Occupy Wall Street protesters continue to show restraint in the face of what some are calling a police riot. The violence is coming mostly from police supervisors, probably carrying out the will of Bloomberg’s corporate cronies, and mostly not from the rank and file police. Some demonstrators are performing acts of civil disobedience, intending to be arrested as a demonstration of their commitment. But even those have been completely non violent. Every time police supervisors are caught on tape carrying out the savage agenda of corporate criminals, the popularity and credibility of the demonstrators increase. I commend their restraint. Here’s an overview.
Just before 8 p.m. Wednesday, reportedly at the corner of Broadway and Wall Street, a New York Police Department officer appeared to turn on a throng of activists with the Occupy Wall Street movement, hitting them with a baton. A video posted hours later to YouTube shows the officer wielding the baton with two hands — like a baseball bat — as he swings at and strikes the demonstrators. At one point, a woman can be heard shrieking in the background.
The white-shirt cop, most likely a supervisor, had stood next to at least a half-dozen other officers, including other department brass. The video shows the officer appearing to nudge a spectator out of the way, back up and raise his baton. He then gets off three swings before the crowd appears to surge toward him — digital cameras and video recorders held high.
This may be the first of many videos documenting clashes between the police and Occupy Wall Street. At the end of the video a few in the crowd chant: "The whole world is watching! The whole world is watching!"
It is unclear from the video what provoked the officer’s actions, but HuffPost’s Matt Sledge, who was at the scene, reports the baton swinging took place after a handful of people had been arrested for attempting to cross a police barricade.
When reached for comment Friday night, a New York Police Department spokesman who refused to be identified said he had heard about the video but had not seen it and therefore could not comment… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <Common Dreams>
Here’s the video.
In the scores of demonstrations, in which I participated during the 1960s, the only time I witnessed such a savage attack by police was Chicago, 1968 at the Democratic Convention.
Keith Olbermann reported on the “police riot” in two segments on Countdown.
In the second, he also interviews Ryan Devereaux, who was there.
The behavior by police supervisors has been reprehensible, but that of the demonstrators has been worthy of praise. They are heroes with the courage to stand for what they believe. Let us remember some who paved the way for them.
12 Responses to “Police supervisors attack demonstrators again”
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My, my, my. what “brave” officers, attacking people armed with cameras and cell phones.
I’ve been afraid to bring up Kent State because I figure if we say Beetlejuice enough times, he’ll turn up.
Fortunately, I’m not superstitious.
Those cops are fortunate that the crowd did not pull them into their embrace and mete out justice for justice. A white shirt, a tin star, a baton, a gun or taser do not constitute authority to attack an American citizen.
NYPD has no right to block off public thoroughfares that were paid for using public tax dollars. Not knowing case law I think that the right to assemble clause of the constitution doesn’t say there has to be a permit and in my mind the requirement for one itself is unAmerican and unconstitutional. (We will learn more about that in DC on Monday when their permit to peacefully assemble expires.)
It will be interesting to see what happens when Occupy Detroit ramps up. There are less than 3000 cops from top to bottom patrolling a population of 700,000.
TWM, it is only a matter of time. When the protestors get tired of this crap they will turn on the police and it is going to be very ugly.
And if they do, they will lose the public support they have worked so hard to gain.
Had the peace movement not turned violent when the Weather Faction took over SDS, we might have ended Vietnam years sooner.
Offending parties need to be held accountable for this violence. Full stop.
The offending parties were likely sent in by the 1% to clear the “riff raff”.
You’re both right!
Empires about to collapse always resort to violence to try to hold on. And they almost always collapse anyway.
A valid point, JR.
When I came home this evening, I stood outside talking to one of my neighbours who happens to be a police officer. We were talking about different approaches to policing when he said “I want them to know that I own this street!”. His reference was to the drug dealers etc and I understood what he meant. Then I came in and while watching the NY video, his words came back to me. ‘I own this street!’ It seems with all the violence being meted out, they were saying ‘I own the street!’ The attitude of the white shirt using his baton like a baseball bat was excessive. Democracy Now’s reporter, Ryan Devereaux, commented that he was back at the Park with some of the protesters and was amazed that they were not upset with the police, there was no animosity. They recognise the police (or at least the rank and file) as part of the 99%. There are however snakes in every woodpile and the NYPD blue shirts are no different, hence the officer who said,”My little nightstick is going to get a workout tonight . . . hopefully.”
I pray that the protesters here the words of Mahatma Gandhi and remain non violent.
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
Lynn. I think that is an excellent observation, Back in the old, old days, I was the technical adviser for an informal police association bulletin board. They see the city as a battlefield between them and the “bad guys”. They see law abiding citizens, who they are supposed to serve and protect, as “civilians” who sometimes get in the way.