The girl on the bridge

[MADem]

The girl on the bridge was not an eleven to thirteen year old. Turns out, she was eighteen, didn't know much about the protests, and was taking pictures for her portfolio.

Her YOUTUBE site: http://www.youtube.com/user/KatTheMongoose#

Some of her comments in response to all of the assertions about her:

KatTheMongoose commented on NYPD Arresting a Child At #...(1 day ago)
"Hey guys. Yeah, that's me getting arrested.

I would just like to take the time by saying that I was there to only take pictures for a portfolio. In all honesty, I had no solid idea of what the protest was about. When I knew I was about to get arrested, I had phoned my mother and she told me 'if its the safest way off the bridge and you won't be getting stepped/crushed go for it'. When the cop said it was my turn, I was all for it.

Oh and by the way, thanks for the compliments but I'm 18."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[uppityperson]

1. Good to find out more about her. Too bad she wasn't there in solidarity as it would

have made a good "face" for the arrests.

[MADem]

2. I think she's just an artsy type. She wasn't against anything, just had her own agenda. NT

[DBoon]

4. I think she is perfect

Having an average apolitical young person as the face of this movement is the perfect inspiration to all those who thought politics didn't matter

[SoDesuKa]

5. No-Win Situation

The cops are themselves hemmed in. So long as they act like cops, doing the things that cops do, they are going to take a public relations beating. If they had any smarts they'd dump this situation back where it belongs - on the politicians. This is a political matter, not a police matter. So long as the cops approach it as a police matter, they are going to look like cretins.

Why is it necessary to push people to the ground?



The Whole World Is Watching

[MADem]

8. They didn't push her to the ground. She lined to be processed.

Willingly. Happily. She discussed her options with her mother on her phone, and they agreed that was the safest way to get out of there.

She wanted to get the fuck off that bridge.

[tblue37]

21. But they DID push a lot of nonresisting men to the ground as they

arrested them, and it was entirely unnecessary to do so.

[SoDesuKa]

24. A Question Worth Asking

I will keep asking why it's necessary to push people to the ground until I get an answer. I think it's a good question, and it gets better the more it gets ignored.

Why is it necessary to push people to the ground?

[tblue37]

25. Yes--I was replying to the poster who responded to your question

by saying they didn't push the girl with the green hat to the ground, as though that meant your question was irrelevant. I was telling him that even though they didn't push her to the ground, the videos show that they did push many of the protesters to the ground, even though the protesters were cooperating with the police and putting their hands behind their backs to be handcuffed.

I think the cops just enjoy the rush they get by brutalizing people and that is why they push them to the ground. The videos of the dance protest at the Lincoln Memorial showed the same unnecessary violence committed by the police agains people who were not doing anything worth being arrested for in the first place, and who were not in any way wrestling or resisting when the cops were arresting them.

[MADem]

26. You'd have to ask the police that.

I know they prefer to decisively restrain confrontational types. Give a cop some lip in a tense situation, and you will be "restrained for your and the officers' protection."

Watch COPS for a few episodes. You'll see how it works.

[izquierdista]

9. If they had any smarts....

....they wouldn't be cops.



time to go :hide:

[MADem]

7. She didn't say she had a "Come to Jesus" moment.

She was just taking pictures for her portfolio.

I don't think politics matter to her, much.

[itsallhappening]

11. Use her as the face of the movement when she didn't know what the protest

was about and there's no evidence that she even cares? She was there taking pictures. That's it.

[SoDesuKa]

3. Boneheaded Cops

The cops are still boneheaded for allowing a picture of a little girl under arrest to circulate. As it turns out, the little girl wasn't really that little, but she was clearly no threat to anyone. If the cops were at all image-conscious they'd have avoided being caught in no-win situations like arresting children.

Why is it necessary to push people to the ground?



Cops Are Stupid.

