Occupy Wall Street protestors maced, beaten

A couple thousand people have assembled at a plaza near the NY stock exchange with the group Occupy Wall Street. They plan to occupy the space indefinitely, and have been there for nine days. Here is a quote from their website:

Occupy Wall Street is leaderless resistance movement with people of many colors, genders and political persuasions. The one thing we all have in common is that We Are The 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%.

Videos have surfaced of protestors being beaten, arrested, and maced without provocation or warning. A lot has been said about the impact of cellular phones and youtube in combating police violence, most people become optimistic about how police won't get away with it so much anymore. However, if the videos aren't widely circulated it is difficult to know if anything will come of it. Many comparisons have been made between the lack of coverage of thousands at Occupy Wall Street to the seemingly instant coverage hundreds of people get when they are marching under a Tea Party banner instead of an anti-corporate one. This is despite celebrities like Roseanne Barr showing up to the protest. There is always more coverage of "lifestyle" sections about celebrities or consumerism in MSM, but even in terms of political news the wall street protests have not gotten much attention. Most of the coverage comes from outside the mainstream, the coverage that does come from the mainstream isn't comprehensive or ongoing. Very little effort has been made to find out who these people are. Democracy Now! is reporting that the majority are young people who are college educated but cannot find any employment. They are right to march out into the streets, their opportunities have been gambled away by financial and political leadership.

It seems that the best way to support the protestors (if you cannot directly participate) is to donate here, as well as covering the news on your corner of the net or spreading the word IRL. You can read local news, even the "national" sections all day and not get wind of the protests or the police violence. It seems as though this is the beginning of something important.