Thank the gods it’s over.
I mean the occupation of Zucotti Park, down near Wall Street. Mayor Blumberg, in his wisdom, declared the place the disaster it was–sanitation and safety issues run amok–and he sent a small band of courteous messengers out to discuss the issue with the occupants in the early hours of November 15.
Of course the young miscreants lodged there in the park refused to go. The poor police officers really had their hands full, urging them along with a pat and a wag of the finger. And then the officers were left to pick up all those smelly tents and sleeping bags and sweep that litter of books and cameras and electronic stuff into a big pile for the garbage guys to take away.
Trust me, it well and truly sucks being a New York cop, having to face all that hostility and uproar day after day for two whole months. All that drumming! All those signs! The chanting and “mic checks.” The singing. It was a beat no policeman should be forced to walk.
Various news outlets report that the real reason for the gentle nudge our mayor gave those dirty young people wasn’t just the public health crisis they represented. It was that they were hiding weapons. Very likely Weapons of Mass Destruction. You couldn’t see them but, just like the WMDs in Iraq, they were there. Hidden in the kitchen. Among the books in the library. Wrapped in that roll of paper signs. If our Gentlemen in Blue hadn’t taken the initiative, there’s no telling what horrors might have befallen lower Manhattan.
Because, as we all know, there was rampant violence among these supposedly “peaceful” interlopers. Who could miss how aggressively they smashed their heads into police batons? How they ground their backs into the tender knees of our protectors? How they thrust their wrists in rage at the Boys in Blue? And they were slick, even in the movement’s earliest days: consider the manipulative tears of those women who stubbornly refused to clear the area after the police so kindly warned them of that errant cloud of stray pepper spray.
These people are clearly dangerous, in addition to being infectious, in the public health sense. And they are whiners: I fail to see what their problem is, especially since the mass arrest of all those folks on Wall Street who intentionally caused our housing market, and our economy, to tank.
I mean, really! Citi now uses Americans at the end of their phone mazes. And didn’t I hear just the other day that Bank of America has decided to not charge us for using the debit cards they gave us so we could have access to the money they tend so carefully for us?
What more could those brash young criminals possibly want???
Of course, the problem isn’t completely solved–the mayor, in his magnanimity, will let them go back into the park, as long as they don’t bring anything bigger than a smallish backpack. That’s a mistake, if you ask me: next thing you know, those ingrates will force us to watch them die of hypothermia.
Hrumph.
They should get a job and leave the police alone.
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Thank god, Susan, we have someone on the ground to give us the “true story.”
Just think, if the police had been more pro-active in the beginning of a lot of these street gangs back in the sixties, we would have seen a stop to these kind of shenanigans. Today, we would have had an orderly society in the South, where everyone knew their place; a military draft, and a good war, still, in Vietnam.
Instead the police dilly dallied (something about “freedom of assembly” ..what’s with that?) and waited until the Democratic convention in 1968, when that crack down almost led to the defeat of Nixon…that was one close call. Keep up the good work!
I visited the OWS at Zucotti Park. Lots of confusion about what was the message and intent. The sign I will always remember was the one with a characature of President Obama and a statement, “Obama, F__k Yo’ Momma.” Truly enlightened agents of change.
Well, yeah, Joey; it’s sad, all those lost opportunities. But the good thing is, we’ve managed to work out our own job stimulus as a country by starting not one, but TWO new wars! Unfortunately, though, it looks like even they might be suffering from the recession…
My favorite placard at OWS, Leo, is “I’m so mad I made this sign.”
My son has been spending a fair amount of time with the movement. We’re hoping that, if he lasts six months there, he’ll qualify for health insurance.
I have a dear friend who was in Vietnam. Recently he received a letter from the VA confirming that he had been exposed to Agent Orange and listing all the diseases from which he might suffer as a consequence. The letter evidently cautioned him not to let his insurance company know as they might cancel his policy. Subsequently, he was denied VA health coverage.
All I could do was introduce him to the novel that we all read in my Peace Corps days, “Catch 22.” He said it helped. I am thinking of suggesting he follow up on your son’s plan for qualifying for health insurance. However, my friend also said that “it only hurt when he laughed.”
Hmm. Your friend might’ve been denied a disability, but he shouldn’t be denied VA coverage. If he’s been exposed to Agent Orange, he should qualify–although he’d have to pay co-pays, which are for the most part better than the ones he’d be stuck with using his private insurance.
I know this only because it’s my husband’s and my main insurance. We still have to have a “disaster” policy in the private sector, in case we’re hit by the bus and the ambulance takes us to a regular ER, but our primary care doc is VA. This is something relatively new, under Obama; during the rein of George II, I volunteered in a soup kitchen and the local VA rep wanted me to put up posters for women who’d served to come to the VA for screenings. Then I had to take them down the next week because she’d been told the VA couldn’t afford to treat us. Now, they’ve expanded coverage to anybody who’s served in VN because we’re “presumed Agent Orange affected.” Believe me, it’s been a real godsend for us.
That said, VAs differ in quality of care and state of facilities. We’re very lucky here: the Brooklyn VA is not perfect, but the staff are caring, and the attention is appropriate. And the computerization of records is a minor miracle, very helpful for continuity of care.
Thanks for the information. My friend is appealing the decision.
I don’t know the full circumstances of his situation.