[MADem]

6. How were they to control that? The footage was taken by someone on the foot path.

Didn't you read the OP? There was no "little girl." She was a voting age ADULT.

The young WOMAN was eighteen, and she was not a protester. The reason she was smiling in that pic with the cop is because she was happy to be getting out of there. She was simply taking pictures for her portfolio. She WANTED to get out of there, and lined up to be processed because she was concerned that there might be trouble. She called her mother and her mother said to do what she did.

[SoDesuKa]

23. Limiting PR Damage

Any time you make a bullshit arrest you're going to get blamed for it, especially if it's not an innocent mistake. How do you control that? Wait for this . . . Don't make bullshit arrests!!

This young woman blundered into the situation because the cops enticed the protesters onto the roadway so they could make bullshit arrests. They take a public relations hit, which they deserve.

[MADem]

27. Huh?

It was not a "bullshit arrest." Did you read the OP? And she did not "blunder." She was down there because she thought she'd get some good pictures for her portfolio.

The young woman, after consulting with her mother, decided of her own accord to line up to be processed because in her view, it was the easiest and SAFEST way to get off the bridge. She wasn't "feeling" the moment. Perhaps the loud chanting and tense atmosphere made her concerned that some shit would go down; she had an expensive camera around her neck and probably didn't want to lose it--I don't have insight into her motives, but I do know what she said--and I quoted her in the OP.

The sequence of events did not disturb her. That's probably why she's smiling as she posed with her police escort.

[itsallhappening]

10. Oh, no! Deflated hopes for the future?

Read this thread: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=2045671&mesg_id=2045671

:rofl:

[MADem]

16. It's never good when propaganda runs amok. This is not a "bad" person, she's

just on her own path. She's not an activist--simply a photographer looking for pics. An artsy type.

I'm a bit of a skeptic. When I saw the pics of the girl, I first thought "She's not upset," and second, "She's not eleven, OR thirteen." She doesn't have a "grand bosom," but I have a nearly thirty year old niece who looks a lot like her! Minus the hat, of course....

[WillyT]

12. Is This Her ???

:shrug:

[tammywammy]

13. That's her. Had no idea why they were protesting. n/t

[MADem]

17. That's her. The reason she is smiling is because she wanted off the bridge.

She didn't know what might happen and wasn't inclined to be in the midst of a riot.

Do look at the link I provided. There's VIDEO of her on it, clowning with her friends. It's most assuredly the same young adult woman I quoted in the OP.

[AsahinaKimi]

14. FOUND another website of hers though twitter..

http://katthemongoose.deviantart.com/

Deviant Art is a website for artists.

[MADem]

18. She is decidedly creative, and an individual. She's just not wired into this protest. NT

[dkf]

19. This is her 15 minutes.

[MADem]

29. I can't speak for her, but I dunno.

I do get the impression, though, that she wasn't particularly looking for fifteen minutes. I think she's, as I said elsewhere, on her own path. That path hasn't, up to now, included an interest in protests or being a symbol. I think she's artistic and creative, and she thought she'd get some good pics in that environment, and that was the extent of it.

[Earth_First]

15. Perhaps she walks away from this experience galvanized into supporting #OWS

:GASP:

[hugo_from_TN]

20. Or not.

[Warren DeMontague]

22. Perhaps anointing her the voice of her generation was a bit premature.

Still, it's a bad-ass hat.

[MADem]

28. Particularly when they thought she was a tween!

I think she's not lacking in creativity genes, even if she didn't have a clue what the protests were about.

It is an amusing chapeau!

[NBachers]

30. OK, so what's the conclusion from Party HQ in the Kremlin?

Kenny Ball & His Jazzmen - "Midnight In Moscow" (1961)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0xeETLadI4

[Obamanaut]

31. This must be a grievous disappointment to the 'outraged' posters here when she was thought

to be a protesting 13 year old, and even later as an 18 year old.

[The Backlash Cometh]

32. Talk about being in the wrong place at the right time.