Now in their fourth week in Manhattan, the Occupy Wall Street movement that has gained national attention made its way to Bell Boulevard on Thursday morning, October 13. Standing outside the Bayside LIRR Station, almost a dozen protesters held signs calling for taxes on corporations; more specifically, the Tiny Speculator Tax. Those in attendance at the rally – organized by the Northeast Queens MoveOn Council – handed out literature explaining that a tax on financial speculation would make “dangerous, market crashing derivatives” less profitable and “encourage Wall Street to make real investments that create jobs and real (not paper) economic activity.”
“Forty-two years ago, I was fighting for democracy in Vietnam,” said Thomas Hagan of Bayside. “I might have been wrong about that one. This time I’m fighting against a corporate takeover and I know I’m on the right side.”
The rally was not well attended on a rainy Thursday morning with the police presence out numbering protesters but according to Rita Krich of Bay Terrace, it’s important to get their message across.
Another protester had a different way of getting the message across. Using his would-be mid-day break, a man who identified himself as David Yale – a banker from Chase Manhattan – came to the Bayside LIRR in a suit and tie holding a sign that said “Your Friendly Trusted Banker” while handing fake money “back” to commuters and passers-by.
“I was feeling really guilty about all this money that was given to me by the government from the people so to make my good name better I’m going to give it back to the people it belongs to,” said Yale.
Those in attendance plan to move the rally up Northern Boulevard to Congressmember Gary Ackerman’s office in an effort to obtain his support for Tiny Speculator Tax.
