October 14, 2011

It's so easy to play the game of disorder.

They were so hoping for disorder that when the authorities backed off out of fear of disorder, they managed to generate disorder anyway.
The cleanup of the Lower Manhattan park that has been occupied by protesters for nearly a month was postponed Friday shortly before it was supposed to begin, averting a feared showdown between the police and demonstrators who had vowed to resist any efforts to evict them from their encampment.

But sporadic clashes between protesters and the police erupted anyway when demonstrators started marching through the winding streets of the financial district after learning that the cleanup had been called off. At least 14 were arrested, the police say.
Isn't that sweet?

(And there's a video at the link that cracked us up. That people's microphone thing is hilarious.)

43 comments:

Carol_Herman said...

Mayor Bloomberg is a camera hog and an idiot!

This is PRIVATE PROPERTY!

Somebody searched to find the "spot" for the "occupiers."

Because you can't do this in Central Park!

This all did not come in overnight, either!

First you got organizers paid at $22 per hour.

Even when these idiots are gone ... this is going to be a homeless haven.

Pastafarian said...

I'll assume that the "disoder" in the title is a Freudian slip.

Carol_Herman said...

At one time, in America, Catholic Churches never closed their doors! This was something, in NYC, that the homeless discovered.

So?

The church fathers began closing the doors. And, not allowing in anyone pushing a shopping cart!

WHY?

Well, the homeless left cooties.

People who came in to pray, found all sorts of things jumping on them.

Like bedbugs. Only worse.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

...through the winding streets of the financial district..

Do any of the streets in the financial district actually wind? I thought they were fairly straight.

Carol_Herman said...

All lawyers should learn the rules of writing contracts. And, look for the loopholes.

It's true the builders built their building with a "bigger footprint." So they had to make space available for walkers. And, they spent money on a nicer outdoor feeling ... with trees.

Except for Rockefeller Center's annual Christmas Tree ... I think builders just learned something about space that's "private." But because it's also "public," they gave up any ability to monitor this.

At first, Bloomberg laughed.

And, the cops? They'd just see you can have a corridor to walk. So they just "waved."

Madison, Wisconsin tried this when they had their tent city.

DIFFERENCE? Apartment dwellers threw eggs down.

When the cops tried to come in ... the front doors were locked. And, the cops weren't given access, because they didn't know the codes.

Funny, with TUBBS, the incompetent. He didn't think of entering those lobbies using force.

For "force" you needed the crowds who wanted into the rotunda.

Up ahead? SECURITY WILL OFFER "CONFERENCES" TO PAYING CUSTOMERS WHO WANT TO PRESERVE THEIR PROPERTY. They can also use a good lawyer who can explain the "tricks" of a good contract.

Peter V. Bella said...

Bloomberg is a sniveling coward.

Carol_Herman said...

Architects should know that "public space" needs to be free of places where you can sit down.

Let alone, here. Where they've brought in generators. Tarp covered kitchens.

And, just about everything except toilets. And, security.

Pastafarian said...

Carol Herman, you seem very animated about this issue.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

Okay, just checked a map, and while they are not as straigth as I thought, I certainly wouldn't call them winding.

Anonymous said...

It was way more fun back in the day when the "pigs" chased us down, tear gassed our asses and ripped off our black moratorium armbands. Friendly police? The protesters shold be ashamed of themselves. OWS sounds like a drag...

Carol_Herman said...

Financial District "parking" ... for JP Morgan ... Was a spot for his yacht.

The streets wind. (They may still be cobblestone.) All went up BEFORE the automobile was invented.

The reason for the winding streets?

To keep out the pushcart hustlers.

It was "architecturally designed' so that you could get to your place of work by horse and carriage. But nothing really bigger could be pulled through. (This was before you had fire engines.)

Horses would draw fire hoses. Men would run behind.

The narrow and winding streets, however, remained the same.

Scott M said...

Call me cynical, but I think the whole thing was a staged effort to provide the OWS with gravitas.

We did a ratings stunt one quarter where the on-air staff started dropping in less "active" rock songs and bands, bitching about it the whole time because the management was tinkering with the all rock format. We staged a walk-out, had some local bands come out to play, which our vendor took advantage of as it drew big crowds, and management "caved". From the outside looking in, it appeared that the DJ's had stayed ideologically (rockeologically?) pure and management had relented in the face of a general strike.

