Right Wing Reporters Attacked by NY Cops, Helped by Occupiers

The Daily Caller's Michelle Fields faced abuse from the NYPD and help from protesters.

(NEW YORK) - The right-wing Daily Caller website has been anything but kind to Occupy Wall Street, even going so far as to condemn the protest movement as generating riots, murder, and arson.

But when a couple of Daily Caller employees were at Occupy Wall Street this morning, it was the very protesters they had been demonizing who ended up helping them out.

Daily Caller reporter Michelle Fields — who faced off with actor Matt Damon earlier this year over education policy — and videographer Direna Cousins both claim they were attacked by the New York Police Department (NYPD) while covering the raucous protests in the Financial District today. Fields added that Occupy Wall Street protesters immediately came up to her to offer their help:

“Direna had a camera in her hand and I had a microphone, and we were being hit,” she said.

“When I fell to the ground I said at one point, ‘I’m just covering this! I’m covering this!’ And the officer just said, ‘Come on, get up, get up,’ before pulling me up by my jacket.’”

“The protesters came up to me right away and asked if I needed any medical assistance. They were actually very kind and helpful. It was the police officers who were very aggressive,” Fields added.

Fields says that protesters right now are effectively “barricaded” in Zuccotti Park, which was the spot from which they were ousted from on Tuesday.

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Anonymous001 November 20, 2011 8:34 pm (Pacific time)

Tim, could you expound on what you were referring to about the police investigator? I am just curious if you have something specific.

Dan, you and I part ways when you take information and determine how you want to interpret your facts to imply your truth and then not allow others to have the right to their own interpretation. I find your responses to be abrasive and not conducive to respectful discourse. I do not think my facts are superior, in fact I have rarely provided anything in the way of facts in any comment here. You distort what I have written and try to interpret what is written to fit YOUR agenda. Therefore I will not attempt discourse with you in the future; and feel free to drop the issue now, as I will not respond again.

Editor: You are free to do whatever you want, I just had to toss my two cents in over that notion of multiple truths. I believe the police investigator point is important because it explains how and why there is really only one way to adequately interpret a situation.

Anonymous001 November 20, 2011 2:48 pm (Pacific time)

What I meant to imply is that people use the information at their own disposal to judge what is right and wrong. I agree that there is only "Truth" but that is not to say that others can determine what the truth is. It is only to each person his own responsibility to be be the judge. I should have taken the time to be more detailed in what I was implying. Dan often attempts to tell what his "truth" is and expects it to be bought without critical thought.

What is the police investigator angle you are bringing up? I think that they can be honest in their determinations, but are not always. Are you talking about a specific investigation, such as what it going on in Oakland? If so, I think we can already tell what "truth" the police will determine.

Tim King: I have very strong feelings about the whole multiple truth idea, so thanks for clarifying. As for the fact that you encounter disagreement, you are also free to send a responding comment. Think of our editorial policy as a sounding board.

Cassie November 20, 2011 6:23 pm (Pacific time)

Amanda could you explain what "pure capitalism" is that controls us as per your post? As you know we are a "republic" and have many various social contracts that superceed private control. It was the government (shock) that raided the social security funds, and now they call it an entitlement subject to their benevolent control. Remember Gore and Liebermann running on the "SS Lockbox?" Amanda I'm afraid that you have it all wrong, but then there are many interpretations of facts, and not what one may think is the truth. Facts Amanda, are what need to be analyzed to get at the truth. Some choose what they think is the truth, then go get facts, often creating them out of thin air, to rationanlize what they think is the truth. Greek philosophers thousands of years ago warned us about these types of people, must be an inherited DNA scenario. It's like the cart before the horse, or even more egregious, akin to writing a conclusion then backtracking the process to create the problem (hypothesis) statement. That is the classic process of the agenda driven where honesty is subordinated.

Amanda Black November 20, 2011 2:17 pm (Pacific time)

It is disgusting to read about Capitalism without the nessessary amount of solid Socialism injected into it. We are NOT a Democracy for, by, and off the people.We are controlled by pure Capitalism.

