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Subscribe to RSSAs the Occupy Wall Street movement comes out of hibernation, a day of protests are planned around the nation. MSNBC's Richard Lui reports.
Updated at 03:38 A.M. ET: Protesters across the world marched through the streets Tuesday toting signs, playing instruments and wearing costumes to rally against austerity measures, call for more jobs and seek greater immigrants' rights on May Day.
Marches turned violent in Oakland and San Francisco, where a protester was throwing what appeared to be bricks and metal rods from the roof of a building into the crowd of demonstrators, reporters, and police - injuring at least one person, according to NBC Bay Area.
In Seattle, protesters dressed in black smashed windows and police pepper-sprayed some in the crowds.
In the United States, the protests are seen as the biggest test for the Occupy movement since many of its camps were shuttered late last year. Occupiers in more than 100 cities across the country were expected to protest on the day that traditionally celebrates workers’ rights.
In New York, demonstrators held a “free university,” and a “guitarmy” led a march.
“It was a long, energetic day with scores and scores of events and protests that is another step in building a movement for economic justice,” said Bill Dobbs of the Occupy Wall Street public relations team. “Occupy has re-blossomed in over 100 cities."
Occupy Cleveland cancels protest, distances itself from alleged bomb plot
Earlier Tuesday, about 1,000 Occupy protesters gathered in New York's Bryant Park, home to the main city library, with hundreds assembling the “guitarmy” and making posters before they left to march downtown. Chanting "Out of the stores, into the streets" and "Banks got bailed out; we got sold out," they filed down Manhattan’s iconic Fifth Avenue.
“There's too much fear for the general public to actually want to strike. They don’t want to lose their job. ... We haven’t reached that tipping point where people are more frightened for some place to live," said Robby McGeddon, 47, a tech worker carrying a maypole for May Day. "It will get to the tipping point but right now we're just practicing."
Miranda Leitsinger / msnbc.com
A protester representing the Musicians Union in New York's Union Square calls for eliminating "sour notes."
Of the protest, Daphne Carr, 33, co-organizer of the Occupy Music Working Group, said: “We're trying to find new, positive community-building ways to engage and protest and be a part of the burgeoning civil dialogue about what this country should be doing."
She also noted that music making "has been eroded from our public sphere so we're taking and re-claiming the right to play music publicly together in the streets, in the parks, without permits.”
The crowd swelled to a few thousand later in the day in Union Square as immigrant rights groups and unions representing teachers, transport workers, nurses, musicians as wells as others joined in a lively afternoon of art and music.
But the day was not without its detractors: at least one man heckled protesters and another yelled “Get a job!” as he elbowed his way through the crowd.
That didn’t get the protesters’ spirits down.
"This is like the resurgence of the Occupy Wall Street movement," said photographer Joel Simpson, 65, of Union, N.J., as the "guitarmy" sang "This land is your land" nearby. Though most of New York City didn't know the May Day protest was going on, he said, the movement "touches public consciousness in a very broad way and politicians have to at least pay lip service to it."
The New York protesters then streamed downtown, in an early evening march heading past the former Occupy Wall Street home, Zuccotti Park, to Bowling Green park near the southern tip of Manhattan. Occupy sent out a text message saying 30,000 people were in the streets, though it was not possible to determine how many were and police do not give crowd estimates. At one point, the protest appeared to stretch about 15 city blocks.
“We’re not so fragile that a day is going to make or break things but this was you know, a great … step,” Dobbs said, noting that the “organizing that goes on day-to-day and week-to-week is just as important in building a long-term sustainable movement.”
New York police reported 15 arrests by late afternoon for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, the New York Daily News reported. Several demonstrators were caught carrying hammers but there was little vandalism, police said. Later Tuesday, Occupy said more arrests had been made.
Elsewhere:
Oakland police and May Day protesters face off. Watch video courtesy of KNTV.
San Francisco: Police armed with non-lethal pellet or bean bag guns aimed them at a protester who was throwing objects from the roof of the building, located at 888 Turk St, according to NBC Bay Area. The protester, dressed in black with a handkerchief covering his face, was throwing what appeared to be bricks and metal rods into the crowd of demonstrators, reporters, and police. Police spokesman Sgt. Michael Andraychak told NBC News the individual threw several items off the roof for several minutes, including two bricks and pipes. One brick struck a person and hit them in the head. The injured person refused treatment from medical personnel. NBC News reported that the rooftop protester was arrested and taken into custody.
