Bloomberg Shuts Down Occupy Wall Street
In the wee hours of the morning New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg had the police clear out Zuccotti Park. As far as the right to protest goes, I couldn't say it better than Paul Ryan did a few weeks ago:
I don’t disparage anybody who wants to air their grievances, petition their government. As long as nobody gets hurt, and as long no property is destroyed, I think it’s fine people demonstrate to organize themselves. I’m not exactly sure what it is they’re calling for, but if there’s frustration aimed at crony capitalism, corporate welfare, at bailing out connected corporations, I agree with them. We shouldn’t have any more Solyndras, we shouldn’t be picking winners and losers with federal tax dollars by subsidizing, regulating or tax loopholing people with preferences. Let’s get rid of all of that.
Now, where Occupy Wall Street has gone astray is, in fact, with people getting hurt and property getting destroyed. There are also public health concerns. During my trip to Occupy DC, the stench was problematic. Considering how few occupants each of these tent cities have, the public health problems were significant.
But what do we think about the manner in which the police cleared out Zuccotti Park? What do we think about how well the rule of law is being followed?
One thing that seriously concerns me is that every reporter down there last night claims that they were not allowed to see what was going on by the police. Mayor Bloomberg has said that he removed the press for their own safety (that's not how it works, Mayor Mike!).
Because of the lack of press presence, there's no way to confirm reports of police brutality last night during the clean out and arrest of a couple hundred protesters. Obviously police violence would be another concern.
Moving onto later this morning, a very liberal (a parody of herself, as John Podhoretz notes) judge ordered protesters back in to the park, saying their tents were totally allowed. Rather than comply with the order, Bloomberg simply shut the park down. That concerns me.
During a press conference this morning, Bloomberg said that all those who re-enter the park would be searched. That doesn't sound right, given the 4th Amendment and all.
And if we have overreaching police and mayors handle whatever legitimate problems arise out of the Occupy protests, this is bad for two reasons. One is that they will lose key legal and political battles that may be important for resolving problems caused by the Occupy movement. The other is that this sets a bad precedent for future political protests. Protests that may actually have a point or value.
I always try to consider government action against people in terms of how I would feel if they were going after movements I agree with. What do you think about how the police and mayor's office have handled things?
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Comments:
May '11
Re: Bloomberg Shuts Down Occupy Wall Street
Rep. Ryan suggests that the Occupy X movement might be upset about crony capitalism, bailouts, and the like. I see no reason to project our values on to these pathetic creatures. They do not care about what we care about. As far as I can tell, all they want to do is destroy society. They see problems in the world, and they are convinced that it must all stem from the American capitalist system, which is rotten to the core and must be destroyed. They have no understanding of how the system actually works, and they have no idea what would replace it – and what's more, they don't care. It never dawns on them that American capitalism, whatever its faults, has created the most free, strong, and prosperous society in all of human history. In short, please stop anthropomorphizing these creatures. They do not deserve it. They are here to destroy your life as you know it. That their hearts may be in the right place is besides the point.
Apr '11
Re: Bloomberg Shuts Down Occupy Wall Street
OWS long ago stopped being a political protest, if it ever was one, and devolved into bad public behavior: their assemblies aren't peaceable in a host of ways, including the interference with the public's conduct of its normal, legitimate business, and they have no grievances for whose redress they are petitioning. In the case of Zucotti Park, people trying to re-enter would be trespassing on private property. That in itself IMAO justifies a stop and frisk, particularly if it is for safety reasons rather than gathering criminal evidence. Never mind that this is a city not the Federal government acting.
Our public life is not fully described by the "Bill of Rights", and the Constitution established the the English Common Law as effective in the U.S., giving local public authorities broad common sense discretion in maintaining public order.
Mar '11
Re: Bloomberg Shuts Down Occupy Wall Street
Ah.....but a judge just ordered a TRO preventing cops from barring OWS re-entering the park.
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/266582-order-re-liberty-park/
Oct '10
Re: Bloomberg Shuts Down Occupy Wall Street
In agreeing with the above comments, I reserve it from the issue of removing the press. Even though I do not trust them to honestly tell the story of what went on, outsider witnesses are the only means of defeating the extreme claims of brutality that will surely be made.
