Under some Orwellian concept of citizen surveillance, the very Wall Street banks that proved they were a far greater threat to the United States than any foreign terrorist when they collapsed the Nation’s financial system in 2008, are part of a joint venture with the NYPD to use high-tech spy equipment to monitor the comings and goings of citizens in the streets of Manhattan – the majority of which, unlike Wall Street, are law abiding citizens.

– Pam Martens, from her recent article: Despite Eight Ongoing Criminal/Civil Investigations of JPMorgan, the Bank’s a Law Enforcement Partner With the NYPD

Michael Bloomberg made his priorities and strategy quite clear throughout his extended tenure as New York City’s mayor. It is far easier to demonize large sodas, salt and cigarettes than it is to go after the real criminals running wild in Manhattan. After all, why go after your billionaire oligarch finance pals when you can randomly stop thousands of disenfranchised, dark-complexioned serfs toiling in the barrios and forgotten areas of your neo-feudal city in order to look “tough on crime.”

It’s one thing to target the poor while protecting the very rich. We already know that’s been the central tenet of Mayor Bloomberg’s leadership strategy. That said, it is quite another to have the NYPD work side by side with JP Morgan employees (a company facing eight ongoing criminal/civil investigations) as some sort of law enforcement strategy. Yet, that is precisely what it has been doing.

More from Pam Martens of Wall Street on Parade:

Nothing reveals the incestuous, one-percent-mindset that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly have with Wall Street than the next to last photo at this link. The photo shows an employee of U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s number one target for financial fraud investigations, JPMorgan Chase, working inside a high security spy center in Lower Manhattan to — wait for it — help the New York City Police Department catch crooks.

While most law enforcement bodies around the U.S. would instantly weed out serial wrongdoers as job hires, Bloomberg and Kelly have created an art form out of joint policing ventures with Wall Street, operating both a rent-a-cop program with Wall Street as well as pumping at least $150 million of taxpayer money into the Lower Manhattan Security Coordination Center where Wall Street employees sit elbow to elbow with NYPD officers.

Under some Orwellian concept of citizen surveillance, the very Wall Street banks that proved they were a far greater threat to the United States than any foreign terrorist when they collapsed the Nation’s financial system in 2008, are part of a joint venture with the NYPD to use high-tech spy equipment to monitor the comings and goings of citizens in the streets of Manhattan – the majority of which, unlike Wall Street, are law abiding citizens.

In the Fall of 2011, I filed two Freedom of Information Law requests with the NYPD seeking details on the rent-a-cop program and the Lower Manhattan Security Coordination Center.

Despite the legislative mandate that the NYPD should respond in 5 business days or a period reasonable to the request, both of my requests received a written response stating it would take five months to answer — five months or 30 times longer than the legislative intent. To date, I have not received a sliver of paper responsive to my request.

If we want to understand why Wall Street believes it is above the law, look no further than the NYPD.

This is what we call oligarch justice in the United States of Banana Republic.

In Liberty,

Mike

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