Oakland, Calif.: Protesters playing cat-and-mouse with police pounded on windows of banks and other businesses, SFGate.com reported. After surrounding a downtown Bank of America branch, protesters chanted, "Oakland is the people's town; strike, occupy, shut it down." they also gathered at a Wells Fargo bank branch. Police later confronted demonstrators marching through downtown. Video by NBCBayArea.com showed at least one protester being dragged away by police. Protesters hurled items including a paint bomb at police and windows out of a police van, NBCBayArea.com reported. Police fired tear gas and flash-bang grenades before the skirmishing crowd dispersed. Police arrested at least four people.
Jim Seida / msnbc.com
Police tape off a Wells Fargo Bank in Seattle Tuesday after protesters broke the banks windows during a May Day march.
Seattle: Windows were broken and police arrested a handful of protesters as about 100 marched in downtown, NBC station KING reported. Many marchers were dressed in dark clothes, wearing face makeup and carrying sticks, live TV video showed. Police pepper-sprayed several protesters as problems developed. KING reported numerous tires slashed and large amounts of glass on the ground from vehicles and buildings, including the federal courthouse, smashed by protesters. Peaceful protesters remained at the downtown Westlake Plaza, where speeches and concerts continued, KING reported.
John Brecher / msnbc.com
Trumpeter Opaulo Mekkelsen marched with the Movitas Marching Band in Seattle. He said he was motivated by immigrants' rights.
"Part of me, I want to understand where they're coming from and then they pull something like this," said Sam, who would not give his last name, as he saw the back window of his car smashed out by protesters. Sam was on holiday from his home in British Columbia. "I'm from Canada," he said, "imagine the impression this gives me of the United States."
At an afternoon press conference, Mayor Mike McGinn said a group known as the “Black Block” did extensive damage to the Federal Courthouse, then moved on to block traffic. The mayor signed a proclamation authorizing police to seize from protesters any items that could be used as weapons, KING reported. Evening marches and protests were planned.
A group of May Day protesters dressed in black clothes and wearing face makeup smashed windows in downtown Seattle. Video courtesy KING.
Photoblog: May Day protests turn violent in Seattle
San Francisco: Golden Gate ferry workers picketed ferry terminals in the North Bay, but union organizers canceled a protest on the Golden Gate Bridge to give support to the ferry workers, the Oakland Tribune reported. However, scores of California Highway Patrol officers with helmets and batons lined the bridge and gathered around the toll plaza just in case. Bridge traffic was not disrupted.
Albany, N.Y.: State police arrested two men who set up a table without a permit in Lafayette Park, where Occupy protesters assembled Tuesday, the Times Union newspaper reported.
Jim Seida / msnbc.com
Sam (who declined to give his last name), left, speaks to local media after protesters in a May Day march in downtown Seattle smashed out the rear window of his car on 6th Avenue. "Part of me, I want to understand where they're coming from and then they pull something like this," he said. Sam was on holiday from his home in British Columbia, Canada. "I'm from Canada," he said, "Imagine the impression this gives me of the United States."
Chicago: Protesters and union supporters held rallies and marches with little disruption to the business district, the Chicago Tribune reported. Police Superintendent
Denver: Nearly 200 people marched downtown before turning onto the 16th Street pedestrian mall, blocking mall buses and traffic as they walked. The marchers also stopped in front of the Federal Reserve Bank. Police did not interfere, and only one person reportedly was arrested.
Los Angeles: Several demonstrators were taken into custody during a protest on Century Boulevard near the entrance to Los Angeles International Airport as union members, workers, immigrant-rights activists and others demonstrated for better-paying jobs to changes in immigration laws, NBCLosAngeles.com reported. However, about 2,000 police officers prepared to deploy early at a staging area in Elysian Park before a ralliers were to converge downtown Tuesday evening. Los Angeles County activated its Emergency Operations Center.
Dorian Warren, an assistant professor of political science at Columbia University, said he thought Tuesday would be the “biggest test since the fall of where Occupy is.”
