With November 17th looming -- the 2 month anniversary of Occupy Wall Street -- it seems that Mayor Bloomberg has taken a preemptive strike against the protesters to try to thwart their planned Day of Action. Last night at around 1am, the NYPD raided the camp at Zuccotti Park/Liberty Square after issuing an eviction notice to the occupiers in order for the city to clean the park. The caveat: once the occupiers left, they would not be able to return to the park with tents. Naturally, this was the Mayor's way of attempting to effectively end the protests. And as any one could have guessed, some protesters would refuse such an order. Reports are mixed right now, but it seems that anywhere from 70 to 200 people were arrested, including one New York City Councilman. There were also several journalists arrested, my brother's girlfriend included, who was detained after being kettled by police. But was this the right move on the Mayor's part? The movement had begun to dwindle, losing the eye of the media, and still without much cohesion. The movement looked stagnant, ready to dissolve away. From watching the local community boards in alliance with the protests, it seems that Bloomberg has only awakened the beast once again.
Already there has been legal push back from the National Lawyers Guild, who immediately sought a court order to allow the protesters back into the park, which was never an issue, but more importantly, that they would be allowed to bring their tents back with them. The NLG argues the protesters right to free speech and to peaceably assemble, as granted in the 1st Amendment of the Constitution, were violated. (They have now been denied privilege to bring tents into the park.) But barring that, the Occupy movement isn't much concerned with the law. It's the "Law" that has for too long been used to benefit the richest people in this country and to silence the rest. Laws have lead to the widest gap in income inequality this country has ever seen. Laws have lead to the reduction of worker's rights in lieu of granting personhood to corporations. Laws have allowed countless individuals to be jailed for stealing food to feed their families, while corporate executives and CEOs get off scott-free, with maybe a bare minimum fine and often no admission of guilt for committing massive fraud, money-laundering, illegally foreclosing homes, and many other egregious white-collar crimes committed over the past decade.
And what has Bloomberg now proved by his -arguably- desperate attempts to silence and break-up the Occupy Wall Street camp at Zuccotti Park? Has he shown that indeed the Occupy movement has validity in what they are protesting, that the system is so corrupt even our right to freedom of speech and to peaceably assemble are no longer infallible? He has only provided the Occupiers with more "belly-fire" for civil disobedience. They will not be deterred by simply removing their tents. They will not be silenced. Their voices grow louder. They will be more broad and more bold. They will use this to further their cause against the moneyed corruption that has overtaken our government, our way of life, and our very democracy.
