NYC Mayor Bloomberg calls NYPD "my own army"; Pepper Spraying ALEC Protestors; OWS Library Trashed

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg had the original Occupy Wall Street encampment aggressively shut down. Also, the New York Police Department (NYPD) put the OWS library of a thousand or so documents into the trash. Organizers said that they could only salvage about 10 to 25 percent of the original library.
Bloomberg a few weeks later, in an apparently delusional moment, said that the city's police force was his own private army.
Given the mayor's inclination to micro-manage, we cannot help but think that he had a hand in choosing to have the police hastily dispose of the books. (Of course, very disturbing has been the general reticence by the general commercial media on this matter.)
This trashing of a library is what spurred me to upload the photo of the Guy Montag figure from Francois Truffaut's film version of “Fahrenheit 451” and Heinrich Heine's quote about burning books and burning people. What an irony that the same season that saw the disposing of a library into the trash also saw the violent abuse of people, including the pepper-spraying of non-violent protestors.

NYC Mayor Bloomberg calls NYPD "my own army"; Phoenix Police Pepper Spray Protestors Demonstrating ALEC
Hunter Walker, November 30, at PolitikerNY had the best piece on New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's public boast on Tuesday, November 29, 2011, that the New York Police Department (NYPD) is "my own army".

In a speech at MIT [in Cambridge, Massachusetts] last night to discuss the packed sweepstakes to build a tech campus in New York City, Mayor Bloomberg said he prefers City Hall to the White House. Almost immediately after Mayor Bloomberg dampened recent speculation he’s eyeing a White House bid, he added fuel to the fire by explaining why a mayor would be the best person for the job.

Mayor Bloomberg’s recent criticism of President Obama for allowing the debt reduction Supercommittee to fail led many political tea leaf watchers to believe he’s eyeing a potential White House bid. To the dismay of those who hope he’ll mount presidential campaign, Mayor Bloomberg began his speech last night by discussing why City Hall is just fine by him.

“I have my own army in the NYPD, which is the seventh biggest army in the world. I have my own State Department, much to Foggy Bottom’s annoyance. We have the United Nations in New York, and so we have an entree into the diplomatic world that Washington does not have,” Mayor Bloomberg said.

At first, Mayor Bloomberg sounded he was outlining why three terms as mayor was enough experience in public office for him, but he quickly switched gears and began characterizing City Hall as the perfect preparation for the White House because it allowed him to buck the Beltway establishment get real on-the-ground knowledge.

“I don’t listen to Washington very much, which is something they’re not thrilled about,” Mayor Bloomberg said. “We have every kind of people from every part of the world and every kind of problem.”

Mayor Bloomberg explained that, unlike Washington politicians, mayors are people of action.

“The difference between my level of government and other levels of government is that action takes place at the city level,” Mayor Bloomberg said. “The cities and mayors are where you deal with crime, you deal with real immigration problems, you deal with health problems, you deal with picking up the garbage.”

You see, according to Mayor Bloomberg, he and his mayoral colleagues are focused on results. It’s the rest of the politicians who are screwing things up.

“At the state or federal level, that’s where the real problems are. You see it particularly in American government at the moment where they are just unable to do anything, and yet, the mayors of this country still have to deal with the real world,” said Mayor Bloomberg.

Mayor Bloomberg closed by expressing the desire for someone with real, executive experience to arrive on the scene and change things in Washington.

“Unfortunately, people at the federal level or the state level typically spend their whole lives in politics, and they’ve never been an executive and it shows,” Mayor Bloomberg said.

* * *

Daily Kos reports that on Wednesday, November 30, 2011, Phoenix, Arizona police pepper sprayed protestors demonstrating against the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)'s States and Nation Policy Summit, "Pepper spray at the Arizona ALEC protest, Indigenous elder sent to hospital".

(The right-wing energy barons, the Koch Brothers, are benefactors of ALEC.)

Police drew attention to anarchists armed with nail-filled sticks. Occupy movement members said that the anarchists invaded their movement.

Most problems were blamed on a group of anarchists who were bused in from out of state. According to police, a few wielded nail-filled sticks. Seven were arrested.

* * *
Mediabistro, November 16, 2011: "Occupy Wall Street Library Evicted" [dumped in the trash by the NYPD]

Alternet, November 15, 2011: "City Attacks Information at Zuccotti: Books Dumped in the Garbage, Press Intimidated: Books dumped in the garbage. Press intimidated and shut out. These are not the signs of a functioning democracy."

"That was but a prelude; where they burn books, they will ultimately burn people also."
Heinrich Heine, German writer, 1821, whose works were burned by the Nazis in 1933.

NYC's Mayor Bloomberg Outlawing Free Speech By Coming Cracking Down on Occupy Wall Street Speech

SPEECH WITH A PERMIT IS NO FREE SPEECH AT ALL.
As this blog says, if permits are required to speak and assemble in public,
then there is no free speech.

We see this in action with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's second declaration of war against the Occupy Wall Street protestors at Zuccotti Park (aka Liberty Plaza).

In These Times, an independent left magazine publishing out of Chicago reported Friday afternoon,
Bloomberg Promises Crackdown on Occupy Wall Street"

The Mayor has declared himself "The State," akin to Louis XIV, with an entrenched commitment to the city's tradition of requiring permits for marches of more than 20 people.

The permit "must" --according to these monopolizers of power-- be obtained from the police department.
Here is the New York Police Department page on the rules of assembled free speech (permit application process).
Here is the actual application for collective free speech in motion (or a parade application).