Occupy activists fear becoming Democrats' 'pet'
“I think it’s still alive and thriving. I don’t think it’s going anywhere soon,” he said. “But I think after [Tuesday] we’ll know whether or not they were hibernating all winter and now they’ve re-emerged, or if they’ve died out.”
Occupy held protests during the spring on student debt and worker rights. They also have been working on a rollout of new versions of outreach web sites to facilitate coordination among different Occupy outfits. But a lot of effort has been focused on holding a May Day that will make a splash.
“Many activists have been working toward May Day for months and so they’ve decided to make it a test of strength,” said Todd Gitlin, a former leader of the 1960s-era group Students for a Democratic Society who has just published a book on Occupy. He added: “A lot of people in the larger society don’t think the movement still exists, so there’s some need to prove to them that it does exist.”
Occupy Wall Street has struggled during the last months without a camp, with some members starting their own groups while keeping a loose affiliation to the movement.
“It’s become fractured over time and I think people point a lot to that to the breakup of Zuccotti Park, and the natural disagreements that people had came more to the fore when people were separated and people formed their own circles upon which they continued. But it wasn’t the circle of great diversity that was right there at Zuccotti Park and people could grow from,” said William Johnsen, a 63-year-old veteran activist from Staten Island, N.Y. “It’s obviously a long-term process right now which will ultimately change into something else.”
Lefteris Pitarakis / AP
Workers and activists rally on May Day.
But Konrad Cukla, a 23-year-old graduate student who has been helping with Occupy May Day planning, said that since the park shut, occupiers have been engaging in key coalition building work, such as with immigrant rights groups in the city.
“All the labor unions have come together and for the first time are going to have a unified march with immigrant rights groups and Occupy,” he said as he walked with a musical band of occupiers -- the Rude Mechanical Orchestra -- dressed in green and black on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue. “I think the movement is evolving, it's taking on more concrete allies and issues, engaging more with labor struggles -- also just expanding its horizons and bringing more people into the movement."
Rain City Superheroes: Midnight Jack, left, El Caballero, center, and Phoenix Jones relax Tuesday at a downtown Seattle Starbucks.
The Associated Press and msnbc.com's Jim Gold contributed to this report. Follow Jim Gold at msnbc.com on Facebook here.
More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:
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Ninety nine percent of the protesters if they vote will vote for Obama, the man that had three and half to get us out of this problem.The only way out of this problem is to create jobs and find people that will work, I never saw a person go out and find a job that was getting a free hand out.Taking from the rich and giving to the poor won't work, you have to cut spending.
They will vote for obama because you gave them no better alternative. Then you haven't been looking very hard in the past. Of course you aren't going to see that now because there are no jobs no matter how hard they look. If you think people choose poverty and give up their high paying jobs just so that they can collect welfare you are out of touch with reality.
These idiots still have enough time and money for starbuck, I see. I wonder how they all feel about that corporate GIANT, with all their profits and rich executives?
nothing new here-1200374
And just like the republicans, they want your money and control of your life heh heh
how so? explain. how do republicans want to control your life? how do they want your money? who wants more of your money between the 2 major parties?
If you don't like Corporate America by all means move. Go out to the woods,build yourself a home,hunt for your food,make your clothes and gather wood. And when your all done the rest of us would like 90% of what you worked so hard for.
You see the thing about this country is that the citizens have the power to change something when it is not working. They don't have to move. You can ignore them as long as you want but they don't have to shut up either. Start paying attention.
@jamm- I never said they had to shut up just offering a solution to their problem. Just because you can use a computer doesn't mean should.
Thousands of people arrested in the occupy movement protesting corporate greed and government corruption.
Still the rich and powerful cant stop it.
if they cant stop you then they cant be as powerful as you cry about genius. you cant have it both ways. second what cant they stop; a bunch of violent thugs and losers from making fools of themselves in silly masks; accomplishing nothing; then congradulating themselves witha latte at Starbucks on their perfectly useless day?
oizmessinupoizmes
Heh heh, I don't see the republicans screaming about drones being used for spying on citizens, listening to our cell phone calls or watching these threads lol. You know you are being watched, where is their efforts on stopping this heh heh. There is more but I'm sure you and others know lol
Agreed. Now take your meds and put on your tin foil hat and Google the latest Chem-trail article.
you are comedy act
obama's army.....he supports the occupy wall street gangs. these morons don't even know what the hell they are protesting. They are USEFUL IDIOTS to the liberals in this country doing their bidding. Incompetence and laziness at best. The group from Occupy Cleveland who tried to blow up a bridge were truly INCOMPETENT - trying to buy explosives from the FBI. I guess one of the prerequisites of being a liberal and being a useful idiot to odumbo and his corrupt gang is being MORONIC and INCOMPETENT just like their boss!
