FWIW, I stopped by the General Assembly tonight (Sunday, 10/2, the night after Brooklyn Bridge event) for a couple hours, and they had about 40 minutes of discussion of the Brooklyn Bridge action, almost entirely made up of reports of people who had marched either on the pedestrian walkway or the road. My impression from this discussion was that, at least among this group of speakers:
1) Everyone decided beforehand whether they wanted to march on the road or the pedestrian walkway;
2) They made this decision based on whether or not they wanted to get arrested;
3) People who walked on the road got arrested and expected it and weren't surprised or put out by it; in fact
4) They were kind of exultant about it because it seems like everyone was let out with the lowest form of summons, a disturbance;
5) People who walked on the pedestrian walkway were safe from arrest, as expected;
6) People on the walkway said that there were amazing shows of support from people in cars, honking and waving and cheering -- despite what we presume must have been a traffic tie-up.
Nobody there mentioned anything about having felt trapped by the police. If anything their feeling that the police had been "very cool," and their relating of various conversations with them (including that "we're just cogs in the wheel" and one saying he was going to join the demonstrators on this day off this coming Friday) kind of beggared belief. It sounded at times like the cops were their best friends.
I missed the very beginning, so I might have missed something to the contrary. But this was the impression I got.
Michael