Scenes from Occupy Wall Street in Exile

So early this AM, Mayor Mike sent the NYPD to break up OWS and sent the protesters a'scatterin' 'round town. The purpose was ostensibly to "clean" the park but it was really just a power play -- the 1% cracking down on the other 99%. Think Bloody Sunday without the bloody.

But OWS regrouped quickly. 

Around 9 AM, several protesters convened at Duarte Square on the corner of Canal and Varick streets. Yours truly was on the scene -- actually several stories above it at the time -- so I snapped some pics before going down observing it in the raw. So these pics are a Mr NYC exclusive!

This re-grouping turned out to be rather anti-climatic. They chanted a bunch and waved signs. The cops turned out en masse (many of them in riot gear) and intimidated the hell out of the protesters. Eventually, by the early afternoon, the protesters left. By 4 PM, it was as though nothing had ever happened and no one was ever there.

But it was a unique moment in NYC history, like being in Times Square on VJ-Day or at the Stonewall Riots or something. And I was lucky enough to gawk (and photograph) it.