SPEECH HAS A $25 FEE
If there is an assembly in a park, then there a $25 fee. There is precedence for this mayor's denying park assemblage even after an application. In 2004, on the occasion of the Republican National Convention, Mayor Bloomberg denied rally organizers' application.

ARRESTS ARE ON THE WAY
As In These Times noted:

The problem with these permits, of course, is that they can be denied or revoked for any reason, at any time. It makes the "disobedience" part of "civil disobedience" impossible by preempting any action.

"We will start enforcing that more," the mayor ominously stated when referring to the permits. The Post interpreted that as more arrests looming on the horizon.

MORE REPORTS IN THe NEWS:
http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2011/10/21/live-blog-for-ows-day-35-bloomberg-says-occupiers-should-expect-crackdown/
COURT SUPPORT FOR ORGANIZED FREE SPEECH A THING OF THE PAST
As a commenter to the In These Times article added,

When we had rule of law and a functioning Republic, these permit processes and arbitrary denials were held to be unconstitutional. In Shuttlesworth versus Birmingham, the principle of rules for all or none was upheld. City officials can’t limit the rights of some and not others. They cannot arbitrarily set standards using “public safety” as a reason to limit our rights to gather.

The problem is that our courts, including the Supreme Court, are bought and paid for by the same plutocrats that control the Republican Democrat duopoly. Our public spaces are being privatized at alarming rates through gentrification. Privately controlled parks eliminate our Constitutional amendments/rights in one move.

Arrests of 700 Occupy Wall Streeters on Bridge; NYC Mayor Bloomberg Says Protestors Victimize Bankers; Implies Protest Will End Soon

(Soylent Green days coming? See bottom half of this post.)
The Guardian of Manchester, of the United Kingdom, Saturday night (10/1/11) wrote of the arrest that day of more than 700 protestors in New York City. They were arrested while blocking traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge. The bridge is about six-tenths of a mile north of the Occupy Wall Street staging ground of Zuccotti Park/Liberty Plaza.
"Occupy Wall Street protesters arrested on Brooklyn Bridge
Hundreds held by NYPD – including New York Times journalist – after attempted march across bridge ends in chaos"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/02/occupy-wall-street-protesters-brooklyn-bridge?newsfeed=true
OWS protester gave an account of the arrest procedure . . . ENTRAPMENT INVOLVED? DAILY KOS VIDEO LINK FOLLOWS THIS OWS PROTESTER ACCOUNT.
{First hand account of this blogger speaking with OWS protester: the white shirt New York City Police Department (NYPD) higher officials were the main ones doing the arresting. [UPDATE: New York Times report on White Shirts' role.] The protester said that the many of the blue shirt police officers, particularly at the Manhattan side of the protest, were in support of the protesters . . . . The arrest was accomplished by closing off the crowd from both the Manhattan and the Brooklyn ends of the bridge. Then the enclosed or detained protesters were place under arrest. The arresting officers walked the line to arrest all of the protesters detained. Did the NYPD entrap the protesters? There were reports that some NYPD officers split the crowd that was approaching the bridge from the Manhattan end. By this account, the NYPD steered some protesters onto the main pedestrian walk, and they steered some others onto the traffic causeway. If this is so, the protesters' walk-on-the-causeway action was a case of entrapment.}
Daily Kos on October 2 offered this video, making case for entrapment interpretation of Brooklyn Bridge 700 arrest: "Best Video Yet: Brooklyn Bridge NYPD Entrapment!"

Think Progress: "Mayor Bloomberg Claims ‘Occupy Wall Street’ Protesters Are Targeting Bankers Who ‘Are Struggling To Make Ends Meet’" http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/09/30/333038/mayor-bloomberg-wall-street-make-ends-meet/

Bloomberg Implies Occupy Wall Street Protest's Days Are Numbered
http://gothamist.com/2011/09/30/bloomberg_implies_wall_street_prote.php

Mayor Bloomberg made some ominous comments today about the ongoing Occupy Wall Street protests that have been going on for nearly two weeks in Zuccotti Park. When he was asked on his weekly radio show whether he'll let the anti-corporate protesters stay as long as they want, he responded cryptically: "We'll see. People have a right to protest, but we also have to make sure that people who don't want to protest can go down the streets unmolested."
"We have to make sure that while you have the right to say what you want to say, people who want to say something very different have a right to say that as well," the mayor told WOR radio host John Gambling. Zuccotti Park is privately owned, but Bloomberg said the park must remain open to the public because of an agreement the owners struck with the city years ago to win zoning code changes. And there's also sanitation to worry about: "The right to protest is part of our culture. It's also true that there are other societal concerns. You're worried about sanitation and you're worried about lots of different laws on the books."
In general, Bloomberg has not had much sympathy for the protesters since they took over the square, despite the fact he predicted something like this would happen. The billionaire criticized them today for a lack of nuance in their arguments, and accused them of targeting the wrong people: "The protesters are protesting against people who make $40,000, $50,000 year and are struggling to make ends meet." He also added, "Those are the people that work on Wall Street in the finance sector...If the banks don't go out and make loans, we will not come out of our economic problems. We will not have jobs."

===============================================

Here we have a clip from the 1970s film "Soylent Green." Protestors are being scooped to be put in the body of a dumpster garbage truck. Is that the plan New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has for the Occupy Wall Street protestors at Zuccotti Park?