{"id":5538,"date":"2017-07-16T13:40:52","date_gmt":"2017-07-16T20:40:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=5538"},"modified":"2017-07-16T13:40:52","modified_gmt":"2017-07-16T20:40:52","slug":"first-symbol-occupy-wall-street-waded-syria-megan-specia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2017\/07\/16\/first-symbol-occupy-wall-street-waded-syria-megan-specia\/","title":{"rendered":"“First, a Symbol of Occupy Wall Street. Then He Waded Into Syria” by Megan Specia"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An image from a video posted by a Kurdish militia shows Robert Grodt, who died in Syria.<\/span>Credit<\/span>Rojava Defense Units\/Y.P.G.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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July 12, 2017 (nytimes.com)<\/p>\n

Robert Grodt was a volunteer medic at the\u00a0Occupy Wall Street<\/a>\u00a0protests in 2011, when he pulled Kaylee Dedrick, who had just been\u00a0pepper-sprayed in the face<\/a>, out of the crowd to treat her.<\/p>\n

The pair quickly hit it off, and when video of Ms. Dedrick being sprayed in the face captured the world\u2019s attention, the spotlight turned to their budding romance. They again garnered media\u00a0attention<\/a>\u00a0the next year, when they had a daughter \u2014 quickly nicknamed \u201cOccubaby\u201d \u2014 because she was conceived in the protest camp in Manhattan\u2019s Zuccotti Park where the pair had been camped out.<\/p>\n

But then he made a dangerous decision that few young Westerners have made \u2014 joining a Kurdish militia fighting in the Syrian War.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Kurdish fighters announced that Mr. Grodt died on the outskirts of Raqqa, Syria.<\/p>\n

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Robert Grodt, who died fighting with Kurdish forces in Syria, with Kaylee Dedrick and their daughter, Teagan. The couple met during an Occupy Wall Street protest.<\/span>\u00a0Credit<\/span>Photo provided by Tammy Grodt<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mr. Grodt, 28, had no military training and no previous connection to Syria. But he found himself on the front line of one of the most dangerous conflicts in the world.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cRob felt strongly enough that he was willing to risk and ultimately give his life,\u201d said Ronald L. Kuby, a civil rights lawyer who met Mr. Grodt and Ms. Dedrick at the Occupy protest. \u201cIt was a powerful vision.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Grodt\u2019s family was told of his death by the State Department on Friday, said his mother, Tammy Grodt, but has few details on the circumstances of his death.<\/p>\n

What they do have are two videos featuring Mr. Grodt and posted by the Kurdish militia he joined, the People\u2019s Protection Units, known as Y.P.G. One clip posted in June details his rationale for joining the group; the second was released on Tuesday when the Y.P.G. announced he had been killed.<\/p>\n

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By Y.P.G.<\/span>\u00a000:27<\/span><\/section>\n
\u2018You Don\u2019t See Kurdistan on a Globe\u2019<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Video<\/span><\/figure>\n

In the video, Mr. Grodt says he joined the militia because he was committed to the Kurdish independence movement. Kurds, members of a stateless ethnic group, have been fighting for autonomy in the region for decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy reason for joining the Y.P.G. was to help the Kurdish people in their struggle for autonomy,\u201d Mr. Grodt says. He also says he wants to fight ISIS.<\/p>\n

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By ROJAVA DEFENSE UNITS\/YPG<\/span>\u00a000:13<\/span><\/section>\n
Robert Grodt on Why He Joined the Y.P.G.<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Video<\/span><\/figure>\n

The Y.P.G. has become a major player in the Syrian conflict, making up the bulk of coalition ground forces fighting the Islamic State in parts of the country. Although the coalition is backed by the United States, many of the Y.P.G. leaders have roots in the Kurdistan Workers\u2019 Party, or P.K.K., which is on the State Department\u2019s\u00a0list of foreign terror organizations.<\/a><\/p>\n

The coalition has pushed closer to the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa in recent weeks, trying to wrest the city from the extremist group.<\/p>\n

Mr. Grodt\u2019s mother said she saw her son\u2019s decision to join the militia as an extension of a life spent fighting for what he saw as a noble cause, and a penchant for fighting for the oppressed.<\/p>\n

She remembered when he told her that he was hitchhiking across the United States from his home in California to join the Occupy Wall Street protest in New York.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was hard to let him go,\u201d she said. \u201cI wasn\u2019t against it but I did tell him, \u2018You are a braver, more adventurous person than I am.\u2019 He was a medic for the movement, so it was not just to be there to cause upset. He was there for the solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A still from a video shared on social media shows Ms. Dedrick after being pepper sprayed by a New York City police officer at an Occupy Wall Street protest in September 2011.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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She said that in Syria, he hoped to be part of reconstruction of areas destroyed during battle, and he wanted to raise awareness for the Kurdish cause.<\/p>\n

Mr. Grodt\u2019s sister, Meghann Conforti, said he had explained to her that he would be on the front line, information he initially kept from his mother.<\/p>\n

After Mr. Grodt left the United States, he kept in sporadic contact with his family over Facebook and Skype, and he often spoke with Ms. Dedrick and their daughter.<\/p>\n

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By Y.P.G.<\/span>\u00a000:23<\/span><\/section>\n
\u2018This Is Something I Care About\u2019<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Video<\/span><\/figure>\n

On the same day that it announced Mr. Grodt\u2019s death, the Y.P.G. announced the death of two other foreign fighters: Nicholas Alan Warden, an American, and a British citizen, Luke Rutter.<\/p>\n

Mrs. Grodt said she last spoke to her son in May. The recent intensifying of fighting in the region had made it harder for him to get in touch, she said.<\/p>\n

The clip offers a final message to his family.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust know that I love you all, and there is a lot that goes unsaid,\u201d Mr. Grodt says, before directly addressing his 4-year-old, Teagan. \u201cTo my daughter, I am sorry that I am not there.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An image from a video posted by a Kurdish militia shows Robert Grodt, who died in Syria.CreditRojava Defense Units\/Y.P.G. July 12, 2017 (nytimes.com) Robert Grodt was a volunteer medic at the\u00a0Occupy Wall Street\u00a0protests in 2011, when he pulled Kaylee Dedrick, who had just been\u00a0pepper-sprayed in the face, out of the… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5538"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5538"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5538\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5539,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5538\/revisions\/5539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}