So NYC Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly pulled off an early morning police raid on Occupy Wall St. Congratulations, and for shame! The trumped up rationale for driving largely non violent protestors out of Liberty Square (Zucotti Park) was shameless and transparent. It was also expected.
Also expected was the police excess normally reserved for communities other than Lower Manhattan. The arrest and detention of City Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez should cost someone at 1 Police Plaza their job. Sadly, the Mayor can't be touched politically. He's in the midst of an ill advised third term. Yet make no mistake. Mayor Bloomberg deserves to criticized for the raid on Occupy Wall St. the same way he was criticized for his handling of the blizzard.
For a sitting Deputy Mayor (Cas Holloway) to argue before a judge that OWS was stockpiling weapons sounds as hollow as GW Bush's "weapons of mass destruction" argument for invading Iraq. When the history of this time is written, it will be the police, not protestors, who will be remembered for their callous disregard for their fellow human beings. They didn't even have sense enough not to go around arresting journalists!
The stealth raid, complete with keeping journalists at bay, ought to make people concerned with basic liberties hang their heads. However, out of adversity comes opportunity. Occupy Wall St. isn't going away any more than other Occupy movements around the nation and world. People like Bloomberg and Kelly will find out you can't arrest, raid, beat down, or otherwise trample on an idea. The issues brought up by this movement won't go away. The powers that be will find this out sooner than most people think.
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