As with the congressional black caucus's accusations of Tea Party racist comments, the only real proof of the claims falsity is the fact that the place was over run with press and people with camera phones.
Mollie is right on that issue, even though I disagree with much else in her article.
Edited on November 15, 2011 at 4:46pmAug '10
Re: Bloomberg Shuts Down Occupy Wall Street
The application of the law should be dispassionate, blind, swift, confident, and performed without abuse. None of these things occurred here. Bloomberg should have cleared the park on the first night. I am a Tea Party sympathizer, and if it had been Tea Party protest, I would say the same thing.
What message did Bloomberg send? If your protest aligns somewhat with the political views of the mayor, you are free to flout the law, until such time as even the mayor gets sick of you. Then he will call in the NYPD and trash your belongings. The judge is just as bad. I don't care if you're "exercising your freedom of speech". There is no camping in Manhattan, period. It's really quite simple.
Feb '11
Re: Bloomberg Shuts Down Occupy Wall Street
I'm a lot more concerned about leftist judges overruling elected officials than I am about Bloomberg evicting a swarm of disease-ridden derelicts from a park.
I think in many ways this country has ceased to be self-governing, and this is an all too typical example. Those protesters have long since made themselves a public nuisance, but this leftist judge has decided that they have the indefinite right to camp out on private property because they are acting in support of leftist goals.
The wishes of the elected government, and the local public, are irrelevant.
Plus, I have no doubt if it were a Tea-Party aligned group instead of a passel of leftists the police could club the protesters into oblivion. The press would refuse to report it and the judiciary would stay out of it.
Closing the park instead of complying with an idiotic politically motivated judicial decree is the first action Bloomberg has ever taken that I agree with.
Aug '10
Re: Bloomberg Shuts Down Occupy Wall Street
I agree with comment#5, and I also think it's scary that the press was kept out.
May '10
Re: Bloomberg Shuts Down Occupy Wall Street
When the Melbourne OWS protesters were removed it occurred at 9am on a Friday, with press coverage in plain sight of the public and so many plain clothes policeman with cameras recording the event, I should have bought shares in Sony.
After requests to leave use of force by police to arrest and detain those who were trespassing.
As usual, marbles for tripping the Mounted police, urine filled balloons, were recovered from protesters and on site. The protesters were corralled out of the city and have disappeared except in small pockets in a nearby park.
The courts here denied an application for 10 tents and a village area to be permitted as part of the protest; as the judge ruled that the freedom to protest is not the freedom to trespass or damage by occupation.
Yes we have lots of human rights propounding judges, squealing professional protesters, and a previous Police command that let themselves be punching bags for the Left. Reports of a policeman giving his lunch box Mars bar to a child at the protest line were noted in the press, as was the grid lock that occurred in traffic all day.
Apr '11
Re: Bloomberg Shuts Down Occupy Wall Street
If this was being directed at a right-wing protest as violent as OWS has been? I'd like to think I'd be embarrassed at the protesters and accept the police shutting them down, even violently.
Nov '10
Re: Bloomberg Shuts Down Occupy Wall Street
This "movement" would have collapsed long ago were it not for the constant press coverage it has received. I agree with the statement by Kevin Walker- Bloomberg should have cleared the park on the first night. He didn't, and egged on by the attention they received, the group became more entrenched and intransigent. It may seem scary that the press was kept out, but the one way to ensure that the eviction would have become excessively confrontational and potentially violent would have been to give the OWS crowd the audience they crave.
I did a lap around the park this morning with a big smile on my face. It has been restored, at least temporarily, to a condition suitable for the purpose for which it was designed. That smile turned to a frown as I walked just a few blocks further north and ran into the mob, surrounded by a police escort, on its way (presumably) back to the park.
End this.
Apr '11
Re: Bloomberg Shuts Down Occupy Wall Street
To me what is scary is the premise that having a journalistic presence somehow remotely ensures anyone's protection from police brutality.
The idea that having witnesses guarantees less brutality is ludicrous.
