively walked through neighborhoods. In the park, there were guitars and games, including “Corporate Pin-the-Donkey” in which a blindfolded protester pins a board with stickers of companies.

It was a low-key day, and the protest reached the White House at 6:30 in the evening. Along the way, curious bystanders took photographs and some shouted their support.

–Lucian Perkins

Between Broome and Spring Streets, Lower Manhattan. Photograph by Alan Chin / facingchange.org

New York, New York

Drizzling rain in the morning threatened to dampen the turnout in New York City, but the sun came out by the early afternoon and 20,000 people marched from Union Square to Wall Street in one of the larger protests nationwide.

Demonstrators gathered at Bryant Park in midtown Manhattan, and staged protests at the Bank of America, Time Warner, Fox, and hedge fund companies. Another group crossed the Williamsburg Bridge from Brooklyn, and were joined by a hundred Black Bloc anarchists. They carried a large “Fuck the Police” banner, and clashed with the NYPD on Houston Street, several were arrested. The police covered one bloodied protester’s head and face with a sweatshirt in an apparent attempt to prevent him being photographed in this condition. Some photographers were harassed by protesters as well as the police, as tensions rose on all sides.

Nonetheless, the predominant feeling, as elsewhere, was celebratory rather than confrontational. The crowd danced in Union Square as musicians performed onstage. Protesters wore costumes and colorful banners. The parade down Broadway was orderly, high-spirited, and stretched for a mile.

The Occupy movement may struggle to define itself in an enduring way after unexpected early success and police repression, but it quietly proved on May Day that peaceful protest can be determined and widespread in the face of violent incidents and short attention-spans.

–Alan Chin and Anthony Suau

There have been at least 7,106 documented arrests in 114 U.S. cities as of May 1, 2012 since Sept 17 2011. On May 1st :

Lima, Ohio looks like many mid-western towns. Downtown combines a few handsome government and office buildings with ubiquitous Rust Belt remnants of boarded up storefronts. There are traces of a bygone time when small town life was more intimate – an Art Deco Kewpee’s restaurant, the Depression-era Post Office — before businesses spread out to suburban strip malls. Pop. 38,000, midway between Toledo and Dayton in western Ohio, Lima is home to a large hospital, a Ford engine plant, an oil refinery, and the last and only factory manufacturing and refurbishing the heavily armored Abrams main battle tank.

An Abrams tank mounts an enormous 120mm cannon and several machine-guns. It thunders forward at 35 miles an hour, weighs 60 tons. Its crew of four live inside, protected by its armor and state-of-the-art night vision. A prime instrument of victory during the First Gulf War, it destroyed hundreds of Soviet-built Iraqi tanks with few losses, and only one soldier killed. It can shoot farther with more accuracy and power. In the recent, much longer Iraq War, insurgents learned to damage more than 80 of them with roadside bombs and rocket-propelled grenades over the years, but even so, casualties were low.

The mainstay of both the Army and Marines, ten thousand were built over the last three decades. After Iraq and Afghanistan, it was seen in large numbers last year on the streets of Cairo during the Egyptian Revolution. Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait are all operators, as are Greece and Australia. The tanks are no longer made from scratch, but returned by train to Lima periodically for complete overhaul after getting stripped down in Anniston, Alabama. They come in affectionately as “rusties”, and drive out the door with everything new and improved except for the recycled armored hulls and turrets.

But with the American military relying more on special forces, drones and other hi-tech weapons, the future of the government owned, General Dynamics operated Joint Services Manufacturing Center (formerly the Lima Army Tank Plant) is very much in doubt. Overseas sales comprise up to a third of the plant’s orders, essential to its viability. This reflects both US foreign policy in the Middle East extending assistance to allies, and how funding that aid returns to critically support American industries.

President Bush and his Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld controversially reduced the size of the Iraq invasion force in 2003. Though candidate Barack Obama repudiated the war and its tactics that under-emphasized traditional, big-footprint operations, President Obama has inevitably continued the Pentagon’s shift of emphasis away from conventional Cold War doctrine to the realities of counter-insurgency. The military’s need for heavy weapons will not disappear, but it’s ever shrinking.