Oclarki said...

I want to go to one of these events and say "Mike Check!" "I'm a total douchbag freeloader."

Tully said...

"My understanding is that Brookfield got lots of calls from many elected officials threatening them and saying ... 'We're going to make your life more difficult,'" Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on his weekly radio show.

In case you wondering about where the support for these useful idiots is REALLY coming from.

Freeman Hunt said...

The "people's microphone" link redirects to Dante's Inferno.

Weird.

traditionalguy said...

NYCPD now bows to the American Spring. The Arab Spring was selectively started by bowing Obama encouraging Muslim uprisings, when he wasn't joining in with them to shoot the police authorities they were rebelling against.

Egypt is finished.

Libya's arms supply is now in Gaza aimed at the Jews.

Obama is truly an evil influence. Our country has been rotting from the head down since he was slipped into the Presidency by Soros.

edutcher said...

Bloomie wasn't listening when Dr Venckman told the former mayor where his priorities lay.

He also never heard of, "No guts, no glory".

Pastafarian said...

I'll assume that the "disoder" in the title is a Freudian slip.

She's doing one of The Blonde's mashups (e.g., "flustrate").

A mix of disorder and odor.

(better dis odor dan dat one)

Richard Dolan said...

The whole circus is playing out a few blocks from my office. It's quite easy to ignore, and if you're concentrating on something, quite easy to miss when walking by on the other side of B'way. I've walked by Z Park many times in the last few weeks and the OWS gang seems quite small. Really, not a big deal despite all the ink (pixels?) being spilled about it.

Carol_Herman said...

"Campouts"

Someone at Reddit asks a good question. How come it's legal in NYC to "camp out" in front of the Apple Store. Waiting for the new iPhone?

But you are seeing a major problem that's developed ... at the heart of Wall Street, no less!

Oh, my guess? The private property owners didn't want the cleaning people clashing with the "protestors."

The cops? Sleazy merchandise that goes with Bloomberg's apparatus.

Wait till these headaches come to 42nd street! Traffic was stopped to "make a park."

At the end of the day? Parks will lose.

Shouting Thomas said...

I agree with Richard Dolan.

I've been by the encampment several times.

Very small. Handful of people by the standards of NYC, or by the standards of any political display.

So, the question is why they are commanding so much media attention.

sean said...

I don't understand Prof. Althouse's comment. Is seeking disorder not a legitimate protest objective? That would certainly have put the kibosh on most of the protests she has been in during her lifetime, no?

Ann Althouse said...

"I don't understand Prof. Althouse's comment. Is seeking disorder not a legitimate protest objective? That would certainly have put the kibosh on most of the protests she has been in during her lifetime, no?"

I have only ever participated in one protest in my life (if I remember correctly). It was in 1970 at the University of Michigan. We walked around in a circle in Regent's Park (renamed "People's Park") and chanted "Open it up/(or) Shut it down." We wanted the University of Michigan to adopt a program of affirmative action. Other than that, I've only ever been an observer. As a younger person, I mostly felt that it was embarrassing to protest. These days, I'm just by nature very independent and inclined toward observation, photography, and after-the-fact writing.

Ann Althouse said...

I especially don't like when citizens take up the time of the police by creating disturbances of the peace. (I'm fine with speech and signs and so forth.)

traditionalguy said...

What NYC needs is a Mummers Parade through lower Manhattan.

Leland said...

Seeing Bliss's comment, I decided to look up the park on Google Earth. I found this on the wikipedia link over the park:

It was renamed Zuccotti Park in honor of John Zuccotti, the chairman of Brookfield Properties which used private money to renovate the park which is a public space.

Corporate Pigs! Using their own money to renovate a park for protestors to trash! Congress should have paid to renovate the park and then named it after Robert Byrd, err Charles Schumer!

Carol_Herman said...

Now, they're "threatening" to move into New York's subway system. (My guess?) During rush hour.

Whatever breeds publicity stunts works for them.

The "Zoo-bring yer cot-to de park" ... probably has the private owners working overtime figuring out what to do, ahead.

How would security handle this?

For one thing they want NO PART of the cops PATROLLING INSIDE THEIR PRIVATE PROPERTY!

Which might explain why Bloomberg said "for all he cares the protesters could be there indefinitely."

