The College Fix

Two Columbia seniors were among the more than 80 arrested this weekend at the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York City.

The students, like most detained, were arrested for disorderly conduct and released within 24 hours of the arrest. Saturday, cops used pepper spray on some protesters (a point of contention over on the #occupywallstreet thread), and arrested several dozen protesters. One Columbia protester sees the weekend as a “turning point” in the rally:

Klein believes this is a major turning point in the demonstration. Many new demonstrators showed up today, and pedestrians and locals became more involved and supportive. It also marked a shift in the nature of police actions. Arrests over the past few days have been relatively infrequent, and largely peaceful, albeit arbitrary. Layan said she’d seen people arrested for drawing on the sidewalk with chalk, for holding umbrellas, and for trying to screen their faces from the police cameras that are constantly filming the protestors.

Others, like the New York Times’ Ginia Bellafante, have found a little less substance:

The group’s lack of cohesion and its apparent wish to pantomime progressivism rather than practice it knowledgably is unsettling in the face of the challenges so many of its generation face — finding work, repaying student loans, figuring out ways to finish college when money has run out. But what were the chances that its members were going to receive the attention they so richly deserve carrying signs like “Even if the World Were to End Tomorrow I’d Still Plant a Tree Today”?

One day, a trader on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Adam Sarzen, a decade or so older than many of the protesters, came to Zuccotti Park seemingly just to shake his head. “Look at these kids, sitting here with their Apple computers,” he said. “Apple, one of the biggest monopolies in the world. It trades at $400 a share. Do they even know that?”

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