Anonymous001 November 20, 2011 12:57 pm (Pacific time)

Cassie and Martin et al... Don't try to educate Dan on anything. He is as stubborn of a mule as they come. As someone who tries to "inform" as a "reporter" he needs to understand that people choose their own truths. It can not be forced upon them.

Editor (Tim King): That is the most self-indicting self-description I have ever heard. There are not multiple truths sitting in a bin for you to choose from, there is ONE truth and anyone who believes otherwise is a fool. There are varying interpretations of truth, yes, but that is another matter. Dan and I work in hard facts, that is how it goes here, and if you want to live in a fantasy world where you 'choose' your own truth, then you can't be a player in the game, only a tedious observer. Say, do you think police investigators employ your type of fact finding?

DJ: You say "people choose their own truths". Reminds me of what the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan said: "People are entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts." This, Anonymous001, are where you and I part ways. You seem to believe that your facts are superior.

People can choose what they will believe to be true, but that doesn't make it true!

November 20, 2011 9:01 am (Pacific time)

What a story, my heart is bleeding. I'm sure the journalist will spend all her time with these loosers. Smoke dope, have sex with everyone, sing peace songs, put flowers in her hair, urinate on Pice vehicles, yells at cops, make a total fool out herself and turns in to a liberal. What a joy.

Martin November 20, 2011 10:11 am (Pacific time)

You know there is some earnest reflection to be made regarding just what "capitalism" has brought to the human race, regardless of all the various interpretations and "spin" people put out there regarding the free market and how it works, and what it has done. The bottom line as per the poster Cassie's observation, the improvement of our lives in the last 100 years has been a tremendous leap forward. The other day I spent several hours chatting with some Occupy people, some were quite articulate, most were just hanging because they had nothing better to do, but all were complaining about the weather and how uncomfortable it was getting. If there was ever a time that we needed a congress to get on the same page it is now. Between now and next November's election we will have increased misery for these protestors, many who will be manipulated to dance to others agendas that will not improve their lives one iota. Continued calls for class warfare will just cement the resolves of opposing ideas, and the powerless will continue to remain powerless, and even worse off. A criminal element is growing in this movement, and this will eventually create a "possible" massive reaction by the political powers. Ironically it will come from the liberal leadership in the cities who will display their real character...it is about what is theirs, not the protestors who put them in power. The liberals cannot run on their records of accomplishment, so we will see an uptick in the normal demonization of their opponens, but it will not work. I predict a huge political shift coming, and in time these protestors will have much better lives.

Cassie November 19, 2011 6:17 pm (Pacific time)

People should pause and consider that "capitalism" has done more to reduce poverty and increase life spans in the last 100 years than what has happened in the last 100,000 years.

In Eric Hoffer’s seminal 1951 work, “The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements,” the current OWS movement similarity is drawn with startling clarity.

The work of a self-educated gold prospector-turned-longshoreman-turned philosopher, the treatise examines important mass movements in history from the French Revolution to the Nazis. It’s also refreshingly devoid of political correctness. Hoffer describes those who may be susceptible to the allure of mass movements in practically Dickensian terms: They are either “misfits,” “spinsters” or “the inordinately selfish,” to name a few.

DJ: Before spouting off any further, you might find it educational to reread Hoffer in terms of the current context.

Ray November 19, 2011 6:02 pm (Pacific time)

Good for the OWS protesters. While alot of the movement has been hijacked by union leaders, an ex-Obama adm. guy, and anarchists, there are true believers and average Joe's in the mov't that have alot in common with Tea Partiers who are tired of establishment politics coming from both establishment Dems and Repubs (like Bush's banker bailout (which Obama fully supported) crony capitalism, pay-to-play, corporate welfare, big-bucks for bundlers, and all the money coming from Wall Street to both sides). Obama, according to WaPo and the Daily Caller, has raked in over $30 million from Wall Street in the 2008 ($15.8 million) and 2011 ($15.6 million) election cycle. Romney has pulled in around $8 million in 2011. Romney and Obama are the Wall Street candidates.

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