I don't think people realize that not only political campaigners hire bloggers so do corporations and lobbyists
Not all people here are sharing there thoughts with you.
Some are here earning a paycheck.
Since the creation of our country, its citizens have faced challenges(many far greater than those today) that we as a nation have definativley overcome. MSN alone is full of posts stating just how many things are wrong with this country and how this country needs fundamental change. While I do believe we have many issues both domestic and abroad I disagree this country has lost its way. We dont need to tear down this country and reconstruct a kinder, more fair nation were All are equal. That is simply NEVER going to happen in the real world. Their will always be winners and losers and the winners should be able to reap the fruits of their endeavors. Protestors, look around at the rest of the world. Which other country would you rather live in? Personally, even with our current challenges, I think we Americans live in the best country BY FAR . My point is judging by all the posts I have read you would think thier would be a mass exodus out of such a cruel, unfair society. Yet I doubt anyone is leaving.
These people are nothing but a bunch of Communist want to be's .... ship em to N Korea, there is no Capitalism there or better yet > just shoot em ...
there is no free market capitalism here either. So what is your point?
oizmessinupoizmes
Heh heh, keep your head in the sand lol. Glad you enjoy my humor, enjoy it while you can heh heh. You are and have been under the control of those who want to know what you are doing day in and day out lol. It will get worse, example, GSA and the "SS" heh heh
thanks for the laughs
NO-BAMA12
Personally I really don't care any longer heh heh. I've lived my life and not only mine but others as well LOL. Good luck heh heh
cano; if you dont care why are you here? but you are funny heh heh
Im more afraid of YOU than the state of this country. Ummm have you ever been abducted by aliens in your several lifetimes?
CANO~ The Martians just called, they forgot to reinstall your brain after your anal probing. They asked if you really need it.
So what did these protesters accomplish? Getting themselves in the news for their violence and destruction of property, which changes nothing and gives their agenda a negative spin. LEGAL immigrants already have rights.
oizmessinupoizmes
I'm here for the comedy heh heh. Glad you enjoy my humor LOL
NO-BAMA12
NoObama, afraid of an old retired senior. Doesn't take much to scare you huh lol? Other that that, pretty much of what I expected posting here heh heh.
Yikes. Me thinks the UNI-BOMBER escaped and goes by the handle CANOWORMS. Isnt XFILES on right about now on some cable station? You should go find it.
these protesters are a bunch of losers..breaking windows ect ect..if they dont like it here they are free to leave..
They are also free to stay here and protest for as long as it takes to get the change they want. Get used to it, or press the govt for change.
Read it again Mess. Only two of the "more than 100 cities" saw violence. This Friday let's do a poll of bars in Texas, & see what percentage of them see violence.
Musician, this article may have listed two cities but there were others. If you take the time to visit other news sites you will find that things were not as calm as MSNBC makes it sound.
the violence don't matter. This is nothing compared to what will come if everyone keeps ignoring the poor because they are a growing population and you too will soon be in the same boat.
Let's see, 2 out of "more than 100" cities saw violence. I'd like to see the percentage of violent incidents are your favorite bars. In 1 of those incidents a protester was throwing bricks & metal rods at the protesters. Doesn't really sound like he was on their side.
It's interesting the way the Seattle situation is described. "Police pepper-sprayed several protesters as problems developed", problems not described. Then there were "tires slashed and large amounts of glass on the ground from vehicles and buildings, including the federal courthouse, smashed by protesters", provoked by the pepper spray perhaps.