Up ahead? PRIVATE SECURITY HAS TO FIND WAYS THAT WILL KEEP THIS public "square" open. And, free of the homeless. And, "squatters."

Or? Imagine all the folk who will come, here, from abroad. And, prefer to stay on the private property of "Zoo-got-ee" park.

UNLESS? Up ahead the private security figures out what to do to PREVENT a NEXT TIME.

One hint? Did you see the "pathways" that had to be kept open to foot traffic?

The more wear and tear on this "private preserve" ... the more likely some architect ... is talking to the private security people right now.

Bloomy Bloomberg is an idiot.

And, NO, this isn't the Tea Party! It's the maladaptive nature of our media. In our culture. Who wanted to "borrow" the Tea Party label.

All their other "borrowings" have been failures.

Unknown said...

The National Lawyers Guild? Why, they would never stage a police brutality photo op, would they? :)

plainjane said...

OWus needs a Kent State moment, says MSNBC
http://www.realclearpolitics.c...

plainjane said...

Brookfield Properties received government money...now they owe the man.

Alex said...

Yet I know Althouse approves of these anarchists and will vote for Obama because Romney is a dirty Mormon or whatever.

Alex said...

You know - I hope the OWS swine grind NYC to a halt and don't let up! The more the merrier.

LordSomber said...

Perhaps they are Discordians, but that might be giving them too much credit.

"Reality is the original Rorschach. Verily! So much for all that."
—Malaclypse the Younger

SGT Ted said...

Typical leftist street theater trying to create a confrontation, then accuse the police of brutality for responding to their provocation in order to gin up sympathy and create some anti-police propaganda.

This is Agitation 101 and incitement to riot.

SGT Ted said...

Is seeking disorder not a legitimate protest objective?

No. It's not. Because you are not then protesting; you are trying to incite violence, IOW, you have become a criminal.

showbiz111 said...

The anarchy and violence didn't happen "anyway" like Hitler's takeover of the Sudetenland, it was the direct result of political appeasement of radical socialists by those who should know better.

john said...

Old and stale. The "peoples microphone" is nothing more than news for the hard of hearing.

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

The linked article about the GAs, the groups of people who repeat what the speaker is saying, is amazing.

The author is saying (although she doesn't believe this) that it's a collection of people who've succeeded in institutional settings their whole life by learning to conform. And they're good at it.

But when they are out of the classroom they don't know what to do, so they recreate their school setting.

It's pathetic. It's not empowering at all, quite the opposite. The author of the piece is on to something when she says that the GA methods limit men from hogging the "microphone." The whole process is effeminate. It's about order and fairness and making sure everyone is heard. There's even an unruly male who gets excluded for not following the rules.

This is not about a genuine debate, it's about preventing conflict. It's about everyone getting along and everyone saying the same thing. In short, Groupthink. Group solidarity is more important than results or accurate information.

All the talk about comfort and belonging gives it away. This isn't a movement aimed at accomplishing anything, but about belonging. Shared experience, sacrifice, and friendship. They want conflict without actually fighting with anyone.

It's all fake, though. It's an attempt to create a real experience without doing the work that real change requires.

Anonymous said...

The cops don't need to be there. They are taking up their own time and wasting their own overtime budgets. That's not the protestors fault. The cops are not performing a vital function there in the slightest, at least not justifying their numbers. It's not a bunch of hoods down there. I was just there. It's all ages, races. I shook the hand of a veteran of The Bulge.

Police can go look for rapists and robbers, but that can be hard.

Anonymous said...

Shared experience, sacrifice, and friendship. They want conflict without actually fighting with anyone.


Sounds AWFUL. KILL KILL KILL!!!

Anga2010 said...

I want to say
(I want to say)
{I want to say}

That I believe
(That I believe)
{That I believe}

That people need
(That people need)
{That people need}

To think for themselves!
(eh?)
{wtf?}

Anga2010 said...

It's all been done before, and done better:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zjz16xjeBAA

Anga2010 said...

I always mess up the url's *apo*

Youtube: Life of Brian not the Messiah
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=life+of+brian+not+the+messiah&aq=0&aql=f&oq=life+of+brian+not+the+m

Peter V. Bella said...

They should have just used pepper spray on the whole park. Then fire hoses to wash away the rabble.

BTW, they are not registered as a non-profit and have received over 150 thousand in donations. Are they going to pay taxes on that money?

Occupy this you hypocrites.