Krips, Cops and Occupy: Reflections from Oscar Grant Plaza

This chapter includes a collage of reports from disabled (and their ally) occupiers of different cities. The collage is contextualized by Taylor’s involvement in Occupy/Decolonize Oakland through journals she wrote while she stayed at the camp site. As much as this chapter acknowledges and celebrates the powerful force of Occupy Movement, it also points out the movement’s challenges to make the sites accessible to all. Stewart and Hall illustrate works of CUIDO (Communities United in Defense of Olmstead) and its intersection with the Occupy movement. Nishida introduces KOWS (Krips Occupy Wall Street), the disability community representation at New York City, Occupy Wall Street (OWS), and multiple roles it plays at the site. Liebert reads OWS from radical psych perspective, and shares ways people are working to educate OWS to ensure safety for all within the movement. Lehman points out relations between Occupy and general disability rights and suggests mutual education take place between these movements. This chapter ends as Taylor reflects on awareness she gained through her participation in the movement; where she learned the depth of structural police violence and her own privileges in intersection with her disability identity.