Portraits from Occupy Wall Street, Volume 4, a photo by joe holmes on Flickr.

An Open Letter to the Men and Women of the New York City Police Department:

American citizens have a right to assemble in public in order to communicate with one another and with their elected leaders. The right to public assembly is not a right to assemble for a second, or an hour, or a day. As Americans, we have a right to assemble until we are satisfied that our voices have been heard, and that our leaders are sustaining, not destroying, our safety and our livelihoods.

This is the key issue: freedom of assembly should not be beholden to bureaucracy which says you need to fill out some paperwork so you can speak your mind at set time, at a set place, for a set amount of time.

The fear is almost palatable seething from some quarters because of the sustained protest: this is fear of people in space; of people joined together, sometimes breaking into spurts of anarchy, but nonetheless joined together under one banner.

Change doesn’t come from the end of a barrel, it comes from the look in people’s eye.

You should really check out Joe Holmes’ Portraits from Occupy Wall Street: Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3 & Volume 4.