THE FACTORY

Created during the Second World War by the US Army, the plant is a sprawling industrial campus with 47 buildings on 370 acres, connected to two railroads. The main building is almost a million square feet, so workers ride tricycles to navigate around. From a wartime peak of 5000 workers including many women “Rosie the Riveters” in the 1940s, configuration to manufacture the Abrams tank began in 1978. There are currently over 900 employees, only ten percent of whom are women, and dozens of active-duty military staff.

With the Iraq War over for direct American combat and the Afghan War winding down, the government proposed mothballing and closing the plant until 2018, when the next cycle of refurbishment is due. That set off alarms throughout the community, uniting local politicians, management, and union workers to form Task Force Lima in the effort to save it. For the moment, building Stryker armored personnel carriers for the US Army and a large Abrams contract from Saudi Arabia keep the assembly lines humming. But plans for the new Marine Corps Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV) were cancelled.

At a meeting of the Task Force in January, Plant Manager Keith Deters spoke about competing to build an Israeli armored vehicle, the Namer. Mayor David Berger said, “Both tax cuts and revenue are needed” to sustain the military budget. Congressman Jim Jordan was ambivalent, remarking, “It’s a fiscal mess. I don’t think you’re going to see a whole lot done this year. It’s a growth problem; we don’t have the kind of growth we need.” All were committed to distributing a promotional video touting the plant’s capabilities, lobbying in Washington, and inviting dignitaries including Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to visit.

Speaking at greater length in March, Deters said, “The Army wants to use the Abrams until 2050. We rebuild it into a completely different tank: better electronics, better survivability. Completing a contract, it’s a ‘zero mile tank’. There were lots of Abrams tanks in Iraq. A battalion would come back and need upgrading. In 2007 we were completing 2.5 tanks a day. Right now we’re at one a day, going down to .65, and anything below half would be a problem. Significant layoffs are coming: over 200 people with an average of 15 years of service. We don’t know if there’ll be another contract at the end of the year.”

Deters is an engineer with more than 25 years at the plant, almost from the beginning of the Abrams program. As the Plant Manager he’s very proud of his facility. During a tour, he highlighted the advanced welding skills, the computerized precision machinery, and the freshly painted, completed tanks parked in neat rows outside.

THE WORKERS

The United Auto Workers (UAW) union hall is nestled next to Interstate 75 across town. Built of utilitarian concrete and spacious, the hall is rented out for disparate events like wrestling matches and weddings as well as union business. Both labor leaders and rank-and-file workers echoed the sentiments of their local elected officials and management.

Craig Kiefer, a quality engineer with 30 years at the plant and an officer of UAW Local 2147, spoke about the continuity of handing skills down. “I learned from the World War Two group – it was a sweet spot of history – former tank drivers. I was the youngest of that old core. But I worry that when my generation retires, how do we preserve that knowledge? There are standing threats, so we have to produce things instantly.  If you scatter everybody, you can’t start again in two weeks. If they close this plant, they close down tank production in the United States.”

Kiefer related an all-too-common narrative of how the union has given up health care coverage, accepted reduced pay for new hires and the end of guaranteed pensions. He continued, “We’re in a new world, but still need to work with dignity and share profits. We have a teaming arrangement with management; it’s friendly. So we understand we need to be more efficient and embrace new technology even when it replaces people. But there is the constant anxiety of losing your job; reading about your job in the newspaper. Lots of other jobs are automated, high production. Here we preserve manufacturing capability. We know that what we do makes a difference. We have pride.”

Paul Matson, a highly skilled welder also with three decades of experience, agreed. “Whoever rides in that vehicle, their lives are in your hands. We get pictures of people that walked away after getting hit. ” His son Joel was also a welder at the plant but laid-off in November. Matson said, “If the phone would ring, he’d be back today.”

Ironically, the high tempo imposed by the last decade of wars was not entirely positive, Kiefer added: “It’s a double edged sword. We gained and added work supporting the war fighters, but every budget is only so big. When we fight a war, we can’t put the resources into design for new procurement.” So focusing on operational needs threatened the long-term research and development that would be more stable for the plant’s role in the permanent military-industrial complex.

That labor in the defense industry would be proud is not surprising, even as they’re uncertain about job security and eroding benefits. Over fifty percent of the workers are veterans. Gregory Gebolys, electrical troubleshooter and in charge of the union’s Veterans Committee, helped organize the construction of a war memorial outside the plant after 9/11, in the shape of an American flag. He said, “People are very patriotic here. We make a good wage. So UAW built the monument, and then gave it to the park system. It’s the tallest stationary flag in the country.”

