“Krugman’s Army” Open Thread
Posted: October 10, 2011 Filed under: #Occupy and We are the 99 percent!, Civil Liberties, open thread, U.S. Economy, U.S. Politics | Tags: #OccupyWallStreet, first amendment, Michael Bloomberg, OccupyAtlanta, OccupyBoston, Paul Krugman, police brutality, protesters, U.S. Constitution 25 Comments
Photo from #OccupyWallStreet sent to Paul Krugman by a reader
Last week, Mayor Bloomberg was all over #Occupy Wall Street, claiming the protesters were trying to destroy the jobs of Wall Street Bankers and other denizens of Wall Street, and threatening that somehow the protests would cause NYC to be unable to pay municipal workers.
I guess one of his advisers must have told him it might not be a good idea to deny that people have a right to assemble in public and air their grievances, according to the U.S. Constitution, because now Bloomberg is singing another tune.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on Monday that he’ll allow the Wall Street protesters to stay indefinitely, provided they abide by the law, marking his strongest statement to date on the city’s willingness to let demonstrators occupy a park in Lower Manhattan.
“The bottom line is – people want to express themselves. And as long as they obey the laws, we’ll allow them to,” said Bloomberg as he prepared to march in the Columbus Day Parade on Fifth Avenue. “If they break the laws, then, we’re going to do what we’re supposed to do: enforce the laws.”
Bloomberg said he has “no idea” how much longer the Wall Street demonstration will last. “I think part of it has probably to do with the weather,” he said.
I think someone needs to send the Mayor a copy of the Constitution with the first amendment highlighted. He still thinks he gets to decide if American citizens can gather and protest on public property.
I wonder what Bloomberg will say about what the protesters plan to do next? From the New York Daily News:
The Occupy Wall Street protesters are planning to get in the face of some of New York’s richest tycoons on Tuesday.
A “Millionaires March” will visit the homes – or, more realistically, the gleaming marble lobbies – of five of the city’s wealthiest residents.
On the target list: NewsCorp CEO Rupert Murdoch, JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, conservative billionaire David Koch, financier Howard Milstein and hedge fund mogul John Paulson.
Between 400 and 800 marchers plan to go to their homes to present them with oversize checks to dramatize how much less they will pay when New York State’s 2% tax on millionaires expires at the end of the year.
This is starting to get interesting. I admit I find the call and response routine of the protesters kind of annoying, but that’s OK. We annoyed a lot of old folks when we protested the Vietnam War too. Annoying old folks is one of the responsibilities of the young.
Meanwhile, in Boston, police are warning the protesters to go home or else:
Boston police were warning the more than 1,000 Occupy Boston protesters tonight that if they do not leave the Rose Kennedy Greenway and Dewey Square areas that authorities would move them out.
Police were visible around the areas in small batches tonight, while protest organizers held a meeting on the Greenway, answering questions from the demonstrators.
Occupy Boston, in a statement last night, answered the police warning by issuing a call “for any and all people to join the occupation as soon as possible.”
“From the beginning, occupiers have worked tirelessly to maintain a positive working relationship with city officials. Today’s threats by the Boston Police Department represent a sudden shift away from that dialogue,” the statement said.
The mayor’s office, however, has said the city will make no effort to clear the original Dewey Square tent city tonight, but police have said that if protesters do not leave the Greenway, the authorities would clear both the Greenway and Dewey Square.
Hmmmm…sounds like Mayor Menino is out of sync with the cops. Very interesting. Minx says the Atlanta police are itching to crack some heads too. The cops just never understand that when they attack protesters they only draw more attention to them and their grievances.
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Mayor Mitch Landrieu of New Orleans came out of his office which is right across the street from where the NOLA occupied people are and says hi. He seems to be fine with it all for the moment. The park is down in the center of all the federal buildings and used to be a huge homeless sleeping place for awhile. They empty it out when we have Mardi Gras, etc. because it’s right on St. Charles. My office at the FED used to look right on to it. Best spot in the world for the big Mardi Gras day parades like Zulu and Rex.
Semper Fi!
That gave me chills.