What would have ensured everyone's freedoms would have been a swift and measured adherence to the laws for proper protest and assembly regardless of who or what is being protested.
If the presence of witnesses, be it a person or video, is a proper deterrent, than how do you explain what is taking place in a large segment of our major city's schools. We have video monitoring in the hallways and on school buses and roaming school police and none of those measures have alleviated school violence or curbed any police brutality.
Brutality can arise in public, as with protest or demonstrations and in private, as with ones children, when measured, calm discipline has failed to be administered prudently at the moment any law or rule has been broken. We are then ruled by emotions instead of responsibility.
Jul '10
Re: Bloomberg Shuts Down Occupy Wall Street
I can empathize with the decision to bar the press, though Ms. Hemingway is right that it's very problematic. When arrests are made at a political event, there is a great tendency among the arrested to really ham it up. When cameras are around, that tendency goes to 11. The professional protesters actually train for this sort of thing, and the media can be trusted to manipulate the footage, as was done with that video of the NYPD commander swinging his nightstick.
If the NYPD is smart, it's got its own videographers there to document the operation. That's what my agency did with our Occupy protest, although our local version was very well behaved and stayed only as long as their permit allowed, so we never had to break anything up, luckily.
The larger point is that Bloomberg has only himself to blame for allowing this to go on as long as it has. Though in fairness, the intervention of the judge shows exactly what kind of stacked deck Bloomberg has to play with.
Oct '11
Re: Bloomberg Shuts Down Occupy Wall Street
Or, you know, actual police abuse and misconduct.
Apr '11
Re: Bloomberg Shuts Down Occupy Wall Street
Kevin Walker: The application of the law should be dispassionate, blind, swift, confident, and performed without abuse. None of these things occurred here. Bloomberg should have cleared the park on the first night. I am a Tea Party sympathizer, and if it had been Tea Party protest, I would say the same thing.
What message did Bloomberg send? If your protest aligns somewhat with the political views of the mayor, you are free to flout the law, until such time as even the mayor gets sick of you. Then he will call in the NYPD and trash your belongings. The judge is just as bad. I don't care if you're "exercising your freedom of speech". There is no camping in Manhattan, period. It's really quite simple. · Nov 15 at 7:58am
This sums up my thoughts exactly. Unfortunately, from what I've gathered from Bloomberg, this seems par for the course for the Mayor.
Jul '10
Re: Bloomberg Shuts Down Occupy Wall Street
It's about damn time. When the tents came out, they should have charged them all with vagrancy and given them the bum's rush.
Aug '10
Re: Bloomberg Shuts Down Occupy Wall Street
Like Penn State turning a blind eye, thus causing more boys to be raped, Bloomberg and other leaders twiddled their thumbs, letting the protest grow, inspiring lawless actions and threats to public health in NY and other cities: Murder, rape, destruction of private property, vermin, tuberculosis, etc. Shame on them.
Dec '10
Re: Bloomberg Shuts Down Occupy Wall Street
Hooray!! The Imperial Guard removed the vermin from the 'Great City'. Lord Emperor of the Rinos BLOOMBERG THE FIRST had decreed it so. The Mayor having realized he had criticized the Obama Administration for being too RIGHT WING, knew it was time to actually enforce the Law. Ho humm. I just loved the part about the psychotic NY left wing judge who wanted the tents put back up. It just doesn't get better then this.
Thanks Mollie
Oct '10
Re: Bloomberg Shuts Down Occupy Wall Street
QuickerBrownFox
Or, you know, actual police abuse and misconduct. · Nov 15 at 12:13pm
Actual police misconduct or brutality can occur, and if and when it does, it should be dealt with as with any abuse of power. My point above is that only the visual dissemination of what went on can insure against both police brutality if it were to occur, and the certain fraudulent charges of same which are usually the accompaniment of lefty protests.
In the end, even with video and eyewitness accounts, controversy will almost certainly follow these types of events, and interpretations will be a part of each of our political and personal viewpoints. Alas, that will almost certainly be the case.
But at least in the openness of daylight, we can hope that the most egregious claims will be exposed.