In what some have argued amounts to a conspicuous and cynical attempt by Mayor Bloomberg to dismantle protesters at Occupy Wall st headquarters, Zuccotti Park, protesters today are fretting after a surprise co-ordinated mount by authorities at midnight last night to remove protesters (purportedly to clean the park…). According to news outlets this morning up to 200 protesters were arrested with the city contemplating whether to even allow transient protesters (those with no intentions of setting up tent) to even return to the park.
msnbc: Hundreds of police officers, some in riot gear, descended on Zuccotti Park after midnight Tuesday in a surprise sweep of the Occupy Wall Street headquarters.
Some protesters were chained to trees and each other but were nevertheless removed from the park, which was cleared in less than three hours in what appeared to be a highly coordinated action.
In defense of his decision to set police on the protesters Mayor Blooomberg had this to say:
“Unfortunately, the park was becoming a place where people came not to protest, but rather to break laws, and in some cases, to harm others,” Bloomberg said in a statement. “There have been reports of businesses being threatened and complaints about noise and unsanitary conditions that have seriously impacted the quality of life for residents and businesses in this now-thriving neighborhood.”
“Protesters have had two months to occupy the park with tents and sleeping bags,” he added. “Now they will have to occupy the space with the power of their arguments.”
Two months to occupy the park with tents and sleeping bags whilst authorities have had years of collusion, back handing of deals and pay offing of deals to soften regulations that once kept corporates in check and from usurping the greater will of the public. Is this a legitimate argument Mr Bloomberg wishes most of us to acquiesce to?
They will have to occupy the space with the power of their arguments? Which raises the question how does one make an argument if they are continuously being preempted, threatened, beaten up and (il)legally sanctioned? What exactly is Mr Bloomberg talking about? Does he really mean to say make a back door deal that will get your interests heard? Does he mean to say the establishment have had all they can stomach for now and simply want everyone who has a gripe to vanish and resume living their impoverished life whilst those on the right side of the fence can get on with ordering their langostinos ala champagne without fear of being met with a dirty look or a disagreeable post dinner comment?
In press circulating this morning the mayor has also come out to say that he is deliberating whether to let protesters to return back to the park, but with the caveat they can not come back with sleeping bag or tents as a court order which has been issued is being considered. According to my sources, protesters had their belongings, from laptops, cameras and sleeping bags confiscated by authorities and as of this moment the mayor has issued a statement that protesters will be allowed to seek their belongings at catch this the sanitation department.
Activist Michael Moore, went on to ask on Twitter whether President Obama or federal agencies had been involved in planning the clearance in New York and other Occupy camps in Portland, Ore., Denver and Oakland, Calif.
The dailynews for their part have documented that that dozens of Wall Street employees have been congratulating, thanking, and clapping for the NYPD as they pass Zuccotti on their way to work. “Good work, guys, good work.”
Hardly surprising reports from a right wing journal that has along with the NYPost and Murdoch’s FOX network and the UK’s DailyMail have been relentlessly depicting the protests at Zuccotti park as a venue of unsavory behavior, in effect sullying the movement and depicting it as a gathering of no gooders who indulge in drugs, property violations and self indulgent behavior, never mind the self indulgent behavior of corporates and the state that continuously negates public rights and the public’s ability to assert their share of the economic pie.
Continued Mayor Bloomberg this morning:
Some said they should be allowed to stay, others thought wait until the winter arrived. But “the final decision to act was mine, and mine alone,” Bloomberg said.”Inaction was not an option,” he added. “We must never be afraid to insist on compliance with our laws.”
Which forces the greater question whose laws are these and why is it that the public is not allowed to contest laws and practices that have in effect circumvent the rights and abilities of the greater nation to live an existence free of continuous economic peril and disadvantage?
Latest live reports as of 9.08 am from the daily news relay the following:
About 50 bleary-eyed protesters have started gathering in a small park opposite Duarte Square at Canal St. at Sixth Ave. Word is that a band marchers are heading this way now. The tents are gone. Some of the demonstrators are carrying flattened cardboard boxes. Some have signs. Others have nothing.
Ultimately one has to wonder if the whole operation amounts to a cynical exercise to thwart criticism of a system that has failed so many and empowered a select few. In essence it serves to be a convenient denial of the public’s right to express and challenge their concerns and to be held hostage to a heavily funded capitalist dogma that would rather blatantly quash the civil rights of citizens rather than allow them a voice or a venue from which to express themselves. In short the illusion of a democracy has fully come to the fore and served to indict the liberties that so many of us have to come to believe we had. So much for freedom…
But perhaps one of the best comments this author came up about this morning which expose the incredulous series of events in the last few hours comes
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i saw Scally there sleeping in a dumpster
Do you not think gas generators in a crowd are safety hazards?