Even this highly biased report can't conceal that fact that these were non-violent protests by folks who've been robbed & scammed. The protesters I've spoken to were all the same; hard working folk who lost their jobs to lazy incompetents who would take lower salaries. Some had been told their credit scores were worth several times their actual value, but the lenders who lied to them were the "experts", so they believed. Just like you believe when you're told that anyone who supports those of us who work for a living are "leftists", "socialists", & "communists". People worked hard for their homes, only to have them stolen in a massive scam.
Ask yourself why is it those who work for a living, & support those who work for a living are always "anti-capitalist"? Isn't it the hard working people who make capitalism work? Or does it work?
I think you will find must of the posters who are anti-occupy DO in fact work for a living or are retired from working for a living. Sounds like Seattle needs more anti-protestors to hurl garbage at the OCCUPY HIPPIES.
lol; the same tired mantra of the far-left; were were peaceful until "provoked'! but il like yoru comparison of the willful ignorance and violence of the Occupiers to the alcohol-addled drunks in local bars on Friday nights
NO,
Lose your job, not because you didn't work hard or well, but because some lazy bumbler would take a lower salary, & let's see if you feel like protesting.
These OWS whiners do not reresent me or most other hard working Americans. They seem to represent the entitlement culture where there is no reponsibility for their own actions, and the best they can come up with is blaming others for whatever misfortunes they've had.
Havent companies always fired people? Now we mass together and protest our termination that certainly wasnt ANY of our faults right? Of course not. Blame da MAN!!
Entitled to what? A job? The "right to peaceably assemble and petition the government for a redress of grievances"? The right to be "secure in their persons and property", & not have their homes stolen in a massive scam? To a culture where their rewarded for their hard work instead of being punished?
Do you know where my quotes come from?
Its not now or has ever been the Governments duty to ensure you a good job or even a job for that matter. Interpet what you will but our founding principles were based on the power of the individual to shape his or her destiny, Not a nanny state goverment. And yes that includes FINDING AND HOLDING A JOB on their own.
NO,
You really need to be fired for being "paid too much". It would change your whole attitude.
That's when you get off your ass and find a job that that pays what (you think) you're worth. Good luck with that.
Hate to break it to you, Skippy, but NO ONE is entitled to a job. It's not a right. No one owes you a job. It's something you have to seek out, earn, be experienced and qualified enough to be hired for.
"Peaceably Assemble" does NOT include destruction of public and private property. To claim all this vandalism is somehow the fault of the people OTHER than the people who actually committed the vandalism is just pathetic.
"Peaceably assemble" does NOT include camping out indefinitely in public parks violating those own parks' hours of operations and hindering people from using them for their intended functional purposes. They're parks, not campgrounds.
"Peaceably assemble" does NOT include obstructing people from getting to their jobs and harrassing them while doing so.
"Peaceably assemble" does NOT mean defecating on cop cars, public urination, drunkeness and drug use. It does NOT mean generating piles and piles of garbage that the taxpayers have to pay to have cleaned up.
People willingly signed loans. No one forced them to buy a house. NO ONE. Robo-signing foreclosures is wrong, no question, but it doesn't change the fact that if people had HONORED the agreements they WILLINGLY accepted, they wouldn't have been exposed to the robo-signing problem. There are plenty of people being foreclosed on that weren't part of the robo-signing issue as well...none of it is changed by the fact that people are supposed to honor a contract when they sign it.
Foreclosures are NOT a theft. They are an agreed upon consequence of not honoring an agreed upon and willingly-entered contract.
Congratulations on celebrating May Day, an actual Nazi holiday.
What? What is wrong with you? This is the most inane comment yet. Google May Day, if you can, to see where it comes from.
Good Lord, buy you books, send you to school and all you do is eat the glue.
waa waaa waa i lost my job so lets go break windows..yhea thats non violent...
Keep trying Mess, but only two of the "more than 100 cities" saw violence. What say you & me do a tour of Texas bars Friday night? Let's see the percentage of violence then.
musician666 you are a liar; only two cities saw MAJOR vandalism; there were sporadic incidents of thuggery acrosss America. too bad the International Worker's Day "celebrations" are always marked by ignorance and violence
OIZ,
I quoted from the article. Where do you get your information?
Oakland, LA, NY and Wisconsin off the top of my head saw millions of dollars in damage from protesters. It only hurts their cause. I don't follow these guys nor did i follow the tea party when they protested. The main difference in just carrying out the protests were the people that did it from the tea party had zero arrests and actually cleaned up after themselves. If these people want to be looked at other than being "thugs" they should behave and police themselves.
