Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

David Atkins writes at Hullabaloo

There is a serious culture war at work in the United States. It involves a courageous minority of outraged citizens up against a majority that is either apathetic, or directly defending of the agents of the status quo. That minority suffers the slings and arrows of contempt and cursed spite as it does its best to set right a nation in times out of joint, and only years or even decades afterward do the majority of citizens cast a fond gaze backward, imagining that they were or would have been on the activists’ side at the time. The capacity of society for anachronistic delusion and self-regard is nearly limitless.

Just as Glenn Beck’s venomous followers comically attempt to adopt the mantle of Martin Luther King, Jr., so too will some right-wing blowhard 30-40 years from now claim to embody the spirit of the heroes of Zuccotti Park in the service of whatever reactionary force they happen to be extolling a generation hence.

Thus has it always been, and thus will it ever be.

This is an heroic narrative. But isn’t there something about it that doesn’t ring quite true?

Mayor Bloomberg has failed to transcend his origins: he sent the cops in to empty Zucotti Park.

UPDATE: There appears to have been substantial coordination between mayors in many (15?) cities, officially under the auspices of the National Conference of Mayors, but with major support by Homeland Security and perhaps the FBI. See Oh. Homeland security AND the FBI for some details.

Digby summarizes the clearing of Zucotti Park for us:

Watching it unfold has had the same surreal feel as watching the early days of Tahrir Square. As big as the story of the clearing of the park is, one of the interesting side stories is also that all the major news networks, cable and otherwise, were silent. They were showing no live video from New York. Only Raw Story had a live stream, still ongoing as of this writing. And as with Egypt, by far the best way to learn about events happening on the ground was via Twitter.

Per various twitter reports:

• Protesters were told to take their belongings and leave. Any belongings not immediately carried out by protesters were then tossed unceremoniously into a massive pile on the street and loaded into dumpsters. This included the tents, the entire 5,000 book OWS library, and the bike generators.
• Most subways and trains into downtown were blocked, including with cops at entrances
• The Brooklyn Bridge was shut down until 6am
• All media and press were not allowed within a block of Zucotti Park
• Airspace over Zucotti was blocked by police helicopters and legally blocked to prevent any media coverage
• Journalists gathered together to attempt to gain access were denied. According to one report, one cop tore a press credential off a journalist, while another responded to a journalist’s claim to be press by saying, “not tonight.”
• One New York Times journalist reported arrested, and city councilmember Ydanis Rodriguez reportedly arrested and bleeding from the head
• Multiple individuals injured, bleeding, including one carried out on a stretcher
• Doormen locking buildings around Zucotti to prevent residents from exiting to witness events
• Counter-terrorism police units on scene

Oakland’s protestors got the boot too.

The strategy of force will fail.