When asked about the morality of their mission making war machines, the workers expressed their faith in the nation’s leaders and of massive strength. They accept that they implement decisions they don’t directly shape, and could recall only one colleague, years ago, who reassessed the consequences of his profession and quit to seek another career.

THE TOWN

Outside the factory gates and the union hall, it would be easy to forget or overlook the fact that such an important strategic installation is based in Lima. Rhythms of life follow patterns overflowing the rest of the country. Neighborhoods are ethnically clustered, if not actually segregated; a quarter of the people are African-American. One fifth of the town lives below the poverty line, and the population has fallen 40% over the last generation. Crime is proportionally high as a result.

Representative Jordan is one of the most conservative Republicans in Congress, trying to shut down mortgage relief programs designed to help homeowners suffering from the housing crisis. Mayor Berger, a Democrat, advocates for community block grants — federal assistance for affordable housing and infrastructure. He also supports same-sex marriage, collective bargaining rights for labor, and high-speed rail.

On a typical weekend in January, 400 women about to get married went to the Lima Bride fashion show and wedding cornucopia at the downtown Veterans Memorial Convention Center. Sponsored by the local newspaper, The Lima News, caterers, dressmakers, photographers, venues, and limousine companies rented booths and hawked their services. Marriage seems to be a recession proof industry.

At the Allen County Fairgrounds a few miles away, a parallel male universe of a gun show was happening at the same time. Terry Morgan, the president of the Tri-State Gun Collectors, said, “Guns sales are up 30% over the last two years, with an exploding increase in applications for concealed-carry permits. There’s fear of the government.” Morgan supports “castle laws” which give wide latitude to the use of deadly force in the home without any need to retreat even when safe.

The streets are mostly empty, bereft of pedestrians. The largest supermarket and retail outlet is the Wal-Mart far from the old city. Some distinct institutions remain, notably the historic Kewpee hamburger chain that still has five restaurants, from a peak of hundreds, and the Allen County Museum and Historical Society.

Art Orchard, the 83-year old guide there, paused before the exhibit commemorating the Second World War. Part of it was devoted to Medal of Honor winner William Metzger, preserving his uniform and other mementos. Orchard remembered, “he was a few years ahead of me in my high school. His plane was hit and on fire over Germany. He saved the crew and tried to pilot the plane down. Yes…the award was posthumous.”

In a silent museum with only a few visitors, Orchard spoke quietly. Just too young for the war himself, he never left his hometown of Lima and spent his working life in the heating and air-conditioning business. The Second World War birthed the tank plant, and on the other side of a century, tanks continue to roll off the production line.

Lima and its Joint Systems Manufacturing Center struggle to survive in a time of economic austerity, increasing class division, and political partisanship. The Abrams tank is as successful as the B-52 bomber in its longevity and utility. The workers who build it are skilled and loyal. The open questions are larger, on the changing nature of contemporary war with “asymmetrical” opponents, and the proper place of the military in a democracy as the appetite for intervention has fallen. There were no answers for those debates in Lima, only trepidations for the future.

*****

PHOTOGRAPHS + TEXT by Alan Chin / facingchange.org

With support from the Open Society Foundations

Society sees people – women in jail, or formerly in jail – in a certain light, and that negativity is reflected back which these women internalize. It is a message cycle of inferiority. Fashion dictates image, for women especially, and I’m trying to make up that deficit-hole in the soul. Like with any self-destructive behavior, it can only change when the cycle is broken and healed.

Being normal isn’t enough, everyone has to be a super-star – there are images all around us of these impossible ideals – and these women are in the greatest deficit from that. It’s a common thread through all of their stories.

So I wanted to do fashion shoots with them, with proper hair, make-up, and the white seamless background. It’s an opportunity to show these women to themselves differently; positively. It’s how self-image gets formed. There was anxiety. It was almost traumatic for them to get dressed in these clothes and be pampered a little bit, to be photographed. They all said:

“I never knew I was beautiful.”

Paying attention to these women – we had equipment and styling donated, we bought the clothes from Macy’s and returned them afterwards – paying attention reveals another life.

Juxtaposing their stories of heartbreak and incarceration with being able to look and feel whole: What kind of humanity do we throw away?

