Madison Ruppert, Contributing Writer

Activist Post

The protests appear to be working, at least in the sense that it is forcing Wall Street crony and New York City Mayor and multi-billionaire Michael Bloomberg (who literally claimed he didn’t know what the word “responsible” was in court) to out himself as a friend of the elite and an enemy of the people.

Similarly, the mainstream media has continued their veiled assault on the protests, calling it a “stagnant movement that has dragged out for three weeks” among other things.

CNN also pretended that the demonstrations in New York were “marred by scuffles with police” when in fact the “scuffles” were police attacking demonstrators. The demonstrators have been consistently peaceful, not “largely peaceful” as CNN claims.

When demonstrators are wildly assaulted by police with nightsticks and pepper spray in a premeditated effort, that is not violence on the part of the protest but on the part of the police thugs who are still blind enough to think that they are not being exploited just like the activists are.

Ad

Certain people in New York are also complaining about the noise, essentially implying that people should only be able to express their right to speak and assemble freely so long as it doesn’t annoy them.

Bloomberg characterized the protesters as a gathering of self-obsessed job killers seeking to “take jobs form the people working in the city” on his weekly radio broadcast.

Bloomberg’s delusion is beyond measure. Apparently a movement of people seeking economic justice and employment for all is now a movement of people seeking economic inequality and unemployment for all.

He also bemoaned the impact the Occupy Wall Street movement would have on tourism, claiming that it would “take away the tax base we have”.

Again, Bloomberg reveals that he is either absurdly imbecilic, completely divorced from reality or, more simply, yet another lying politician.

According to Mayor Bloomberg, people flocking from around the country to take part in or cover the protests are not tourists, even though they will undoubtedly inject cash into the local economy one way or another.

Bloomberg is therefore claiming that all of the journalists from around the nation and the globe that have migrated to NYC to report on the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations will not stay in accommodations, eat, or otherwise contribute to the city’s economy.

Even if every single person that has been attracted to NYC by the Occupation stayed in a tent and ate food provided by other activists (which is clearly not the case) the food has to come from somewhere and I seriously doubt that demonstrators are going to travel to another state in order to buy food.

My point is this: no matter what the Occupation is contributing to NYC, how can Bloomberg explain the several thousand dollars the city will get from their highly questionable roundup of activists on the Brooklyn Bridge?

Whine all you’d like Bloomberg, but some of us know for a fact that NYC is going to make money off of this Occupation, one way or another.

Bloomberg also is claiming that the activists are trying to “get rid of” jobs in the finance sector, “which is a big part of our economy.”

“[W]e’re not going to have any money to pay our municipal employees or clean the parks or anything else,” Bloomberg said.

Contrary to Bloomberg’s assumptions, in reality the Occupation isn’t seeking to eradicate the financial sector completely. Instead, it is seeking to remove the criminal corporatist cancer that has infected the financial industry.

One woman who called into Bloomberg’s radio show complained that Zuccotti Park, the central hub for the Occupy Wall Street protests and the site of the large encampment, was unusable now.

The woman, named Marsha, whined that, “There’s a general presence of incivility down there, but worst of all are the drums and the shouting. […] What about my rights to use that park?”

Well since Marsha is so unhappy let’s just remove the 1st Amendment if it happens to upset anyone. That seems like a reasonable solution, after all who likes a bunch of people shouting and demonstrating general incivility?

Who has any right to complain when our country has been bankrupted through fraud and the corporatist takeover of our government?

Who has any right to complain when our constitutional rights are treated as nothing more than guidelines that can be tossed aside whenever government thugs deem it necessary?

Who has any right to complain when the government represents the interests of the largest corporations and not the people to whom they are supposed to be beholden?

I agree with Marsha, they should just shut up and bend over! If Marsha can’t hear her television over the hordes of oppressed, defrauded and upset people of America then all of those people just need to get lost.

After all, this is America where you’re only aloud to voice your opinion if it doesn’t bother anyone, right?

Wrong. Marsha is going to have to deal with it and unless some drastic changes occur, she is going to be dealing with it for a long time.

Sorry Marsha, you might want to move to Bahrain where protests are crushed with impunity with the help of American and British equipment.

At least there you could watch TV in silence, at least until you hear the screams of protesters being brutally assaulted and fired upon by security forces.

Unfortunately, Marsha is not alone in her dislike of the 1st Amendment to the Constitution and that pesky right to speak freely and assemble.

One resident who lives a block from Zuccotti Park said, “I have so many problems. We can’t sleep. The sound of the drums – it makes me crazy”. Again, the complaints of one person and their “so many problems” outweigh the concerns of thousands of disenfranchised Americans?

One 60-year-old activist from Long Island called the Mayor out on his myopic rant, “We challenge him to step up to the plate and come down here and talk with us.”

Of course it is a lot easier for Bloomberg to sit in a studio and bemoan the movement and their aim to kill all of the jobs in New York without actually having to face the people affected by predatory lending practices, the corruption of the private Federal Reserve and the general corporatism that has raped the American people.

“There are some people with legitimate complaints, there are some people who just like to protest, and, like everything else, it’s a very complex thing,” Bloomberg said.

Apparently Bloomberg is the arbiter of truth, the sole individual who decides which gripes are legitimate and which are not.

Bloomberg said, “We’re trying to deal with this in a way that doesn’t make the problem grow and protects everybody’s rights”.

What he means is that the NYPD and others have begun to realize that premeditated police brutality and mass arrests only serve to strengthen the resolve of those involved and attract others who see the injustice.

It appears that they are now attempting to find a way which they can avoid revealing themselves as anti-Constitutional thugs while still shutting down the movement.

What exactly this will be is anyone’s guess but the fact that the Occupation has spread to many major cities around the nation isn’t helping Bloomberg’s aims.

If Bloomberg is able to significantly damage the Occupy Wall Street movement, one could expect to see even more activists from other Occupations flood into NYC to counter whatever measures are taken, at least that is what I hope would happen.

As far as the New Yorkers complaining about people expressing their right to free speech and their disillusionment with our corrupt political system and the criminals in the financial industry, as far as I’m concerned I couldn’t care less.

Turn up your TV, slap on some headphones, put on some blinders and keep your head in the sand. It’s not going anywhere any time soon so you’d better just get used to it or start standing up for the rights of your fellow citizens.

Madison Ruppert is the Editor and Owner-Operator of the alternative news and analysis database End The Lie and has no affiliation with any NGO, political party, economic school, or other organization/cause. If you have questions, comments, or corrections feel free to contact him at [email protected]