Is anyone surprised that the NYPD threw 5,554 books from the Occupy Wall Street Library into the trash during the raid to evict protesters from Zuccotti Park? In a symbolic act of ominous significance, on May 10, 1933, German students burned upwards of 25,000 volumes. Is it a lack of respect for or a fear of knowledge that makes book burning typical of fascist behavior.
Is anyone surprised that the press was barred from covering the eviction of the protesters from Zuccotti Park? Reporters were rounded up kept away from the park and news helicopters were not permitted to fly over it. There’s nothing like open and free press coverage to dampen enthusiasm for a police riot.
Is anyone surprised that the park was emptied for “cleaning” and the press was banned for their “protection.” Altruism is always the primary motivating force when authority is faced with resistance.
Is anyone surprised that City Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez was struck on the head by police then arrested for disorderly conduct? Last week, while participating in a march in support of the OWS protesters, Rodriquez said, "This fight is important for Latinos, for the African American community, but more than any group, this is important for the working class and the middle class." Subversive thinking like that must be suppressed for the good of the community.
New York, Oakland and Berkeley, St Louis, Portland, Salt Lake City, Chapel Hill, Boston, Albany and Denver are just a few of the many cities that have or are in the process of dismantling encampments through force.
Where has this not happened, Los Angeles! Why, because the city council and Police Chief Charlie Beck got a grip on the situation early. The council passed a resolution allowing the encampment to exist on the city hall lawn, though normal rules prohibit camping and Chief Beck visited the encampment several times. There have also been few if any problems in inland Southern California where, under the banner of Occupy Inland Empire, members of Occupy movements in Fontana, Redlands, Riverside, and other nearby towns marched past banks and in front of San Bernardino City Hall in what they called a "visibility action."
The late sociologist Seymour Martin Lipset said, “Born out of revolution, the United States has always considered itself an exceptional country of citizens unified by an allegiance to a common set of ideals, individualism, anti-statism, populism, and egalitarianism.” Outside of a few notable communities, we don’t seem very “exceptional” now. The oligarches and the plutocrats employed by them are using their armed forces, the police, to suppress protest, quiet dissension and protect the status quo. The only significant difference between suppression of expression here and in Lybia and Syria is the degree of force those in power feel free to use.
There is a war going on in America. It’s been going on since the Ronald Reagan era. It’s a war for soul of the country and it has taken the OWS movement to bring it to the public’s attention. It’s a war in which the goal of the “Haves” is to decimate the “Have a Littles” and the “Have Nots.” To the wealthy, the American middle class is now just an annoying expense. Money that could otherwise line their pockets is being spent on Social Security, Medicare, Medicade, unemployment insurance and a variety of other programs of benefit to the middle class. The poor. drain even more of top’s riches . They need thing such as welfare and job training programs and medical care and housing subsities and free school lunches. We all need regulation to protect our air, our food, our health, our property and our savings and investments but regulations cost the “Haves” money. With the money the wealthy have plundered from the workers of this country they have bought the our government and are using it to eliminate what they regard as a poor investment.” Whenever we see an assault on an OWS encampment we are seeing an assault on the middle class, the poor, the sick and the elderly and when we remain silent we become complicit in the assassination of our own freedoms.