It made me cry. These young men should be very proud of themselves. They represent the best of America.
Powerful, powerful clip, Dak. It’s going to be very difficult to ridicule, dismiss or otherwise ignore our Vets if they become involved in OWS. Particularly by the Right that loves all things military. And yes, how ironic that everyone clambers on the bandwagon to call the demonstrations overseas ‘expressions of democracy,’ only to call American protests: unpatriotic mobs.
The one Marine’s statement about not agreeing with the wars ties into to several articles I’ve read saying that many of our soldiers feel the same way–that the wars have gone on far too long and seem to have no reasonable outcome or result. The other Marine’s comment about his GI benefits is really disturbing. He shouldn’t need to fight for them, contacting his Senator to go to bat. My husband completed his undergraduate, and then did his graduate work on his GI benefits. And yes, it was a tight going for a while but the money should be paying for more than books. We paid up front, and then were reimbursed for book and tuition expenses. Of course, college expenses have spiked to ridiculous levels since then. We found that out when paying for our kids college expenses. My last one graduated in 2001. Hallelujah!
Powerful vid!
I’ll repost this here: So unfair, & wrong. WE HAVE THE 2ND AMENDMENT – RT @OWSAtlanta Prison bus, bomb squad, mounted police. Media is all here. Democracy at work. 7 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite
Tweet from OCCUPYATL
I’ve been watching the livestream at OccupyAtlanta: LiveStream | Occupy Atlanta
It looks like the cops waited until the local news was finished before they headed on over the the park. Now I see media…Fox is there, and lots more people milling around.
According to #occupyatlanta’s twitter, the Mayor is expected to speak to the crowd. Police have stood down for the time being while they wait for him.
Updates and live stream from #OccupyBoston from Susie Madrak at C&L http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/mass-arrest-begins-occupy-boston-site
She also mentions #OccupyAtlanta
the twitter stream is rocking from both cities
Yes, it is exciting…I am glad these cities are getting the attention of the media too…
Occupy Boston
@Occupy_Boston Occupy Boston
Cops in the street. #occupyboston
38 seconds ago via Twitter for iPhone
Live stream from Boston
http://www.livestream.com/occupyboston
Oh wow….that is amazing!
Boy does this ever bring back memories. I’ll never forget seeing busloads of police pulling into Harvard Square, ready to beat the shit out of some hippies. And marching in Boston with police on all sides with shields and billy clubs at the ready. Scary.
It was upsetting watching it happen via live reports of people in Boston last night. Minx and I were both awake…very upsetting. I don’t know when they ‘The Elite’ that push candidates to do their bidding, start multiple wars with no end and say to anyone that questions them they are un-American.
I finally went to sleep, but my heart was heavy.
@occupy_boston: Police are surrounding the park. Beating lots of protesters, many arrests. #occupyboston
All it wil do is call attention to the protests and the fact that young people have no jobs and no future in the USA.
As bad as it is, I think it will help the occupy movement…
If you are on Twitter, give this user a follow: Sarah Betancourt (sweetadelinevt) on Twitter
She is doing a great job of getting the info out from OccupyBoston.
Absolutely no coverage on CNN, nothing on Boston or Atlanta.
Nothing on Fox News.
Big picture on front page of MSNBC.
CBS News has story on it.
I just posted a story from the WaPo on the morning thread. Now that the police have attacked, it will get coverage.
The “Millionaires March” shows a positive increase in action by the “Occupy Wall Street” groups, as opposed to standing around shouting and waving signs. I have a suggestion for more (and more creative) action.
One of the flaws of the “Occupy Wall Street” protest is that corporations pay more attention to consumer activity than citizen activity. In an era when money equal speech, it was only a matter of time before someone developed the idea of using shopping as a form of protest. A buy-mob combines the principle of a computer hacker’s Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attack with the social media-sparked, mass participation of a flash mob. Instead of trying to disrupt normal business activities, participate in them. The buy-mob is the consumer’s filibuster of the shopping experience.
I explain more on how “Occupy Wall Street” could occupy Main Street in a recent blog post at http://www.ragingwisdom.com/?p=352