—————-

Hour Children is a non-profit organization in Queens, New York, started by Sister Tesa Fitzgerald. She is a Catholic nun who was working with incarcerated women at the Bedford Hills prison, and she saw that the imprisoned mothers often had no way for their children to visit them in jail.

The children might be in foster care, many of the mothers have drug offenses, their families at wit’s end – and according to the law, if a mother’s child is in foster care, and she doesn’t keep in regular contact for 15 months – she can lose her parental rights. This can happen easily if there’s no means of transportation for these visits.

So the name, “Hour Children” comes from these precious hours of visits to prison, of phone calls. These hours are counted by the state. The child and parent’s lives are regimented; they are determined by these hours, and both live waiting for the next hour.

From its beginnings in 1986, Hour Children now has five residences that house 60 families each year. There are three stages of residential apartments in which the former women prisoners live and are trained to work, with computer and clerical skills, and some take classes at Queens College. They are also taught etiquette for work, how to dress professionally, and conflict management skills.

–Brenda Ann Keneally / facingchange.org

This is the second of a series on the women of Hour Children. Please see the first here.
http://facingchange.org/blog/2011/02/09/hour-women-working/

Her journey to lose weight and inspire others began that day. First she experienced denial, then recognition, and finally determination to change for the sake of her children. “I never thought that I didn’t love my kids, I never thought I wasn’t a good mom. I always pushed that they get a good education. I never thought that I wasn’t teaching them to live healthy. I never thought that was something that I was doing wrong.“ She summarizes, “to be a role model for your kids, you’ve got to make those changes yourself.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about one third of Americans are obese, including twelve and half million children and adolescents. The South as a region has the highest percentages, and no state nationwide is under 20%. These numbers have dramatically grown over the last generation; 1996 was the last year when no state was over 20%.

First Lady Michelle Obama has made the struggle against obesity her signature issue, and drew criticism from conservative voices like Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, and Rush Limbaugh, on the grounds that her Let’s Move campaign is another permutation of intrusive government. In a rare display of common sense bi-partisanship, however, Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum, and Haley Barbour all defended Mrs. Obama. Only time will tell if the epidemic can be reversed.

Today Sonya is helping children at Mt. Washington Pediatric Hospital in Baltimore overcome their obesity. “I’m kind of that person that in the background is saying, you can do this and in a way, I’m saying to myself that I wish I had that person for me…and that’s what drives me, I’ll do anything for these kids. We can’t quit on them.”

PHOTOGRAPHS, VIDEO and TEXT by LUCIAN PERKINS / facingchange.org

Early Saturday morning, the U.S. Park Police entered McPherson Square, only two blocks from the White House. Their stated mission was to remove the large tarp that OccupyDC had placed over the statue of General James B. McPherson. It had been raised to protest the announcement that the ban on camping in federal parks would be strictly enforced.

Previously, the relationship between the encampment and police had been generally good; protesters were given some leeway. But the authorities reversed their position after pressure from Republican Congressional leaders directed by Rep. Darrell Issa of California, ironically the wealthiest member of Congress with a net worth of over $450 million dollars.

Initially, Occupy DC cooperated with the Park Police and agreed to dismantle the tarp and have their tents inspected. In exchange, several Occupiers would be allowed to monitor these inspections. The police divided the park into quadrants and systematically started this process. But as the hours wore on, word spread from the monitors that the police were removing tents that passed code as well as ones that did not.

The demonstrators became upset, and when the police moved to another quadrant, Occupiers tried to block them. Violence then erupted throughout the day as officers continued to tear down tents and cart away bedding and protesters’ belongings, some with trash and dead rats.

By early evening, when the Park Police approached the last section of the park and moved in to clear out the Occupy Library, many protesters decided to make a last stand. They proved no match for the police who charged in, some on horses, and others on foot carrying shields and clubs. A few injuries and 11 arrests ensued, including one officer who was hit by a brick, and the arrest of photojournalist Jerry Nelson. As the Occupiers were pushed out onto K Street, they stood in a cold drizzle of sleet and rain, their numbers dwindling. Bewildered, they watched their camp being further dismantled.

PHOTOGRAPHS + TEXT by LUCIAN PERKINS / facingchange.org

“Corner boys and girls’ all in the game as “The Mayor” oversees a street corner transaction in the Flatlands.