Again, where do you get your information. Oakland says "a paint bomb". I dont' see any mention wisconsin at all. New York is mentioned, but far from "millions of dollars", the article says "there was little vandalism".
You don't want to quote your opinions & beliefs to me Big, I'll just keep quoting actual sources.
I'm talkin the movement as a whole, not just yesterday. Those guys need to learn to behave at 100% of whatever rally's they choose to partake. One incident roars across the news and taints their cause.
So musician, if i tell you my opinion and belief( it is) .... is that they have the right to protest but i want them to do it peacefully .... what actual source are you going to quote me?
Here you go musician:
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/05/02/Drum-Scum-Occupier-Strikes-Female-Officer-in-Head-from-Behind
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/05/01/occupiers-in-shoving-match-with-police
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/05/01/Occupy-SF-May-Day-Riot-Starts-Early
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/05/01/Occupy-SF-May-Day-Riot-Starts-Early
NO-BAMA12
Has to be funny that such a one is afraid of senior citizens LOL. Have a good day sir heh heh.
This movement totally lost me when they embraced illegal aliens. They don't represent me by advocating the loss of our jobs to cheaper illegals.
Albany, NY: Shut down a table without a permit...big news right there
As for the 3 idiots pretending to be superheros, what better way to protest big business than to hang out at Starbucks?
This occupy movement is as stupid as it gets
From NY to LA to Wisconsin there is a lot of property damage left in the wake of these protesters. If they really want to be taken seriously they should act respectfully towards other people property. Criminal behavior while protesting only hurts there cause as the general public just looks on them as thugs.
Let's talk about thuggery. There's a group of people who openly, proudly steal from their employees & customers, & get paid bonuses every time their successful. Some will deliberately, with premeditation murder about 440,000 people this year, & that's just your fellow Americans. They commit treason by sending billions of your dollars to Middle East oil despots & their pet terrorists, & they're doing it right now as you read this. Like cartoon & comic book villains (& terrorists), they adulterate our food, pour toxins into our water, & even poison the very air we breath, threatening their own species with extinction.
Obviously these folks are a danger to themselves & others. Clearly some of you already know this is the requirement for involuntary institutionalization. Isn't time, past time, to get these poor folks the help they need before they hurt anyone else? Or are we going to let "capitalist" become synonymous with "sociopath"?
Oh, wait, I forgot, theft, murder, treason, & genocide are OK if the next quarterly report shows a profit. Is that really how you want it?
Murder 440,000 each year? You may not like sending money to the middle east musician, i don't either, but is done within the laws in this country. Hardly treason. If you don't like our laws write your congressman and change it through our process.
Yes, tobacco executives will, with premeditation & malice aforethought, murder 440,000 Americans this year. Since the supreme court granted corporations "personhood" last year, I expect Texas to execute some this year.
Our congressmen are owned by the very same capitalists who, based on their behavior, seem to qualify as sociopaths. Thank God we still have the "right to peaceably assemble & petition the government for a redress of grievances". It's about all that's left to us.
Did you notice how much I love to quote the Constitution?
BTW BigATC,
If financing terrorism isn't "treason", what do you call it?
I did notice you like to quote the constitution. I wish more people did. I never have smoked, but if people wish to do so it's their bodies and should be able to do so at their own free will. It's not a big secret smoking is bad for you and a health risk. Driving is dangerous. Fatty foods are dangerous. You think the govt should pick industries they don't like and shut them down?
If someone knowingly gives DIRECTLY to terrorism, yes indeed.
That's one dangerous philosophy of yours. Remember Osama didn't participate "directly" in 9/11.
And can we disuss "free will" in a society where "brainwashing & mind control" are a growth business? I mean, of course, "commercials & advertising".
So your philosophy would be to do no business with China, the Middle east, Brazil, Mexico and others? Because bad things happen from a few people in a certain country we should resort to isolationism?
Terrorism comes from a lot of countries, including France and England. Even our own as evidenced by the 5 peolpe just arrested here trying to blow up a bridge.
NEWSFLASH....dreadlocks, nose piercings, and visible tatoos will not score you many points during the interview process.